In the Temple of Jerusalem, Jesus finds traders selling animals and moneychangers, who replace the money with the image of the emperor with other coins for paying the temple tax. The religious authorities permit this trade, but it triggers Jesus’ reaction because the Feast of Passover has taken on a profane character.
All the prophets had announced a Temple without merchants, because the Lord does not want external worship. Jesus is in this prophetic line. The Temple is the house of his Father, who wants spiritual and interior worship, made of love, not of animals and trade. To the Jews who ask for a sign, Jesus promises the biggest one of all: his resurrection. A miracle far greater than a Temple destroyed and rebuilt in three days! If the place of God‘s presence among the people was once the Temple, now it is the body of the Risen Christ, the true sign of God’s presence -with-us; Jesus is the new sanctuary of God. Jesus closes a temple that has become a business, and he reopens the true relationship and communion with God, who freely gives Himself in His Son, with a passionate love that leads to the Passion of the Son of God.