Underneath the heralding of marketeers, the bleating and lowing of sacrificial animals, and the babble of banter in thirty native tongues, I could almost hear the sound—a haunting of the air—of music over the Gentile Court.
Is that a tambourine? Or coins settling on a scale? I hear a lament, a woman crying out. No, she squeals with laughter. I hear a bass murmur of another crowd through the walls, more unified, barely audible. I focus on it, but it escapes me. A camel grunts, loaded with goods. Where is the peace, the majesty, and the beauty I was promised in His presence?
The merchants and money-changers, some of them fresh from the temple, obscure the walls and pillars of God’s house with their heaped up crates and baskets—their shade tents and well-stocked tables. In a language everyone can understand, they pitch their wares. In mock service to the pious, they drown out every pious sound.
“Doves, pigeons, lambs, and bulls! Pure and undefiled!”
“The temple tax in temple measure! Change your drachma into shekels! Lowest rates in Jerusalem!”
Then a wave of exclamation hushing in its wake announced a parting in this sea of peoples. A spectacle! All of us looked on with the eyes of our nations as a Jew, his face enlightened with zeal, marched against a money-changing table and pushed it over.
Unable to comprehend such a breach of etiquette, merchants began running. Money clattered to the ground; doves flittered into the air. Some merchants stood their ground, now silent with narrow eyes. The zealous man brandished a whip, finally clearing all in his path.
He cried out after them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a robbers’ den!”
Finally, quiet came again to the Gentile Court. Many of us approached the man astonished, hanging on his words. And in the fresh silence, I heard a new song coming from the temple, clear as His face.
*****
Here’s a good devotional explaining the infrequently-mentioned but important detail that Jesus cleansed the Gentile Court and not the inner sanctuary of the temple proper, as we might sometimes imagine.
Also, make sure to listen to Season 2 Episode 3 of the Renew the Arts Podcast, where we talk about the significance of the Gentile Court for the arts.