Take Charge

  [249 words] When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to commemorate the great exodus by observing the Passover, He found that the temple complex more resembled a marketplace and banking center than it did a place to offer worship to His Father (John 2:13-22). The place was filled with corrals full of livestock and kiosks for exchanging currency. With a whip that He crafted Himself, the Prince of Peace made quite a scene. He turned the animals loose and drove them out, overturned the tables of the money-changers, and told the people, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (v. 16). Take note of the phrase “My Father’s house.” By choosing those words, Jesus staked a claim to a relationship with God – and therefore, a relationship to the temple – that others did not possess. God was “His own father” in a way…