41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
Jesus at the Temple
45 When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. 46 "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be a house of prayer' [c]; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.' [d]"
47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
Dig Deeper
I just couldn’t believe what I saw going on that day. At the time, in fact, it seemed like one of the worst things that I had ever seen. I just couldn’t imagine how someone could do that. I was a young college student and was making a few bucks on the weekends by working at the YMCA in the small Oklahoma town where I went to school. I did many different things at the YMCA including refereeing basketball games, tutoring and mentoring young kids and teaching a physical education class for home schooled students. It was that class for home schooled kids where the offense took place. I walked into the gym one day and most of the kids were already there getting warmed up and having a good time, and then I saw it. They were playing a game of kickball . . . wait for it . . . with a basketball. Take a moment to recover if you’d like. I’m sure you’re as horrified by this as I was. As someone who greatly loved the game of basketball and, at the time, put much more importance on the game than I should have, it was just deeply shocking. I scolded them firmly that they should “never, ever, ever, kick a basketball.” They were taking something that was very important to me and completely misusing it and I would simply not stand by and watch that happen. I took the basketball away from them and began the class by having them run a few extra laps just to teach them to never forget this vastly important lesson.
Of course, I write the previous paragraph with a little bit of humorous exaggeration, or as the saying goes, “with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek,” but there is a true principle behind it that is deeply related to this passage as Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem and strides into the Temple. The nation of Israel had been given so much by God and had misused it. The Temple was the central symbol of all that God had given to Israel and all that she was to become. It was a towering example of God’s promise to protect his people. But God’s people had misused that Temple. I was upset at a silly and rather unimportant thing because some kids were misusing something that was dear to me. On an unimaginably greater level of infinitely more importance, this was at the heart of Jesus’ actions in the Temple. The people of Israel were not acting like the people of God. They had taken a precious gift and had kicked it around for their own amusement and their own purposes and now time had run out. The tune had been played and the piper would be paid.
As Jesus approached Jerusalem, the scene is striking for what we do see and for what we don’t see. What we don’t see is any gloating or enjoyment on Jesus’ part. Luke has depicted Jesus as resolutely making his way to Jerusalem, preaching a message of peace and reconciliation for those who would embrace the opportunity to enter into God’s new family that Jesus was creating around himself, but it was a message of terrible judgment that would come upon the nation of Israel if she remained in resolute opposition to God. But Jesus does not relish this moment. There is no hint of an “it serves you right” attitude.
What we do see is Jesus weeping as he stood on the outskirts of the city that had refused to repent and go the way of peace (Lk. 13:5). This was not a picture of an angry God that was itching to destroy his wayward people. This was the picture of a God that had emptied himself and come to his own people as one of them and had longed to gather them together under his wings to protect them (Lk. 13:34) but now the house would be left desolate. Israel had run out of time, though some individuals had repented and chosen the way of God’s peace, the nation as a whole had not. The opportunity had been lost and now the nation would never know the blessing of the return of their God, they would know only the curses that came for those who failed to live up to the covenant that they had made (see Ps. 137:9; Isa. 29:1-4; Jer. 6:6-21; 8:18-22, Nah. 3:10). The curses were the harsh reality of entering into covenant with the almighty God going back to Deuteronomy 28-32. Israel had already lived through pre-cursors of that judgment through the nations of Babylon and Assyria and the great exile but now the ultimate fulfillment was on its way.
“The days will come,” said Jesus, indicating a prophetic utterance (see 1 Sam. 2:31; 2 Ki. 20:17; isa. 36:9; Jer. 7:32-34; 32:38; 33:14; 49:2; Zech. 14:1), when God will once again work through Israel’s enemies as they will siege the city and ultimately destroy it. The people of God would not recognize the time of God’s coming, or as it more literally reads, “the day of God’s visitation.” It is important to note that virtually every word from Jesus’ prophetic oracle comes directly from the Old Testament: your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you - Isa. 29:3; also see Isa. 37:33; Jer. 6:6-21; Ezek. 4:1-3; 2 Ki. 6:14; and hem you in on every side - Ezek. 4:2, 21:22; see also Jer. 52:4; They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls - Ps. 137:9; see also Hos. 10:4; Nah. 3:10; 2 Ki. 8:12; They will not leave one stone on another - 2 Sam. 17:13; see also Ezek. 26:12; you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you - Jer. 6:15, (although the language in the TNIV does not makes this connection obvious) demonstrating that this should have been seen coming all along and was not something ‘out of left field’. What Jesus had alluded and hinted to in Luke 13:35, he now makes quite clear. Israel would be judged and destroyed. Not one stone would be left on another, Jesus said, which was a common way in his day of saying that the thing referred to would be totally and utterly wiped out.
Much could be said about Jesus’ entrance into the temple, including the fact that we’re unclear as to how many times he cleared the Temple and there is still much debate over what exactly Jesus intended by his actions in the Temple. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all place the clearing out of the Temple during the last week of Jesus’ life, while John places a similar incident near the beginning of his ministry. It seems most likely that John either described an earlier and smaller affair involving Jesus in the outer courts of the Temple or he is describing the same event as the other Gospel writers but placed the account earlier to make a theological point. It seems virtually certain, however, that Jesus did enter into the Temple during the last week of his life just as Luke has described here.
