Pause for a moment and picture the scene that played out in the Temple.
Jesus, grabbing the corners of tables and heaving them into the air. Coins flying and clinking on the ground, doves flapping their wings against their cages, cattle mooing, sheep bleating, people screaming and running as Jesus cracks a whip he fashioned from some rope (John 2:15).
It was an intense scene. Jesus was righteously angry and he tells us why: “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” Jesus quotes God’s words in Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 to the Jewish people – verses they would know. God said that His house, His temple, would be a house of prayer for all nations.
- Jesus flipped the tables because God’s house of prayer had been turned into a marketplace. Imagine showing up to worship on a Sunday morning and you’re surrounded by a street market. That would be pretty difficult, wouldn’t it? Instead of praying and worshiping, there’s shouting and people haggling for deals.
- Jesus flipped the tables because the Gentiles were kept from worshipping. There were four outer courts at the Temple, and this space was called the Court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles, non-Jewish people, would gather in this space to worship the Lord, fulfilling God’s plan that all nations would pray to Him. Instead, the Gentiles’ space for worship had been given over to marketplace, and the Gentiles were prevented from worshiping God.
- Jesus flipped the tables because they were financially exploiting the poor and vulnerable. “You have turned it into a den of thieves.” The people who were in need of a sacrifice were being charged outrageous prices. Plus, those using Roman currency had to exchange it for Jewish coins (hence the money changers) and weren’t given a fair exchange rate. Many were prevented from making their righteous sacrifice because of finances and others paid the amount equating to highway robbery.
Understandably, Jesus’ righteous anger burned when he saw the sacredness of his Father’s house turned upside down. God designed the Temple so all people – Jewish and non-Jewish – could come to Him, but the Jewish priests and elite had created ethnic and financial barriers preventing all people from coming to God in His house. God’s reputation was being tarnished, people were being financially exploited, and all people weren’t given equal opportunity to come to Him.
For those of us who are in the family of God, this is an opportunity to examine ourselves. Have we constructed barriers – words or actions or clubs – that keep all people from knowing God when God freely invited all people to Him? Have we set up shops in our churches that prevent or interfere with worship? When was the last time you thought of your church as God’s “house of prayer”?
