Jesus entered the temple area 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.’
This section of the scripture is extremely interesting. As we first read it we are moved by the fact the Jesus is very angry and turns over the tables and shouts at people, in fact in another Gospel it talks of Him driving them out of the temple. This is especially interesting because the Jews were allowed to have the tables there right outside the “holy place” in order to help the people who came to make an offering get the correct elements for their offerings. They needed the temple coins and some came from far away and needed to buy a dove or a calf for their sacrifice. So why would Jesus call them robbers? Some have speculated that they were cheating people in their exchanges and that could be, but is seems to me that Jesus anger comes from a different place.
The Jews of that day had gotten their “forgiveness” down to a science. They knew just what they needed to pay for whatever sin that they had committed and they were quick to pay and “demand” God’s forgiveness. God had established the sacrificial system in order to remind the Jews that they needed to depend on God for everything and to come to Him with their desires, thanks and praise. The temple was to be a place where God would meet His people and they would have this exchange. Now they did not have the close relationship with God, they just “paid their debt” and demanded forgiveness, which God had always intended to be a gift. God would give the people everything that they needed for life and the people would respond with a sacrificial gift that was a reminder that God had given everything.
The forgiveness was not to be based on the sacrifice but on the “Grace of God.” Most of the Jews did not have a loving relationship with God they just came and went through the motions, they bought their gift, they gave it to God and they took home their forgiveness. Jesus says that this is “robbery”, they are stealing from God the forgiveness that He meant to give them as a gift! God wants their love, not their sacrifices.
Not much has changed if Jesus were to come to our church He would see basically the same thing. By nature we tend to make our relationship with God all about what we are doing for God and not about what God has already done in Jesus Christ.
When you see something wrong, are you more likely to act without thinking, or think without acting?
As you think about Jesus in the Temple what needs to change in your life?
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