And entering into the temple, he began to cast out those that sold and bought in it,
Two acts stand side by side here. The Lord weeps over Jerusalem, and then walks into the temple and clears it out. The scene raises two questions. What was God's house meant to be? And by what right does this Man say so?
The weeping and the clearing belong together. One writer asks what the Lord found in the people He had just wept over:
Next we have, not the cursing of the fig tree, but the spirit of grace in the Lord's weeping over the city. God's purposes will surely be carried out, but we ought also to know His real tenderness in Jesus. Those tears were not in vain, whatever it looked like. It was the time of Jerusalem's visitation, but she did not know it… But what did He find in the people? See verses 45, 46. God declares His house to be one of prayer; men — the Jews — had made it a den of thieves. It was a terrible moral estimate, but this is the true way to judge: that is, having God's word, to take the facts as they are.
He clears the temple as its owner. The words He uses mark the difference from the earlier cleansing in John:
"The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple," Malachi (3:1) had written… It was His house, and He claimed the right to cleanse it. He quoted Isaiah 56:7, and for its condition He pointed to Jeremiah 7:11… He had cleansed it once before (John 2:14-16), at the start of His ministry. Now He did it again at the close. The first time He acted as Son. He declared that the house was His Father's: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade." This time He cleansed it as Jehovah Himself: "My house," He said. He had entered Jerusalem as Messiah; He visited the temple as Jehovah.
The name "house of prayer" says something about the God who lives there. And it is the Word that tells us so:
The Word of God tells what His house is in His mind. It is a house of prayer, where man is in touch with a God of love — where he finds a home with Him, and a refuge in his need and distress. This may have been known only in part, but the Lord who knew the Father's heart knew it to be such. To Him it was a house of prayer. So it is to the spiritual mind — to the one who fears God and so knows the Lord's secret; God's house takes its character from Himself.
Behind the Lord's two phrases stand two prophets, and the second names a condition the nation had refused to meet:
Jesus then enters the temple, ready to fulfil the promise the Lord made through Isaiah (Isaiah 56). That promise had a condition: the people were to keep equity and do justice. He would then have raised the house to a place of honour and glory, fit to be a house of prayer for all people. Instead He finds that they had made it a den of robbers, as the Lord had said through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:11). They had refused to change their ways and their doings… They had trusted in lying words while keeping up all the outward forms of religion. They came into the house of God as though it were their own place, and all the while filled their hearts with their covetousness.
One writer notes what the Lord leans on at the very moment He clears the traders out:
Jerome saw in this act of our Lord the greatest miracle He ever worked. We need not agree with him. But there is profit in noticing this. Even at such a moment His energy was unstoppable. His angry rebuke of their irreverence threw that unworthy trade out of the holy courts. Yet He uses the written Word as His ground and warrant, as He always does.
One writer brings the scene into the present, and points on to a final clearing:
Merchandise, however, had invaded its holy precincts then, and it does so even more widely now. They made it a den of thieves. The Lord "drove out those who sold in it and those who bought." One day He will "send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
- Tears first. The clearing of the temple follows the weeping over the city. Grace comes before the verdict, and the tears were not wasted.
- His house. In John He cleansed it as Son, calling it His Father's house. Here He calls it "My house." He enters the city as Messiah and the temple as Jehovah.
- His character. "House of prayer" describes the God who lives there: a place of contact with a God of love, a home and a refuge in need.
- Their theft. Isaiah's promise came with a condition: real justice. Instead they kept the outward forms of religion while their hearts were full of greed.
- His warrant. Even at His most forceful He stands on the written Word. And one day, He warns, He will clear the same trade out of His kingdom for good.
saying to them, It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but *ye* have made it a den of robbers.
Jesus drives the traders out of the temple courts, and He explains the act with two lines from Scripture. The verse leaves two questions: why does He call the temple "My house," and what is a house of prayer for?
Commentators note a shift in how Jesus speaks of the temple. Early in His ministry He cleared it as the Son, and called it His Father's house. Here at the end He speaks as the Lord of the house itself.
It was His house, and He claimed the right to cleanse it. He quoted Isaiah 56:7, and described its condition in the words of Jeremiah 7:11... The first time He cleansed it He acted as Son, and declared that the house was His Father's: "Do not make my Father's house a house of trade." Now He cleansed it as Jehovah Himself. He had entered Jerusalem as Messiah; He visited the temple as Jehovah.
That claim raised a question about His right to act.
The house was Jehovah's. The Lord did not come from Aaron's priestly family. By what right then did He take it on Himself to drive out the traders and overturn the money-changers' tables?... Who had ever acted as the Lord did? Who had ever applied the prophet's language to himself?
He does not only act. Even in the middle of the confrontation, He grounds what He does in a written text.
Jerome saw in our Lord's act the greatest miracle He ever worked. We need not agree with him. Still, it is worth noticing what He does at such a moment. Unstoppable power went with His angry rebuke of their irreverence, and threw that unworthy trading out of the sacred courts. Yet He uses, as always, the written Word as His ground and warrant.
The phrase describes what God is like, and so what His house is for.
The Word of God tells us what His house is in His mind. It is a house of prayer. There man is in fellowship with a God of love. There he finds a home with Him, and a refuge in his need and distress. People may have understood this only in part. But the Lord, who knew the Father's heart, knew the house to be such. To Him it was a house of prayer. So it is to the spiritual mind... God's house has its character from Himself.
The words Jesus quotes reach past Israel. One writer ties that width to the holiness Jesus was defending.
He kept God's house holy. He kept it holy as Jehovah's house, not as a convenience for Jewish pride. And as Jehovah's house, His Father's house, it had all its wide claim and value in His eyes: a house of prayer for all nations. The holiness of God's house is what widens it. Holiness makes it truly God's house, His claim is over all, and it is a claim of grace.
The word Jesus uses is strong. The same Greek word names the robbers in the story of the good Samaritan, and the two men crucified beside Him (Morrish Bible Dictionary). The damage fell on the very people the house was meant to welcome.
The house of the Lord was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. It was just a den of thieves. Any stranger who came up there looking for God was cheated when he bought the sacrifices he needed. So he would be driven away from the true God instead of drawn to Him. The men who held authority in the house were potential murderers, as verse 47 shows. So it had become a stronghold of murderers as well as a den of thieves. No wonder God swept it away by the Romans forty years later.
Writers apply this warning to the present, not only to Israel's past.
God approaches men through that House, and man can approach God there. Religious professionals had corrupted it into a means of feeding their greed. What the leaders in Israel did, leaders in the Christian assembly can do too, but for the grace of God... The same greed that corrupted the House of God at Jerusalem has pushed its way into the spiritual House of God, and it corrupts there too.
Cleaning the house did not soften the men who ran it. Verse 47 records what came next.
The Word of God from His lips especially reached men's consciences. The religious leaders, having long rejected Him, not only lost all right feeling but were given over to a murderous hatred that would soon be satisfied. This is always how the world proves itself when faced with the light of God; and the perfect love of God in Christ only provoked it the more.
- Owner. He says "My house," not "the house." He cleanses it as the Lord of the place, and no one had ever spoken or acted like that before.
- Purpose. God's house takes its character from God: a place of fellowship with a God of love, and a refuge in need.
- Reach. Because it is truly God's house, its claim is over all nations — its holiness is what makes it wide, not narrow.
- Ruin. Trade turned that welcome into a swindle, so the outsider seeking God was driven off instead of drawn in.
- Repeat. God swept the ruined temple away, yet the same greed can still push its way into God's spiritual house today.