Show Don't Tell: Matthew 21:12-17

Instead of saying "Jesus cleansed the temple," hear the tables crash. Jesus enters the temple courts—not the holy place but the Court of the Gentiles, the one place non-Jews could worship. It's filled with commerce: money changers exchanging Roman coins for temple currency at extortionist rates, merchants selling sacrificial animals at inflated prices. Jesus overturns the tables. Coins scatter, roll across the floor. He drives out the sellers, sends doves fluttering. "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it 'a den of robbers.'" The blind and lame come to him in the temple, and he heals them. Children shout: "Hosanna to the Son of David!" The chief priests and teachers are indignant. Jesus quotes Scripture: "From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise." He leaves them and goes to Bethany for the night.