Author: David Ackerman (Page 3 of 2552)

Luke 19:45-48 ⁴⁵And when he entered the temple, he began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶saying to them, “It is written, ‘And my house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” ⁴⁷And he was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leaders of the people were seeking to destroy him, ⁴⁸but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging listening to him. 

The scene changes and focuses on Jesus’ activities in the temple. Luke’s version of the cleansing of the temple is short compared to other accounts. It appears that the first place Jesus went was to the temple, but what he found there was not good. People were buying, selling, and exchanging money. These were necessary activities in order for visitors to buy sacrifices and exchange foreign money, but the problem was that they were doing these activities in the temple. The temple structure was quite large, with different courts. The buying and selling likely took place in the court of the Gentiles located in the outer areas.

Jesus saw what he was doing as a fulfillment of prophecy. He was acting as the authoritative Messiah by “casting out” (ekballein) the evil from the place that was considered holy. Jesus quotes a line from Isaiah 56:7. The emphasis in the quote is on the temple being a place of worship and prayer. The original passage in Isaiah includes the phrase “for all people,” which is mentioned in Mark 11:17. Luke’s details are brief and to the point.

The Jews had gotten so caught up in the doing of religion that they neglected the most important elements of faith. They were basically “going to church” and not being the people of God. If the temple was the place God intended it to be, people from all nations would gather there for prayer and a special place to meet with God. But what had happened is that the temple had become a place to do the business of religion, which in this case meant exchanging foreign money and buying the right sacrifices to meet a law code. People today have created religious laws and rituals around worship and could easily become blind to heart-felt worship and prayer. We do not want Jesus to come along and cast us out.

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