NOTES for Mat 21:12-17

It cannot be said that temple trade appeared as something bad from the beginning. Within proper limits it is necessary. But how easily we destroy necessary limits... Let us note that when Christ drives out the merchants, He is indignant not because the house of prayer has been turned into a "market," but because it has become a den of robbers. Still, there is a difference between normal trade and robbery, however hard launderers of dirty money may try to erase it. Apparently, the trade and financial activity connected with the use of the temple exceeded economic needs and became an end in itself, drawing people into sinful ways of enrichment.

In every age sinful humanity has more than once brought the fruits of its own imperfection into the Church, and has also yielded to the temptation to use church opportunities for practical purposes. Everything began with good intentions and led to sad results. And yet our bodies too are called temples of the Holy Spirit. And if we defile what has been given to us by the Lord, then again we become worthy of what He did to those who traded in the temple.