House of Prayer or A Den of Thieves?

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  Matthew 21:12-13

Picture this:  Jesus had just entered Jerusalem.  It was what we term “passion week”, that is, the week when Jesus would first be praised and honored by the people as He rode in on a donkey, but with the heavy burden of going to the cross on His mind in just a few short days, He would spend time teaching His disciples, celebrating the Passover, praying to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane, asking the Father to take the cup of suffering away from Him, but then acquiescing to the Father’s will, and then find His disciples couldn’t stay awake and at least pray with Him.  He knew that he would be arrested toward the end of the week, tried, tortured, and crucified.  He knew that one of His disciples would betray Him, that all the others would desert Him, and one would even deny Him before others.  Now, imagine, if it was possible for our human minds to do so, how Jesus was feeling when he went into the temple of His Father and saw men who had turned His Father’s house from a holy sanctuary and place of prayer to nothing more than a shopping mall full of conmen and other irreverent hucksters.

Since it is impossible for us to feel exactly as Jesus felt at that time, try to imagine how you would feel if you went to your church on Sunday morning expecting to see other likeminded folks, to sing the songs of Zion, to hear the preacher say, “Thus saith the Lord”, to pray, and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, but instead you found the sanctuary had been turned into a flea market with folks selling all sorts of merchandise or, even worse, a performance by some drag queens.  (I have read online where this has actually happened in some churches!).  If you are like me, you would be very upset and want to know what in the world was going on.  I probably wouldn’t have the nerve to drive them out with whips, but I think that I would at least voice my concerns.

As far as we know, there weren’t any drag queens doing their thing in the temple, but there were times in the Old Testament when immoral sex acts were committed (I Samuel 2:22) at the door of the tabernacle by Eli’s sons.  The tabernacle, the temple, and the church of the living God are to be respected, and nothing that is ungodly should ever be allowed within the walls or even on the outside property of what we consider holy ground.  You can imagine how anger was rising up in Jesus, or perhaps we should call it righteous indignation.  Jesus didn’t get angry very often.  Usually when he saw something that was not in line with His Father’s will, He was usually more saddened than angry.  He was very zealous for His Father’s righteousness and holiness and for the sanctity of His Father’s house.

It was not only the disrespect that these men had for His Father and His Father’s house, but many Bible scholars believe that these men, these moneychangers, were cheating the people.  The animals that they were selling were presented to the folks coming to sacrifice as better animals than what they had brought with them.  They offered to sell these “better” animals at inflated prices, pocketing the extra money for themselves.  That’s why Jesus called them “thieves”.  God required unblemished animals for sacrifice thus folks were to bring the best of their flocks, herds, or bevies.  Cain got into some serious trouble which began by his bringing a substitute sacrifice to the LORD (Genesis 4:5-12).  God allowed for folks who were poor and couldn’t bring lambs to bring turtledoves or pigeons (Leviticus 5:7; 14:22).

As in everything else, it is not so much the actual offering, sacrifice, or service, but it is the attitude with which those things are offered to the LORD that count.  To the general public, these moneychangers looked like men only providing a service to those who came to sacrifice unto the LORD, but the actions of those men indicted otherwise.  Their attitude was about making money by scamming worshipers.  When Jesus saw them, he knew exactly their motive, became angry, and began to turn over their tables.  I can picture the money flying across the courtyard, and the merchants running like scalded dogs.  The people who had been cheated likely stood in awe of Jesus’ outburst.  In our day, He would have received a round of applause from those who appreciate a wrong being righted.

After the courtyard was cleared, the blind and the lame came to Jesus to be healed.  When the religious leaders saw what had happened, they became very displeased.  It sort of makes one think that perhaps they were getting a cut of the moneychangers’ profits.  After all, the merchants likely had to get their permission to set up their tables and their merchandise on the temple grounds.  Of course, scripture doesn’t indicate that the chief priests and scribes were profiting from the sale of the animals for sacrifice, but I don’t think they were mad just because folks were being healed by the One whom the people called the Son of David.

The family was the first institution that God created and then the church.  In today’s culture, both are being attacked by those who are being led by Satan.  Believers need to do all they can to keep both sacred and free from the influence of the secular world.