You could use a rolling pin to beat a drum and a drumstick to roll out pastry. But generally it’s better to use a thing for the purpose for which it was made. 

So, what is the purpose of God’s house? ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ said Jesus. He was echoing the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 56:7). God’s plan for the Temple in Jerusalem was for the gathering of worshipping people from all nations to pray together to God.

Energised by his desire for holiness, Jesus acts to drive out of the Temple all those who have made it, in the words of The Message version, ‘a religious bazaar’ – the ‘den of robbers’ of Jeremiah 7:11. Meanwhile, in the Temple precincts, non-Jews, women, the disabled and the poor are segregated and treated with disdain. No wonder Jesus is angry!

This account is a sobering reminder that any who use God’s church for personal gain or self-promotion will face judgement.

‘The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.’¹

In Isaiah 56, Isaiah envisions the Temple as ‘a house of prayer for all nations’.² Foreigners will be bound to God in his love, covenant and service. Isaiah’s compelling vision is coming to fruition as Jesus enters the Temple. Jeremiah calls on the people to end idolatry and practise justice, not to trust in the safety of ‘the Temple of the Lord’,³ for the Temple had become ‘a den of robbers’,⁴ rather than a place of shalom for the broken. Sadly, Israel’s exile is imminent.

Remembering Isaiah’s hope, Jesus enters Jerusalem, not to cleanse the city of Gentile impurity but to retrace Jeremiah’s path. His target is those who are fleecing the pilgrims. The moneychangers exchanged the pilgrims’ ‘dirty’ pagan coinage into ‘pure’ Tyrian shekels to buy sacrifices and – as had Zacchaeus – they took their cut. They also clogged up the Court of the Gentiles. God’s vision of the nations at worship is being grossly violated. By his prophetic act of cleansing the Temple, Jesus enacts the opening of access to God for all people. This is accomplished when he dies and the curtain to the Holy Place is torn asunder.⁵ His actions understandably infuriate his opponents. Jesus’ fate is sealed.

This reminds us that we from the nations are swept up into something God has conceived since creation – the vision of Isaiah. Whereas the physical Temple is ruined and redundant, we can enter the Temple of God, Father and Son; we can worship in Spirit and truth, anywhere, anytime. Nonetheless, we must beware presuming on our privilege and using it as a pretext for injustice. If we do, we too will face God’s judgement. Instead, we must, ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness’.⁶ We must reach to the margins and invite the world to be joined to God –  this is for everyone. 

Pray for the church: that it will turn aside from injustice and care for the marginalised. Ask: what needs to change in my life?

¹ Ps 33:5  ² Isa 56:7  ³ Jer 7:4  ⁴ Jer 7:11  ⁵ Luke 23:45  ⁶ Isa 56:1, ESV