Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer;’ but you are making it a den of robbers.”

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?”  He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.  

Matthew 21:12-17

When we gather in prayer, amazing things happen.  The Holy Spirit reveals Himself and we gain fresh connection with Him, and we build relationships with one another that are unlike any other.  Jesus prays that we might be one with Him, one with God the Father, and one with one another (see John 17), and gathering in prayer is a way to accomplish this. This is why, while cleansing the temple, Jesus quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah, reminding everyone that His house shall be a house of prayer.

As with everything regarding Jesus, seemingly simple statements present amazing depth and density.  What is He cleansing the temple from?  What is His vision for the place?  By quoting the prophets, what else is He saying?  What does this have to do with us today?  Let’s begin by considering God’s statements through Isaiah and Jeremiah, because Jesus quoted them with a specific purpose in mind.  

Through Jeremiah, God urges His people to turn to Him and to act in a manner befitting of association with Him.  He sees them behaving inappropriately and then gathering in the temple as if everything is okay, as if He will bless them simply because they show up occasionally and claim to be His people.  Here are God’s words:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.  Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.  Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!” – only to go on doing all these abominations?  Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord.  Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.  And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh.  And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.  Jeremiah 7:3-15

God says His people are behaving horrifically, doing abominable things.  They behave so poorly, God’s holy house has become known as a den of robbers.  God called to them and urged them to turn back to Him, but they refused and at the same time, they continued thinking they were safe because of their ancestry and because they went to church when they should.  By ancestry and religion, they were God’s people, yet God says, “I will cast you out of my sight…” (Jeremiah 7:15).

They believe their lineage and religious activity provide cover no matter what else they might do with their lives.  They do all sorts of things that grieve God, and they do awful acts while holding themselves out to the community as God’s people, and after behaving that way they go to God’s house to worship Him, which causes everyone in the community to see His house as a den of thieves, the place where bad people congregate.  By their actions, they not only defame themselves, they drag God’s holy name through the dirt, yet they fail to see it because they are blinded by deceptive words.  They think they are safe, but God says He desires and expects much more from His people.

They think they know God, but God will cast them out of His sight.  We should each ask ourselves; how do I grieve God?  What do I routinely do that is contrary to God’s will?  What has the Holy Spirit convicted me to change, but I have refused?  

The passage from Jeremiah is strikingly similar to Jesus’ terrifying statement, 

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’  Matthew 7:21-23

God also speaks through Isaiah, urging His people to look past their ancestry and consider whether their relationship with Him and their actions indicate that they are truly God’s people.  He says He will bless foreigners who behave as if they are His people, as follows:  

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
    and hold fast my covenant – 
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.  Isaiah 56:6-8

God gathers everyone who join themselves with Him, who love Him, who serve Him and live according to His teaching and commands.  He even gathers outcasts who are excluded from the temple if they live according to His directives, in the manner He calls His people to live.  God says His house “shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). It shall be a house of prayer for all people, and it shall be called that.  He desires that His house be known by everyone as a house of prayer, the sort of place the community sees as prayerful and the sort of place where Godly people gather.  And God says it shall be so.

Through Isaiah and Jeremiah, God speaks to His people calling them to return to Him.  He calls them to truly be His people, to live in relationship with Him, to live lives worthy of association with His holy name, and He reminds them that living in relationship with Him means more than mere ancestry and more than mere church attendance.  In fact, if a person attends church while continuously living in rebellion to Him, pursuing a lifestyle of separation from Him, mere church attendance will be meaningless, and God will cast those people out of His sight.  Mere attendance does not save, but God welcomes all who seek Him and live according to His word.

The gospel of Christ Jesus clarifies this.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).  God loves the world and everyone who believes gains eternal life.  No one is restricted by ancestry, economic status, education, or anything else except belief, and true belief reveals itself through transformed lives.

Out of the full body of Scripture at that time, Jesus chose one statement from Isaiah and one statement from Jeremiah and combined the two into a powerfully dense sentence.  Jesus is the Word.  He inspired the writing of Scripture.  He knows Scripture.  With that in mind, what is He saying?

Shortly after riding a colt into Jerusalem before adoring crowds shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Matthew 21:9), Jesus enters the temple and cleanses it.  He drives out all who use the temple as a marketplace, overturns currency exchange tables and destroys places where doves are sold.  While doing this, He combines statements from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:13).  

The statement provides a shocking contrast – house of prayer versus den of robbers.  God intends His house to be a house of prayer and to be known as a house of prayer, so that when people think about the place, they think of prayer, but some turn it into a place where thieves find refuge.  As I picture a den of robbers or a cave of thieves, I picture a place where a band of bandits hide out after a heist, knowing authorities will be searching for the perpetrators of the crime, seeking to avoid capture.  Or perhaps it is the place where known thieves congregate, not while on the run, but just the place where like-minded individuals gather, and the community knows the place as such.  

But the thievery in Jesus’ accusation was far more insidious than that – He accused the leaders of stealing through a legal system wrongfully enacted in God’s holy name.  He accused those in charge of the temple of being thieves seeking refuge under the cloak of God’s holy name, using the cover their authority of position provided, using rules they enacted in God’s holy name, using it all to steal from and to block people who genuinely sought God from entering His temple.

Glancing back to Isaiah and Jeremiah we see that Jesus calls us to much more than prayer.  He calls us to be transformed through Him and to live our lives as transformed people in relationship with Him, living in communion with others, following Him, serving Him, recognizing Him as Lord over our lives.  This involves prayer, studying and knowing His holy word, and worship, each individually and in groups.

When we gather in prayer, amazing things happen.  The Holy Spirit reveals Himself and we gain fresh connection with Him, and we build relationships with one another that are unlike any other.  Jesus prays that we might be one with Him, one with God the Father, and one with one another (see John 17).  Gathering in prayer is a way to accomplish this, which is why, while cleansing the temple, Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”  My house shall be called a house of prayer, meaning people in the community know that place is where praying people gather.  He says, it shall bethat way.  And that fact shall be known. 

Is your church, the physical place where you go to worship, is that place a house of prayer?  Does it have that reputation in the community?  If not, what needs to change to make it so?  Perhaps what it needs is for you to go there regularly to pray, for you to insist on times for it to be open for prayer, for you to take your friends with you to pray together, for you to transform the building into a house of prayer, for you to create the setting for God to reveal His glory to others through group prayer.  

Jesus says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”  May it be so.  Amen.