Jesus Cleanses the Temple

During Holy Week, I have decided to write about a particular story or teaching of Jesus from the final week of his life. As a church, we are following Luke's account of Holy Week for our worship services for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, and I will be using Luke's account of the rest of Jesus' last week as well.

The story of Jesus cleansing the temple is probably familiar to most of my readers. In some of the gospels, it is much longer, describing Jesus turning over tables and making a whip to chase out people. Luke's gospel, however, provides a much shorter, simpler, and more direct version. Luke 19:45-46 reads as follows:

Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Jesus here references two passages from Old Testament prophets: Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Without these references and the accounts from the other gospels, this passage would be quite confusing. Why is Jesus upset? What drives him to such action? But we know that people had perverted the practice of worship through sacrifice for the benefit of themselves and their own wealth, and Jesus couldn't stand by and let it continue.

When is the last time you saw or heard of something that so offended your sense of justice (in the biblical meaning, not the political one) that you couldn't help but act? If I'm honest with myself, this really hasn't happened in quite some time, and I'm ashamed to admit it because there is so much injustice, oppression, and evil in the world. Instead of noticing it, though, I too often turn a blind eye and pretend like it is not there. And so this day I offer a simple but dangerous prayer: "Lord, give me eyes to see and ears to hear."