Judeans from all around the world came to the Jerusalem Temple to make their sacrifices, be forgiven, and grow closer to God, so why would Jesus oppose it?
Originally, the Israelites (or Judeans) didn’t have a Temple. Instead, they had the Tabernacle, a tent that they could set up or tear down as they wandered through the Sinai desert.
It was only after they conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem that God permitted Solomon to build a permanent structure.
The Temple, like the Tabernacle before it, represented God’s presence among his people.
This was why it was important that it was a tent in the beginning. God moved with his people.
But, by the time of Jesus, the whole system became corrupt. The leaders were only interested in their own status and taxing the people. And many Judeans didn’t believe that God’s presence resided in the Temple any longer.
Jesus takes on this institution, head-on.
He changes the game.
Now, Jesus is the Temple, “God with us.”
St. John says that Christ came and “Tabernacled among us.”
And, with his crucifixion and resurrection, the Holy Spirit makes the gathered Eucharistic community the Body of Christ.
Every time we gather as a community and celebrate the Eucharist, God is present. He’s there with us.
Our job is to be the presence of God to those around us.
It’s a test.
Will we embody the Spirit or will we also turn the church into a den of robbers?
The Reading
And entering the Temple he began expelling those who were selling there, Saying to them, “It has been written, ‘And my house shall be a house of prayer’; but you, you have made it a robbers’ den.” And he was teaching each day in the Temple; and the chief priests and the scribes, as well as the preeminent men of the people, sought to destroy him. And they found nothing they could do; for all the people hung upon him, listening. (Luke 19:45-48)
Please keep us safe.