The house of God

John 2:13-22

He entered the Temple.
He reeled at the money
extorted for sacrifice buying
clean slates - he reeled
at the clutter obscuring
the God at the heart
of the Temple. He left
the Temple and entered the market,
bought some cords and sat
in the shade, silent,
his hands steady with purpose,
knots tied upon knots, length
upon length until he held
in his hands a whip and still
without speaking he turned
for the Temple again and he
entered the Temple.
                                He disrupted
the Temple with cracks
and with crashes and when
             at last
                          he spoke
his rebuke to the Temple
dwellers and vendors his friends
remembered the scriptures that
spoke of a zeal for God's house,
a zeal that consumes. He
was consumed with such zeal
for the House of his Maker
as he goaded them all to tear
down the Temple and he
would rebuild it, take only three
days to rebuild it;
                              and long
after that, his friends understood,
as they could not in that moment,
its heat overwhelming, disturbing
the Temple, and all that they knew
of the Temple and God had been
rebuilt as he said;
                              his friends
understood, and it was then
that they entered the house
into which they had been invited.