From Symbol to Confrontation
What the fig tree represents…
the temple reveals.
When Jesus enters Jerusalem again, He does not observe this time—He acts.
“Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple… and said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of thieves’” (Matthew 21:12–13).
This is not a loss of control.
This is the authority of a King reclaiming what belongs to God.
Tables are overturned. Money scatters. Systems collapse.
Why?
Because worship has been replaced with exploitation.
Pilgrims—many traveling long distances—are being overcharged for sacrifices and currency exchange. What should have been a sacred encounter with God has become a marketplace of profit.
And Jesus will not allow it to stand.
