I get why He did what He did and I personally have no issue with it. I'm simply asking what do you think about his actions here in relation to what was actually done.
Remember while on temple grounds the money changers where in the court yard of the gentiles. Meaning because of the gentile taint, this courtyard would have been considered the least holy of all of the temple grounds and or spaces. Why was Jesus putting so much emphasis on where they where, when He told us previously to not pray and carry on (Holier than thou) in public, but rather go into your closet and pray.
thoughts?
I think context is important. The "turn the other cheek" passage is in the context of being attacked by another person:
NKJV Luk 6:27 "But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
Luk 6:28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
Luk 6:29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.
When Jesus was arrested, beaten, mocked, spat upon, and eventually hung on the cross, He certainly did not retaliate, but prayed for those doing such things. We read:
NKJV 1Pe 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
1Pe 2:22 "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH";
1Pe 2:23 who,
when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
1Pe 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
The money changers and sellers of animals in the temple was a different matter. (Incidentally, we are not told which part of the temple it was). These men were using temple premises for purposes they were not built for, to make money for themselves:
Mat 21:12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Mat 21:13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER,' but you have made it a 'DEN OF THIEVES.'"
So these men were not attacking Jesus personally, but defiling God's temple.
Context is also important in what Jesus said about prayer. The words about going into one's closet to pray are contrasted, not with people using the temple for prayer, but with those who prayed in public on street corners in order that everyone would see them praying, and praise them for their supposed piety:
NKJV Mat 6:5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
Mat 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
We know that He cannot have been forbidding praying in the temple, because He told a parable about two men going to the temple to pray. Yes, one of them was a hypocrite, boasting about all the good things he had done, but the other was justified by God:
NKJV Luk 18:9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Luk 18:10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'
Luk 18:13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'
Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
