And they come to Jerusalem, and entering into the temple, he began to cast out those who sold and who bought in the temple, and he overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of the dove-sellers,
The ride into Jerusalem is over, and the first place Jesus goes is the temple. What He does there is not a burst of temper. It is an act of authority.
One writer sets the two days side by side:
Yesterday He had made a full survey of their condition, and of the condition of His Father's house, Jehovah's house. Today He carries out judgment with all the authority — the condemning authority — of Jehovah's King. He will bear with none of this evil now. Grace had been patient for a long time. He had withdrawn to a distance to give time for repentance.
This is the second time Jesus cleared the temple. One writer sets out how the two occasions differ:
We have said that the Lord cleansed the temple twice. John here, and he alone, tells us of the first. Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46 agree in telling us, and they only, of the second. On the first occasion He acted as in the Father's house; on the second, as in His own. "My Father's house" He called it in John. "My house" He called it in Matthew and the others. Further, when challenged on the first occasion, He at once gave the Jews a sign. When challenged the last time, He refused. The first time, His presence as God's messenger was new to the city, so He gave them a sign. The second time, they already had proof after proof of His divine mission, so He would not grant their request.
The traders had reasons for being there. One writer grants those reasons, then says where the wrong lay:
The Jews would doubtless have furnished good reasons for permitting these abominations. Did not the strangers need to change their varied monies? Were not the doves a necessity for the very poorest, who could afford no larger sacrifice? But the whole thing had been debased into a money-making concern. A man might come from far away seeking God. When he reached the house, the dishonesty of those connected with it could easily drive him off.
Jesus does more than tidy the place. The same writer shows what its holiness secured:
He maintained the holiness of God's house. He kept it holy as Jehovah's house, not as a mere 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 its reach. Holiness is what makes it truly God's house. His claim is over all, and it is a claim of grace.
Mark tells the fig tree story around the temple scene. One writer says the two belong together:
Next follows the cursing of the fig tree (12-26), woven together with the purging of the temple. The two are indeed one, but two sides of the same act. He must cleanse His house, and to do this, fruitless profession must be withered up.
Writers do not leave this in the past. One warns that leaders in the church can fall into the same thing:
That house is the place where God approaches men and man can approach God. In the hands of men who professed religion, it had become corrupted into a means of indulging their greed. What the leaders in Israel did, it is possible for the leaders in the Christian assembly to do, but for the grace of God.
Another writer names the remedy in the plainest terms:
Again religion has been turned into a money-making concern. It has gone so far that the person who would seek after God is often driven away completely… The house of God on earth today is formed of saints — not dead stones but "living" ones. We have to learn how we are to behave in it. Paul's first letter to Timothy gives us the needed instructions.
- Whose house — He acts as owner. In John it is "My Father's house"; here He comes to what is His own, and judgment follows a full survey made the day before.
- What they made it — a money-making concern. Every stall had a reasonable excuse, and together they turned approach to God into profit.
- What He did — He cleansed rather than tolerated, because holiness is what makes the house God's at all.
- Who it was for — "all nations." Its holiness is exactly what widens it; God's claim over everyone is a claim of grace.
- What it costs — the fruitless fig tree and the cleared temple are two sides of one act. Empty profession must wither before the house is fit. The same greed can enter the church today.
and suffered not that any one should carry any package through the temple.
Jesus has just cursed the barren fig tree, and now He clears the temple of its traders and stops people carrying goods through the courts. Why would a shortcut through a building matter to Him?
He did not ask the temple authorities for permission. He acted as the owner, and one writer links that authority to the ban on carrying goods through the courts.
He entered the temple and acted with authority inside its courts, claiming it as His house... He would not let anyone treat the temple court as common ground. "He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple." The house is sacred and its courts are holy. Everyone should respect that. The chief priests were false guardians of the holy place, and here they had failed completely. He, then, must maintain the holiness of God's house. For the house was His. Jehovah Himself, in the person of the Lord, was present.
The traders were selling. Other people were doing something far more ordinary: using the temple as a route to somewhere else. One writer shows why that mattered, and ties the holiness of the house to its reach.
He let no one pass through, or carry anything through the temple, making it just a passage for his own convenience. 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 gives it its reach. Holiness is what makes it God's own house, so His claim covers everyone, and it is a claim of grace.
The temple was meant to welcome people from every nation. Trade drove those seekers away, and there were good-sounding reasons for allowing it.
The Jews would doubtless have supplied good reasons for permitting these abominations. Did not the strangers need to change their various currencies? Were not the doves a necessity for the very poorest, who could afford no larger sacrifice? But the whole thing had been debased into a money-making concern. A man might travel far in search of God. When he reached the house, the dishonesty of the people connected with it could easily drive him away. The keepers of the house were a pack of thieves, and the Lord told them so. This stirred the scribes and priests to fury, and they decided on His death.
Commentators apply the scene forward. What greed did to the temple at Jerusalem, greed can do wherever God has a house.
God's house is where He comes near to people, and where people can come near to Him. People who professed religion had corrupted it into a way of feeding their greed. What the leaders in Israel did, the leaders in the Christian assembly could do too, but for the grace of God... So we learn that the flesh never changes. The same greed that corrupted the house of God at Jerusalem has pushed its way into the spiritual house of God, and corrupts it there.