So, what was Jesus doing in the Temple? It certainly seems that each Gospel writer saw and emphasized a different aspect of this deeply meaningful and important act. And it was certainly vitally important, not just in Jesus’ message, but it was an act that was so confrontational and disturbing to the Jewish religious leaders that it would be the specific act that finally instigated the arrest of Jesus. One of things that is often missed about this incident is that Jesus seemed to be intentionally acting in the long Jewish prophetic tradition of acting out a parable. This was not primarily an issue of being angry over the fact that the Temple had turned into a commercial operation in many ways. This was a parable that declared that the true Temple had arrived and was exercising his authority over the Jerusalem Temple (as we will see in the next passage, the issue of authority would play a major role). Just as Isaiah had stripped naked to declare judgment over those who had set themselves against God’s people (Isa. 20:1-6); just as Jeremiah had smashed a pot to demonstrate that Israel had set herself against their God (Jer. 19:1-5); and just as Ezekiel had laid on his side for over a year to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem, so Jesus was acting out an object lesson. Jesus came into the Temple as though he had complete authority to it and took the one action that would immediately bring all activity to a halt. He was in charge and wanted that to be extremely clear.
Admittedly, the common interpretation here is that Jesus was upset about those who were making money at the expense of others and had commercialized the Temple. But he never criticizes the sacrificial system and, in context, that doesn’t seem to be the primary target. Luke gives us the reason for Jesus’ action in the quotes that came from Jesus in verse 46. The first quote, “my house will be a house of prayer” comes from Isaiah 56 while “you have made it a den of robbers” comes from Jeremiah 7.
Isaiah 56 is a passage that declares that the Temple was to be a place of justice for all who obeyed the Lord. It would be a house of prayer for all people from all over the world. It should be noted that in the Jewish mind, prayer was a revelatory act where one sought and connected with God’s will, as well as being a place of the constant pursuit of justice and openness to God. Jeremiah 7 was a promise that God’s wrath would be poured out on those who had oppressed others, acted unjustly, and engaged in idolatry. They were “bandits” (a word that is translated “robbers” here but meant something more like “brigand,” “revolutionary,” or “rebel”) that were using God’s house as a front for their own agenda and then justifying their practices. Jesus’ point was to intentionally combine these two ideas. They were turning the Temple of God into a sham and using it for their own purposes.
Luke makes clear how they were doing this with a brilliant piece of word play that seems obscure to us but, I believe, would not have escaped the notice of his first readers. As New Testament readers we should be very careful as we read quotes from the Old Testament. We often don’t even bother turning to the Old Testament to read the original context of the quote but it is always so important to do. The context of the original passage is often key for us understanding the intended meaning of the New Testament passage. In addition to that we need to pay special attention to any changes in the quotation. In Luke 19:38, for instance, we saw that Luke intentionally changed the Old Testament quotation from “blessed is he” from Psalm 118:26 to “blessed is the king”. This was a vital change intended to make a clear point.
Here Luke has done something similar that is nothing short of brilliant. In verse 46 he has quoted from Isaiah 56:7 which says “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.” But in verse 46 he has left off the “all nations.” The question must be “why?”. Why would Luke leave off one of God’s most important promises, that all nations would be blessed through the family of Abraham (Gen. 17:5) and that God’s people would be a light for all people (Isa. 49:6). The answer comes in verse 48 as Luke says that “all the people (using the words “laos” which can also be translated as “nations”) hung on the very words of Jesus.
Luke’s point is that Jesus was sending the clear message that the Temple was being misused to mark out “insiders” from “outsiders” rather than being a light to call the “outsiders” to join God’s people. They were misusing the Temple for their own benefit rather than for it’s proper purpose. All the people were not being fed and the Temple was not being used as a house of prayer for all the nations. But, as Luke has made clear already, Jesus was the true Temple that was coming to replace the old Temple. The old Temple was not meeting it’s purpose but Jesus was. That is why “all the people” were clinging to him. What they were not receiving rightly at the Temple, Jesus was providing. He was the place where all the people could connect truly with God’s word. He had become the true house of prayer where all the people could go for God’s will to be revealed to them and where they could pursue the justice and openness of God. Jesus was the true Temple.
The New Testament writers make clear that God’s family, the body of Christ, is now the Temple of God, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; Eph. 2:21). The question that we must always ask of ourselves is this: “Is our Temple truly a house of prayer for all nations and all people?” Are we intentionally calling all nations to come to the light and find the revelation of God’s justice and mercy? These are questions that should always be on our hearts in everything we do.
Devotional Thought
Do you have such zeal and passion for God and his purposes that you would take such a bold act to defend God’s will? Are you willing and ready to stand up righteously and protest when God’s Temple is not being the house of prayer that it was intended to be?
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