Cleansing the Temple

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

–Matthew 21:12-13

The first order of business after the grand Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem, according to Matthew, was the cleansing of the temple where Jesus overturned tables and threw out the “moneychangers” – or, today, we might call them “vendors”.

Now, to fully understand and comprehend this event, it is helpful for one to know about the old sacrificial system that was in place up to and including the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Due to space and time constraints, I’m not going to try to explain the whole system here. However, I will say this: As Paul wrote, Romans 3:23, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – those in the New Testament period as well as those in the Old Testament period. The difference is how atonement for sins is made.

In the old sacrificial system (Old Testament period), through sweat and tears, people would farm the land and painstakingly raise a variety of animals. This was, in part, the penalty for original sin (see Genesis 3:17-24).

And, under the old sacrificial system, people would bring an animal they painstakingly raised and took care of to the Temple as a sacrifice where the animals blood would be ceremoniously shed for the remission and atonement of their sins.

The blood of the animal would be a covering of the sins of the individual.

To help facilitate this in Jesus’ time, money changers would set up in the temple to “sell” the sacrificial animals to people who, for whatever reason, didn’t have an animal to atone for their sins. And, the “system” became more of a matter of convenience rather than sacrifice.

The sacrificial system lost its original meaning. People didn’t have to work hard, sweat and shed tears anymore for they could simply buy, and sell, and trade the prescribed “sacrifices” – the whole system became more “people focused ‘ than”God focused “.

Yet, Christ came to cleanse the Temple, yes, but to take it a step further.

Christ’s first order of business was to cleanse the Temple, restore order and bring it back to a “God focused” institution. He said, “it is written My (Father’s) house shall be a house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves”. Then, He would lay down His life and become the sacrificial “Lamb of God”. He would become our sacrificial animal, our atonement, the new sacrificial system of the New Testament. And, His blood would not be just a covering for our sins but would completely wash our sins away.

A church, a meetinghouse, Temple, synagogue is supposed to be a house of prayer for God’s people. Yet, we often look around our nation, and our world, and what do we see? People going to worship God? Or, people worshipping people? Do we see people studying scripture, God’s word? Or, some other activity that actually separates us from God? Do we see people praying to God? Or, a social club?

The Bible says, Matthew 7:15-20, “you will know them by their fruits”.

Christ’s first order of business upon entering Jerusalem after Palm Sunday was to cleanse the Temple. To return it to its status as Holy, God’s house of prayer.

In the same kind of way, we should examine ourselves, remove anything unholy, turn from our sins and return to that which is holy. Remember the temptations of Christ?

As we progress through this Holy week, let us do just that. Let us read God’s word and pray. Let us bow down and worship God, and God only. Let us avoid tempting or putting God to the test. Let us remember God’s house is a house of prayer, not a den of thieves.

Draw near to God, and He will draw near you.

Blessings.