В этой истории, в понедельник после Вербного Воскресенья, Иисус возвращается в Иерусалим, идет в храм и изгнает косарей и людей, которые продавали животных для жертвоприношений. Он переворачивает столы, берет кнут и использует его для уборки храма.

Это мощная история, которая показывает другой взгляд на Личность Иисуса, чем Целитель или проповедник, который так часто описывается. К тому же, не кажется таким уж неразумным, чтобы в храме были обменщики денег - немного похоже на бюро перемен в аэропортах. Там тоже удобно, чтобы люди продавали животных тем, кто нуждается в них для предписанных жертвоприношений.

Итак, о чем история?

Денежники и торговцы животными олицетворяют в нашей жизни злую любовь, замаскированную под внешнее благочестие. Их нужно изгнать, разоблачить и бичевать.

(Ссылки: Апокалипис Разъясненный 410 [8])

7197. 'The land of their sojournings in which they sojourned' means where those things reside that are aspects of faith and charity in which they have received instruction and which they have practised in life. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, dealt with immediately above in 7196, and so too the things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, which, it is well known, are faith and charity (these too are therefore meant by 'the land of Canaan when the subject is instruction and life, meant by 'sojourning'); and from the meaning of 'sojourning' as instruction and life, dealt with in 1463, 2015, 3672. From this it is evident that 'the land of their sojournings in which they sojourned' means where those things reside that are aspects of faith and charity in which they have received instruction and which they have practised in life. The implications of all this are that heaven is given to each person in the next life in the measure that aspects of faith and charity reside with him; for charity and faith compose heaven with everyone, though when it is said that charity and faith compose heaven this means a life of charity and faith. Yet it should be fully recognized that the life which holds heaven within it is a life led in conformity with those truths and forms of the good of faith which a person has been taught about. Unless they are the rules and standards of his life his expectation of heaven is in vain, no matter how he has lived. Without them a person is like a reed which sways with every wind, for he is moved equally by those who are evil as by those who are good. This is because he has no firmly established truth or good at all within himself which the angels can use to maintain him in truths and forms of good, and to steer him away from the falsities and evils constantly introduced by those from hell. In short, a life of Christian goodness is what composes heaven, not a life of natural goodness.