Day 6 - Tuesday, March 3 Celebrating Passover DAILY READING - Jn 2:12-25 Jesus celebrated Passover. What does this tell us about Jesus? Read Exodus 12:1-27 to more fully understand the Passover. After reading Exodus 12:1-27, describe why Jesus was headed to Jerusalem for Passover. When Jesus arrived at the temple courts in Jerusalem, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves. He also saw people exchanging money. Does it seem odd to you that all of this is happening at the temple? If I arrived for worship on a Sunday and found people selling animals and exchanging money on the porch of TMI, I would seriously wonder what was going on. Consider this. Thousands upon thousands of people would be traveling to the temple to celebrate Passover. Whole families and villages from all over the Roman Empire would journey to Jerusalem. If you think the traffic on our highways is bad, just imagine the whole city of San Antonio heading to Austin at the same time. Yikes. Now imagine that we all had trailers of cattle and sheep hitched behind us. The selling of animals was a service offered to the hoards of travelers. Can you imagine the extra hassle involved in traveling with the animals required for sacrifice at the temple? The Jewish people didn’t exactly have trailers to load up the sheep and cattle. Even if they did, just imagine the mass added to the already massive caravan. Upon arrival at the temple, any Jewish man over the age of twenty would be required to pay the temple tax. The temple tax was to be paid in Tyrian coinage because of its high purity (Carson, 178). The men would have arrived in Jerusalem with the money of their home provinces in their pockets. The money exchangers were offering an exchange service. It is not too far off base to think of this as similar to exchanging money when we travel. We are required to use the currency of the country we are visiting. We use an exchange service to do that. The exchange in the temple courts was about offering a service. Many have taught that this passage is about materialism. What do you think? Is Jesus mad about the exchange of goods and services in the temple because it shows greed of the people? Or, could he be mad about something else? Could Jesus be mad about the COMMOTION within the temple? Could Jesus be mad that people are focused on the outer ritual instead of the inner devotion? How do these things correlate with Church today? How does outer commotion interfere with our inner devotion? Jesus came to literally overturn the tables of authority in the temple. He came to overturn what was ritualistic and regarded as normal behavior in the culture (NICOT, 167). Jesus cleansed the temple and replaced it (Carson, 182). What does that mean for our lives today? What are some normal cultural behaviors that interfere with your devotion to Christ? What can you do to overturn that in your own life?