My wife knows I love shopping. In fact she has reined me in to control my shopping appetite. Of course it helps her not to go to the market which she does not relish.

We agreed long ago that shopping together was not the best use of our emotions and energy! My shopping was ‘comparative’ shopping – I would walk the length of a street to be sure where the lowest price was, and then on return I would open up the ‘science’ of bargain where I was offered the lowest price.
Although with time I have graduated to supermarkets, I still find it stimulating to visit an open market.  I like getting to know people there. But these markets are very noisy. I wonder if a worship service would work in the Market! Or consider if we transfered the market to the Temple?
That is what happened in John 2.13-22; the market transferred to the Temple. It was Passover time, and Jesus like any good religious Jew, went to Jerusalem and of course to the Temple. And He found brisk business in sheep and bulls and pigeons going on.
They were intended for sacrificing to God, conveniently positioned to make life easy for the pilgrims who came to the Passover Feast. So instead of purchasing the animals or birds from afar and walking them to the Temple, you came with money and purchased the sacrifice to offer to God.
 But Jesus did not appreciate the convenience of placing the sacrifices here! He picked up ‘a whip of cords’ and descended on the traders sending them in disarray. Then he went on to preach a short sermon to them, “Take these things away;” He commanded, “do not make my Father’s house a House of Trade.”
The commentary that follows from the author of John shows that He was within His right to enforce the Scriptures; it was zeal for God’s House. He called Him His “Father” signifying the source of His authority. The question is: what had they done to spoil God’s house?
New Testament scholars tell us that though it may appear to have been a good thing to make the sacrificial goods readily available to the worshippers, in truth this business belonged to the very people who were mandated to examine the sacrificial animals to ensure they complied with the standards that God had set; sacrifices without any abnormality. Therefore if a worshipper brought a fitting animal from outside it was likely to be rejected not because it failed the divine test, but because it would compete with the merchandise supplied by the priests in the Temple.
This place also was a Forex Bureau for the pilgrims. They could exchange their currencies into the only admissible currency to pay the Temple Tax.
Secondly, this business happened in the court reserved for Gentile worship since Gentiles were not welcome to enter beyond the outer court. In that case the Gentiles were inconvenienced by this market activity. It was a silent rebuttal of their worship of the God of Abraham. They were locked out, and as Paul says in Ephesians 2.12, they were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise ...”
This story has an interesting problem though. This is not the Jesus that we love to parade around – not a violent one anyway. Our Jesus is gentle and harmless. In this story He appears to be ‘out of sorts’; John calls it “zeal for your house”. Jesus had such a jealousy for God’s house that He turned violent on those who appeared to desecrate it.
Is this a veiled rebuke for our casual attitude toward God’s place of worship? They were trading in the Lord’s House but are we any better?
I am thinking about the present day pastor who looks at his congregation as a ‘cash cow’. Here is a scenario that I have encountered often.
It will soon be Christmas; the day when even the heathen city people will visit the village churches they have not attended for the last year.
When the village Pastor sees them he will overdo himself in welcoming them perchance they will cash in for the church. And if there is an item for sale (and I do not understand the genesis of this strange practice), it will be expected that the city dweller will bid highest.
The city Pastor cannot be outdone either. He cashes in more often of course. He brands his trade with words like ‘tithes and offerings’. But when you lift the veil there is no difference. “If you tithe,” he promises, “you will receive a blessing.” This Pastor’s trade uses the term ‘blessing’ as a synonym for material surfeit.
He boasts of prosperity borne out of faithful giving to God. Those who know better find he is prospering because the Pastor lives like a leech off the material wealth of his unsuspecting congregation.
What is the difference with going out into the market to shop? The ordinary Christian goes out shopping for a church, and stays with the one that offers the best bargain. The bargain this time is the quickest offer of getting out of the doldrums of poverty or sickness, the blessing. Some so called Pastors have been known to sell blessings to their pitiable followers. Or the best bargain may be the church that offers the most exhilarating experience.
The prophets of old would have cried out in utter revulsion, “Woe unto you, Pastors! The Church of God has become A House of Trade!”  We do not sell sheep and bulls and pigeons to be sure. But we sell the Word of God that He has given us freely to be given at no cost.
Jesus cleansed the physical Temple, but the Bible talks of another Temple of far greater importance – your body. What you do in your body matters immensely to God. Sinful habits are destructive to the body. December 01 in this week is also World Aids Day; a reminder that there are those whose careless lifestyle exposes them (and others) to this hateful scourge.
It may be alcohol or drugs or cigarette smoking or whatever form of hedonism. The mistake is to think it is wrong because someone says it is wrong, or that life without these things is a killjoy. The greater joy is when we use our bodies (God’s temples) for worship and not trading them off for transient pleasures.
I shudder at the thought of what the Lord of all would do. You see Christmas is about His birth, His first Advent. But His birth more importantly portends His Second Advent. Jesus is coming again; that is a fact. Do not forget what it will be like.
The Prayer, “Your Kingdom come,” is a two edged sword. Whereas we await His coming with anticipation of the liberation from the pits of this life, it is also true that His coming will be a time of wailing and crying. It all depends on what we do while in this body – what we do with this Temple. Do not turn it into “A House of Trade.”
Have a blessed Christmas – celebrate the Christ. Amen

Rev. Dr. John Senyonyi is the Vice Chancellor, UCU.