Day 2: Jesus At The Temple
Matthew 21:12-17 (NIV) “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
During His final week, Jesus caused an uproar as He drove out the traders who were making illegal profits from those who attended the temple for worship. He entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there, declaring that the Temple was a house of prayer. Jerusalem’s first temple was built under King Solomon about 3,000 years ago and destroyed by Babylonian invaders four centuries later. A new temple followed at the end of the sixth century BC. It was expanded, 500 years on, by King Herod the ‘Great’, who ruled Judea on Rome’s behalf and became notorious for trying to kill the baby Jesus.
The Law of Moses prescribed three annual visits to the temple for specific festivals. So, Jesus would have repeatedly climbed the steps to the temple. But unlike the countless pilgrims around Him, He challenged the temple practices of his day.
Jewish pilgrims would buy sacrificial animals and change ‘unclean’ Roman coins for local currency to pay temple tax. Shrewd businessmen set up shop in the temple, overcharging the pilgrims and getting in the way of worshippers who tried to enter the temple. This is why Jesus turned their tables over and whipped the sacrificial animals out of the temple court.
IN A NUTSHELL
Jesus declared that the Temple was a house of prayer, not a hideout of thieves. Jesus’ anger here is a mature and healthy response to a specific form of abuse. Not all anger is like this. His anger boiled up from a tender, compassionate heart that longed to protect the vulnerable and uphold the purity of God’s house. Anger can result from love, because love makes you want to do something about injustice and pain. It’s precisely because Jesus is love that He responded like this and really, we should be concerned if Jesus had let the corruption slip.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, today, as I reflect on Jesus' actions in the temple, where He showed righteous zeal for Your house, I ask for Your guidance in examining my own heart. Help me identify anything within me that may be hindering my relationship with You—a place that should be a temple of Your Holy Spirit. Grant me the courage, Lord, to overturn the tables of my own greed, selfishness, and complacency. Instil in me a pure heart that seeks to honour You in thought, word, and deed. As I continue this fast, cleanse me from within, making me a true house of prayer. Teach me to cherish Your presence over all worldly distractions.
May my life reflect the purity and devotion that Your temple deserves. Let my actions and words be in alignment with Your divine will, showing others the power of living a life dedicated to Your service.
Thank You, Father, for the lessons of passion and purity that come from remembering Jesus cleansing the temple. May I follow His example to preserve what is sacred and true. In the precious and Holy name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
APPLICATION
Let us be like Jesus and not be complacent when it comes to God’s house and the world.
Do you need God to fill you with His fierce love that makes you do something about the wrong and injustices in the world? Turn to him today.
Encourage the children to start seeing the goodness of God from a young age. God loves them dearly.
Read on to find out more about Jesus and the temple:
The temple and the end – (Mark 13:1-13)
A different kind of temple – (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)