As, therefore, Jesus stopped and stood at the entrance gate, he witnessed a scene of confusion – the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep sounding against the never-ending hubbub of the stallholders shouting their wares and the buyers and sellers haggling over the prices.

It was not that Our Lord disapproved of the practice of sacrifice – he took part in it himself.  What he condemned was the way it had been used to commercialise the House of God.  Here he was standing, not in a heathen temple, but in the religious centre of God’s Chosen People where, above all other places on earth, Jewish pilgrims and Gentile visitors alike should find an atmosphere of peace and prayer.  What he found was offensive to God, distressing to the devout and a scandal in the eyes of the unconverted.

He therefore quickly twisted together a whip of cords and striding down the long cloister he pushed over the tables and their piles of coins and then he drove the stallholders and their animals before him.  And he did not stop until the great courtyard was cleared of the men and their animals.