A House of Prayer

 

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. (Matthew 21:12-17 ESV).

 

Monday was a very busy day for Jesus. Paramount of the events that day was what we know as “the cleansing of the Temple.” There were many reasons for this action from Jesus when He entered the Temple area. Religious huckstering was certainly one of those reason, however it wasn’t the only reason the temple needed to be cleansed. Another reason had to do with God’s mission to the world. There were four courts in the temple. The outer court was where the Gentiles—the non-Jews—could come to worship God. Next was the court of women, and then the court of men. The inmost court was where the priests alone could enter to offer sacrifices.

 

Jesus’ righteous anger at the merchants in the temple was heightened by the fact that they had chosen to do business in the court of the Gentiles. How could anyone from other nations pray and worship God while surrounded by the bleating of sheep and the shouting of buyers and sellers? We can understand the impact of Jesus’ complaint when we look at the actual passage he quoted from Isaiah: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). The presence of sellers and money changers made worship impossible for Gentiles—and that angered Jesus.

 

The Jews in charge of temple matters needed to remember that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32). We must remember that too. Neither our actions nor our traditions should stand in the way of others who seek to worship God.