“a house of prayer”
“My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.” – Matthew 21:13
When Jesus entered the temple and overturned the tables, it wasn’t chaos for chaos’ sake. This was purposeful rage. It was clarity. He saw what worship had become — crowded, noisy, transactional. The place meant to welcome the world had become a market — where the privileged moved with ease, as though they owned it, while the poor paid in ill-afforded coin just to rent a place at the edges.
His protest was not just against exploitation — it was for something better.
He cleared space so the blind and the lame could come in. So prayer could rise to the heavens without cost. So the outsiders had a place to stand.
Sometimes, our own inner temple gets just as cluttered. Full of noise. Full of demands. Full of things we didn’t even mean to carry.
Art Journaling Exercise: Clearing space
What needs to be cleared out to make room for prayer?
On an empty sheet of paper, lightly sketch a chaotic, cluttered space — tables, jars, money, baskets, scribbled words of injustice or clutter.
Use a white pencil, rubber, or eraser to "clear" a space in the centre. Inside that space, draw one simple symbol of peace (a dove, a bowl, an open hand).
Label that space “room for God”
Then reflect:
What clutter do you have in your life that is stopping you hearing God?
How can you make more room for prayer each day?
What would you expect to see, hear, feel in a house of prayer?
What tables in my life might Jesus overturn?
Study Questions:
What does Jesus’ anger teach us about sacred spaces and justice?
Who is left out when worship is controlled by money or power?
Jesus made space for the blind and lame to come into the temple after the protest. Protest is not only about disruption — it’s about creating space for healing. What do you need to clear in yourself or your community to let restoration in?
Journal Notes:
Jesus ’actions are not a random outburst but a prophetic protest. He’s quoting Jeremiah – a judgment against corrupt worship. He challenges how religion can be twisted to benefit the powerful. Notice who comes in after the cleansing: the excluded. Jesus clears space for healing and restoration.
At this time, pilgrims came to the temple in Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire for major festivals like Passover. They needed to pay the temple tax, but the temple wouldn’t accept coins that had images of emperors or pagan gods on them — these were considered unclean. So, money-changers had set up stalls in the outer courts to exchange Roman coins for Tyrian shekels, which were the only coins accepted in the temple. This service became exploitative. Fees were disproportionately high, people had no choice but to use these money-changers, and the system had become more about profit than worship.
The Law of Moses allowed doves or pigeons as sacrificial offerings, especially for the poor who couldn’t afford a lamb (Leviticus 5:7, 12:8). So the dove sellers were providing a service for pilgrims who wanted to make the required sacrifice.
But again — this had become a profit-driven system, often taking place within the Court of the Gentiles (the only space non-Jews could worship). Some scholars believe these commercial activities were actually pushing out the marginalised, both financially and physically.
Jesus was confronting exploitation in a sacred space and barriers to access for the poor and outsiders. It was a radical act of protest rooted in love and justice.
