Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not. Jeremiah 20:9
Some things we do require all sorts of poking and prodding to keep us engaged and motivated. If our hearts are not fully invested, it is quite difficult to follow through and complete the task at hand, especially if any outside pressure is applied to try to dissuade us. Conversely, when we are tasked with doing things about which we are passionate, then the old saying “wild horses couldn’t drag us away” becomes reality. If we have zeal for someone or something, no amount of pressure or inherent difficulty will keep us from following through. Therefore, it is so important to foster a deep, abiding love for the Lord if we are to stand in the day of trial for our service to Him.
In John 2:13-22, we read of a scene where Jesus confronted a group of traders and moneychangers who had perverted the temple of God and used it for their own profit. This was the first of two occasions where this had to be done (cf. Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:17). Not only were they profiting from that which belonged to the service and glory of God, but they were sorely mistreating the people who came to worship God. The livestock vendors charged exorbitant prices for the animals the people had to offer in worship, and the moneychangers collected inflated fees to exchange currency for those who traveled from foreign lands to worship. As He said in Mark 11:17 while quoting Isaiah 56:7, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The moneychangers were making worship for those of other nations unnecessarily burdensome. “Jesus’ response is an impressive display of righteous indignation as he made a whip of cords, drove out the livestock, dumped the moneychangers’ money, and overturned the tables.
When the Jews confronted Him and asked what authority He had for running them out, He offered up His resurrection as the proof of His power and position. Interestingly, the very statement He made about destroying and raising the temple of His own body was twisted at His trial to claim He threatened to destroy the temple (Matthew 26:59-61). No doubt He knew this action would set the leaders who profited from these practices on a path to try and destroy Him, but as John pointed out in John 2:17, zeal had consumed Him. As the King James renders it, zeal for God’s house had eaten Him up. Wild horses couldn’t drag Him away.
This is not to say we have a right to go throwing people’s tables over and driving them out of their misguided religious efforts. The reason for that is we do not possess Jesus’ ability to judge the hearts of men (cf. John 2:25). This passage does not give cover for us to abandon tact in defending the truth (cf. Ephesians 4:15; Colossians 4:5-6; 1 Peter 3:15). Nevertheless, Jesus died to purify a people “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14), so we who understand the tremendous gift of God and the task He has given us (Matthew 28:18-20) must develop an intense zeal that says of our God-given work, “wild horses couldn’t drag me away.”