He came home, and his guests were misusing his Father’s house. I suppose if you hired someone to watch your home while you were gone, you would have a certain expectation of what your home is to look like when you return. Christ came to his Father’s house and the way people were using his Father’s house was not as expected. Christ, therefore, had to clean house:
“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” (John 2:13–16, NASB95)
We expected a king, an iron fist who rules righteously before all men, but He came as a suffering servant. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem wasn’t in a chariot, on upon a white stallion, or upon the shoulders of men, but rather on the back of a unused, untrained, unworthy donkey. His position demanded much more, but He humbled himself, coming unlike we expected:
People cried out “Hosanna!” which means “save us!” Their hopes were deliverance from suppression from Roman rule. Christ knew what they needed to be saved from, and by means of the cross He did save them. Christ saved them not as they expected. Today we await His return, and this time it will be as a King. Have you received Him? Are you living as if He is coming soon?
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8, NASB95)