The leaders did not welcome the cleansing. One writer contrasts what they cared about with what moved the Lord.
The leaders of the people ask by what authority He had purified the temple. There was no zeal in them for the holiness of God — plenty of zeal for their own authority... The Lord Jesus thought only about the authority of God, and what He did was the effect of it. If the rulers' conscience had not been hardened, they would have kept silent, even though they were not pleased with what the Lord had done. They would have been ashamed of the state of the temple under their care.
The cleansing sits next to the withered fig tree on purpose. Both are acts of assessment on a people whose outward show no longer matched anything inside.
The Lord likens them to a fig tree with a great show of "leaves" but no "fruit." Again they are called to repent, but all in vain. Their heart had gone away from God, so He sets them aside as a witness for Himself before men... Having set them aside, the Lord at once enters the house God had brought them back to build and keep. He casts out those who were corrupting it. Judgment begins at the house of God.
- Owner. He cleared the courts without asking anyone. The house was His, and its rightful Lord was standing in it.
- Holiness. The ban on carrying goods through hits convenience, not just profit. God's house is not a shortcut.
- Reach. That holiness gave the house its width. Because it was God's own house, His claim reached every nation — a claim of grace.
- Corruption. Greed turned the place of approach into a money-making concern. It drove the far-off seeker away instead of welcoming him. Commentators warn that the same greed can enter God's house today.
- Judgment. The withered fig tree and the emptied courts belong together. God sets aside fruitless profession, and judgment begins at the house of God.
And he taught saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? but *ye* have made it a den of robbers.
The day after riding into Jerusalem, Jesus drove the traders out of the temple and explained Himself with two lines from the prophets. Why does He call the place "My house," and why does prayer define it?
The chief priests were about to learn who He was.
But the chief priests were to learn about Him; and He entered the temple, exercised authority within its precincts, claiming it to be His house. The traffickers in things used in its service He cast out... He, then, must maintain the holiness of God's house. For the house was His. Jehovah Himself in the person of the Lord was present.
Sacrifices were offered there daily, yet that is not the name God chose for the place. One writer draws out what that naming reveals about God Himself.
God's house was a house of prayer. That was its moral character, not sacrifice. God did not name His house after sacrifice, though sacrifice was offered there. He named it in grace, for people who had needs. Where His presence and His ear were, there was a house of prayer. There people told God all their wants, and He received every grief and every need. And they had made it a den of thieves. Note this: the Lord marks the sin against the temple of God as a sin against the gracious character of God.
Mark alone records this clause in full, and it widens the house past Israel's borders.
God's thought in establishing His house at Jerusalem was that it might be a place of prayer for all nations. If any man, no matter what race he belonged to, was feeling after God, he might come to that house and get into touch with Him.
Holiness and the wide welcome are not separate concerns.
He kept God's house holy. He kept it holy as Jehovah's house, not as a convenience for Jewish pride. And because it was Jehovah's house, His Father's house, it held its full, wide claim and value in His eyes — a house of prayer for all nations. The holiness of God's house is what gives it this reach. Holiness makes it truly God's house, and His claim is over all; and it is a claim of grace.
The word behind "robbers" is a strong one.
(lestes) 'robber, bandit.' The Lord used this word of those who bought and sold in the temple... When the Lord was arrested, He asked if they had come out as against a robber.
The trade had grown out of a provision in the law.
The trading and money-changing in the temple had no doubt grown out of a kind provision in the law, which Deuteronomy 14:24-26 records. Wicked men took advantage of that provision and turned the temple courts into a den of thieves. God meant His temple to be the house where men came near to Him with their requests. Its guardians turned it into a place where men were cheated, and so they slandered the name of God.
Commentators differ here. Some read the clause as pointing forward to a future temple open to the nations; William Kelly argues from the way the other Gospels handle the quotation.
Neither Matthew nor Luke shows the Lord quoting the words about all the nations. Mark's full citation shows that He did quote the prophet's words in full. Yet the two Gospels that press hardest on the change from Israel to the Gentiles leave out "all nations". That omission is meant to show that no such application was in His mind then. What stood before His eyes was simply the gross twisting of Jehovah's house of prayer into a den of robbers.
Others carry the principle straight into the present, where God dwells among His people.
God always intended His house to be called "a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isa. 56:7). The temple in Jerusalem should have been that, as our Lord's words in Mark 11:17 show. How much more the house where God dwells today! But God's house has now taken a form in which the nations do not come to it to pray. Instead the believers who make up the house... take the place of prayer and intercession, with all people in view.
Exposing the evil brought one result, and it still does.
The Lord condemned this wickedness, and the only effect was to raise the most extreme opposition against Himself... In our own day, with corruption all through the Christian world, those who seek to follow the Lord and take any stand for the truth will meet some opposition too.
- His house. Jesus cleared the temple by claiming it as His own. Jehovah was present in person, keeping His own house holy.
- A house of prayer. God named it for prayer, not sacrifice: the place where people bring Him every need. Corrupting it is sin against His gracious character.
- For all nations. Holiness is what gives the house its reach; because it is truly God's, His claim extends over all, and it is a claim of grace.
- A den of robbers. Wicked men twisted a provision of the law for profit, cheated the seekers, and slandered God's name in His own courts.
- The cost of saying so. Naming the corruption brought the fiercest opposition on Him — and those who stand for the truth today will meet some of it too.