When we think of Jesus, we usually imagine Him as a man of peace. We recall His instructions about turning the other cheek. We remember how He told one of His followers to put back his sword when Jesus was being arrested. We note that He applauded peacemakers, saying they would be called children of God. The list of examples goes on. So what in the world is going on in today's Gospel reading (Jn 2: 13-22) where we read that Jesus "made a whip out of cords and drove them all (referring to the moneychangers) out of the temple area, along with the sheep and oxen"? Jesus says that the activity is "making my Father's house a marketplace," but surely there was some more-peaceful way to respond, short of making a mini-riot, with money flying everywhere and animals running around in fright. What gets Jesus so energized that He seems almost to lose His temper, and act in such an uncharacteristic way? Maybe it is the fact that this whole scene-- the sacrificial system, the need to buy animals, the moneychanging (because those who came to the Temple would not necessarily have had the right kind of currency, since they came from all over the place), the commotion-- all of this was exactly the way of relating to God that Jesus came to supercede. Jesus came not to eliminate sacrifices, but to be the one, perfect sacrifice that would make all the animal buying and selling, and the currency exchanges, and all the rest obsolete. Perhaps Jesus felt He had to act with such force in order to get people thinking about what they were doing, so that they might be more open to understanding what His mission was all about. Maybe it takes something extraordinary to get people out of their old ways of thinking. Maybe having people talk about what Jesus did-- and they certainly did talk about it-- would lead them to reflect on this whole idea that the sacrificial system then in place did make the Temple a marketplace, and get them thinking about whether having the Temple become a marketplace was really God's plan. Maybe the radical nature of the change that was going to take place-- Jesus being the sacrifice-- required a radical action. Jesus is certainly thinking about His death and resurrection when He is driving out the moneychangers and animals. That's clear when He is asked for a sign, and the sign to which He points is that the Temple will be destroyed and He will build it up in three days. We often speak of the "sacrifice" of the Mass. Perhaps as we reflect on the starting behavior on the part of Jesus that we read about today we'll have a deeper understanding of just what that term means.