The Broadway musical “Cabaret” has some wonderful songs. The one that always comes to mind when I think of that show is “Money Makes the World Go Around” Not only is the tune fun, but it also speaks to the prevailing attitude of the people of Berlin in the time before World War II. It also describes current-day attitudes toward money and life. The Gospel we will read this Sunday tells us that the attitude toward money in first century Jerusalem was very much the same. It seems that the attitude that “money makes the world go around” is fairly universal. Since humanity started using cash to obtain what we need or want, cash has been king.
When Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem the first thing, he saw was people selling cattle, sheep, and doves. It’s very likely that he smelled this activity even before he saw it. He also saw the money changers wittily at their tables, likely with several kinds of currency on their tables. Jesus drives all these businesspeople out of the Temple along with the animals they were selling and the currency they were changing. It must have been a wild scene. Anything but business as usual.
Why did Jesus do this? What was he trying to accomplish? Let’s look at this on Sunday morning.