Jesus was faithful to the religious observances of His people. He attended all the ceremonies that marked the great events of the Jewish nation. An important day is the Feast of the Passover. This celebrates the freeing of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt. Every year all those that were able to attend, traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem for this feast.
Not long after Jesus had called His first Disciples and shortly after He had performed the miracle of turning water into wine, He traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover.
The people offered gifts of sheep, cattle, and doves as recognition that they were God's children. Since many of the people traveled long distances they were not able to bring these animals with them. So, when they arrived in Jerusalem they bought them. Those who sold the animals and exchanged money for them had set up their shops inside the Temple itself. The Temple looked more like a market place than a place to worship God.
When Jesus arrived and saw this, He decided to rid the Temple of the money changers and sellers of animals. He took some rope and made a whip. Jesus began swinging this whip as he moved among the buyers and sellers. There was many of them, and Jesus was but one man, but they saw that He had power and they fled in panic. Jesus drove out all of the animals and turned all the money over of the money changers. Then He said to them, "Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a place of buying and selling."
When they people had recovered from their suprise at the powerful stranger, the approached Him and asked Him what He could do to show them the authority by which He had acted. Jesus replied: "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up." They pointed out to Jesus that it had taken 46 years to build the Temple. Jesus was talking of a time to come, when He would be killed. He would rise up again. Then, when Jesus was Crucified, His Disciples remembered what He had said on this day and knew what he meant.
While Jesus was in Jerusalem he performed many miracles. He brought many people to believe that He was the Son of God.
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