Article January 4, 1982 Issue

Turning the tables

BARBARA KINSLEY KOEHLER

Christ Jesus was immediate in rejecting any form of error. He wasted no time in clearing the temple in Jerusalem of moneychangers as well as of vendors selling oxen and sheep. The Bible reports, "When he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise."^{John 2:15, 16.}

Is this merely an incident that happened two thousand years ago—interesting as Bible history but not significant to our experience today? No! The admonition "make not my Father's house an house of merchandise" sets forth a rule that is imperative for us to understand and utilize. When obeyed, this rule enables us to drive out any belief that material ways and means of dealing with God and our fellow humans could be legitimate.

When the Jews saw what Jesus had done, they asked for some proof of his authority. At once he replied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They thought he was referring to the material temple that had already taken forty-six years to build. But the Bible explains that he was actually speaking "of the temple of his body."^{Vv. 19,21 .} Through his act of driving the moneychangers and vendors out of the temple, one could perceive the importance of keeping worldly traffic out of our sense of ourselves— maintaining the pure consciousness of our spiritual identity as Mind's, God's, ideas.

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