A Fine Day at the Temple

Hello everyone.

Today, I will finish up Luke 19 with Luke's brief account of Jesus casting out the merchants in the temple.  Here is my translation: 

45 Then he went into the temple and began to throw out those who were selling things. 46 He told them, “It is written, 
     ‘My house is to be a house of prayer,
        But you have made it into a den of thieves.’”
47 Every day he taught in the temple. Meanwhile, the rulers, scribes and leaders of the people were looking for a way to kill him.  48 However, they could not find a way to do it, since the people listened to him intently.

Luke gives us an account of the cleansing of the temple that is only two verses long.  He does not mention the overturning of tables that we read about in Matthew and Mark.  So, shortly after his triumphal entry in the city, Jesus goes into the temple and begins to throw out the moneychangers and overturning tables. Mark records that Jesus visited the temple and looked around and left, then comes back the next day, after cursing the fig tree, and then begins to throw out the moneychangers.  This doesn’t negate Luke’s narrative, as the next day is still shortly after triumphal entry.  

Robert Stein states that Jesus cleanses the temple as a messianic act, at least in the sense that he was acting as the Messiah.  However, it was not what was being expected of the Messiah, the general population that was expecting a Messiah would have thought he do something against the Romans, not the Jewish religious leadership. 

Luke uses the word ἑκβαλλειν (ekballein) which means "to throw out, or cast out."  This is the same word used when Jesus casts out demons.  

As Jesus is throwing out those who are selling stuff in the temple, he quotes two OT scriptures.  

First, Isaiah 56:7, which says “for my house will be a house of prayer for all nations.” (Mark includes the words ‘for all nations.’)  Matthew and Luke do not.  The significance of the words ‘of all nations’ is that this temple  was supposed to be a light for everyone to see God, not just the Jewish people.  In this regard the Jews had failed.  They had become arrogant and insular.  

Then he quotes Jeremiah 7:11 which says, ‘Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching.’  So the temple which was supposed to be a house of prayer for all people, had become a place where many were unwelcome and those who occupied it turned a profit to fleece others in the name of religion.  

After Jesus rids the temple of that defilement, he continues to do what he had always done, teach people.  He spends every day in temple teaching.  Meanwhile, his detractors gather and conspire, looking for a way to kill him.  It is amazing to me that such supposedly righteous men could gather and justify a plot to murder someone. Nevertheless that is what the religious leadership of Jerusalem does. 

Meanwhile, Jesus holds the rapt attention of the people, so those who sought to kill him were constantly being frustrated.  Luke uses the word ἐξεκρέματο (exekremato) to describe how intently the people were paying attention to Jesus. The word means to ‘hang on’  In English we would say, ‘they were hanging on his every word.’  With the people paying such close attention to Jesus, the leaders knew that they could not arrest Jesus publicly.

So, Jesus has a great day at the temple, honoring God and helping the people.  First, he reminds all of the promise of the temple, a house of prayer for all nations, a promise that it had failed to live up to.  Then, he threw out those who would cheat and rob others in their financial dealings. After that, it became business-as-usual, teaching the people about God.