When Jesus “nuts up”
All four Gospel writers tell the story of Jesus turning over benches & tables and driving out business people and animals from the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-17). Not what you’d expect from the “peaceful” Son of God. What caused Jesus to pitch such a fit? Was he just having a bad day? Was he just throwing a temper tantrum? Understanding what was actually going on will help …
a. Money changers were exchanging sincere traveling worshipers’ coins for pennies on the dollar and charging them an exorbitant service fee for the “service”. They needed this local currency to pay their Temple Tax and the religious profiteers took advantage of their plight.
b. Animal-sellers were charging exorbitant prices for sacrificial animals that sincere traveling worshipers needed for their sacrifices. Worshipers could bring their own animals but the Temple inspectors would find “flaws” in them and reject them for sacrifice thus forcing sincere worshipers to purchase Temple animals at exorbitant prices.
c. Animal-sellers were selling the same animals over and over again. A family would purchase their sacrificial animal, walk away, then, the seller would bring at the same animal and resell it to another family.
d. It was all happening in the Court of Gentiles. God graciously included the Gentiles in Temple worship but the Jewish religious “dealers” had set up shop in the very place where worship was supposed to take place.
… and it ticked Jesus off.
It ticked Jesus off because honest, sincere worshipers who were seeking God were being ripped off by the very people (Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests & Levites) who were supposed to be helping them find God and get closer to him. They were selling religion for profit. They were pulpit pimps; money ministers; holy hustlers.
Many of our current airwaves and bookstores, churches and pulpits are filled with religious hucksters, pulpit pimps, who sell religion for profit. They rip off the vulnerable and the poor, the sincere and the seeking, the lonely and the lost, the isolated and the ignorant.
It is called the PROSPERITY GOSPEL. It is no Gospel at all.
And Jesus is ticked about it.
jackpickel 
Great and informative about the historical background. Thank you for the historical and contextual setting. I agree with you, I think it makes God pretty angry when religious leaders take advantage of people who are only trying to worship God. All of the distortion of the simple gospel probably does not make Him very pleased either. I appreciate the posts.