Here is what the story in John 2, the cleansing of the temple, is not about: the cleansing of the temple is not a spiritual vs material battle where Jesus is offended that money is in a spiritual place. This is not about impure vs pure, impure money taken out of the temple and the temple being then restored to pure prayer. No, if this were the case why does the Scripture specifically mention challenging the dove sellers and not the lamb sellers?

The temple represented not only the spiritual centre of Jewish life, but especially the commercial and political power of the religious rulers. The Galileans suffered under a multiple tax burden including temple tax. The preferred temple sacrifice was a lamb, although a provision was made for the poor in Leviticus 5.7: “Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring two young pigeons/doves to the Lord…”

Jesus’ protest is ignited by the way the poor are treated and economically exploited by being forced to buy expensive sacrifices. Jesus shuts down the financial system of the city temple during the annual peak of its commercial activity. Was it violent? No, the whipping cords were used to move the animals.  If you want to define violence to include disorderly conduct, system disruption, vandalizing property, or blocking the flow of traffic, then sure, I suppose this was violent. The true violence however is the exploitation of the poor who finance the lifestyles of the rich.

The touchstones of John 2 and our current epoch are similar enough for me to wonder if like Jesus I too should be blocking traffic, disrupting systems as etc as part of protests such as the extinction rebellion, black lives matter, protesting aboriginal deaths in custody…