“My house shall be called a house of prayer”

And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city. –Mark 11:15-19

At first reading, Mark 11:11 seems like an insignificant verse. In it we are told Jesus goes into the temple and takes in all that is going on. This verse helps us understand what takes place the next day. Often we think of Jesus casting out of the moneylenders as a spontaneous act of passion. But when we realize Jesus had reconnoitered the Temple the day before, we see his actions were planned out and deliberate. When Jesus left Bethany that Monday morning, he did so with the intention of cleansing his Father’s house.

Jesus had every reason to be angry. Rather than being used for the worship of God, the Temple was being used for underhanded business dealings, and as a thoroughfare for everyday traffic to and from the city. This commonplace treatment of the Holy of Holies revealed the peoples hearts. Rather than ministering to pilgrims who came from all over the Empire to worship, the Jewish religious leaders were using the sacred to pad their wallets.

When Jesus cast them out, he did so with authority. One would think the authorities could have stopped one man from causing such a commotion, but they lacked the power to do so because it was not in fact their house.

When Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7b, he is proclaiming to the people the proper use of his Father’s house – - prayer. Within in a generation, all of the religious rights that the leaders were exploiting would be gone. However, prayer still remains. Jesus told the crowd that day that his Father’s house was meant for communion with his Father.  When he set out that morning, he did so intending to reestablish that communion, not for himself, but for his people. He succeeded in that task.

Jesus would have us commune with the Father. The encumbrance of that communion brought his ire on the traders in the Temple. May we see how important this communion is, and seek ourselves to remove the sinful acts that keep us from doing so. As much as he would not tolerate the abuse of this blessing then, we can be sure he will not tolerate it now.