12 Jesus went into the temple courtyard and threw out everyone who was buying and selling there. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold pigeons. 13 He told them, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you’re turning it into a gathering place for thieves!”
14 Blind and lame people came to him in the temple courtyard, and he healed them.
15 When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings saw the amazing miracles he performed and the children shouting in the temple courtyard, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were irritated. 16 They said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
Jesus replied, “Yes, I do. Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of little children and infants, you have created praise’?”
17 He left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
Read Matthew 21:12-17 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In our event in this passage, Jesus arrives at the temple just days before He would be arrested and crucified. Upon entering the temple courtyard, Jesus sees it as a marketplace more than a place for worship, and it bothers Him.
He chases the moneychangers and everyone who is buying and selling out, before sitting down to teach, heal, and point people to God.
What I find incredibly interesting about this event is that this was during the week. With how legalistic and rule-following the religious leaders were on the Sabbath, we can easily assume there was no commerce happening on the Sabbath day of the week. However, the other six days were likely interpreted as being free days where the temple was just another gathering place.
While the “commerce” that was happening was loosely related to worship, it had fallen far from what God had intended. The people Jesus threw out of the temple saw church as a business, instead of seeing it as a place for people to worship God.
Jesus tells those present, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you’re turning it into a gathering place for thieves!” (v. 13)
Looking at when Jesus says these words, I get the impression that our churches and the places we worship should be places of prayer – places where we can go to focus on God regardless of the day of the week. I wonder if we are limiting our idea of church to simply being a place we go once on the weekend, and maybe once during the week, when Jesus has something bigger in mind?
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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