From: Luke 19:45-48
Jesus in the Temple
[45] And He (Jesus) entered the temple and began to drive out those who
sold, [46] saying to them, "It is written, `My house shall be a house
of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers."
[47] And He was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and
the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy Him;
[48] but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people
hung upon His words.
Commentary:
45-48. Jesus' indignation shows His zeal for the glory of His Father,
to be recognized at this time in the temple itself. He inveighs
against the traders for engaging in business which has nothing to do
with divine worship (cf. Matthew 21:12; Mark 11-15). Even the priests
allowed some of these abuses to go on--perhaps because they benefited
from them in the form of taxes. The traders did perform services
necessary for divine worship but this was vitiated by their excessive
desire for gain, turning the temple into a marketplace.
"My house shall be a house of prayer": Jesus uses these words from
Isaiah (56:7; cf. Jeremiah 7:11) to underline the purpose of the
temple. Jesus' behavior shows the respect the Temple of Jerusalem
deserved; how much more reverence should be shown our churches, where
Jesus Himself is really present in the Blessed Sacrament. (cf. notes on
Matthew 21:12-13; and Mark 11:15-18).
[The notes on Matthew 21:12-13 states:
12-13. Although God is present everywhere and cannot be confined within
the walls of temples built by man (Acts 17:24-25), God instructed Moses
to build a tabernacle where He would dwell among the Israelites (Exodus
25:40). Once the Jewish people were established in Palestine, King
Solomon, also in obedience to a divine instruction, built the temple of
Jerusalem (1 Kings 6-8), where people went to render public worship to
God (Deuteronomy 12).
Exodus (23:15) commanded the Israelites not to enter the temple
empty-handed, but to bring some victim to be sacrificed. To make this
easier for people who had to travel a certain distance, a veritable
market developed in the temple courtyards with animals being bought and
sold for sacrificial purposes. Originally this may have made sense,
but seemingly as time went on commercial gain became the dominant
purpose of this buying and selling of victims; probably the priests
themselves and temple servants benefited from this trade or even
operated it. The net result was that the temple looked more like a
livestock mart than a place for meeting God.
Moved by zeal for His Father's house (John 2:17), Jesus cannot tolerate
this deplorable abuse and in holy anger He ejects everyone--to show
people the respect and reverence due to the temple as a holy place. We
should show much greater respect in the Christian temple--the Christian
churches--where the eucharistic sacrifice is celebrated and where Jesus
Christ, God and Man, is really and truly present, reserved in the
tabernacle. For a Christian, proper dress, liturgical gestures and
postures, genuflections and reverence to the tabernacle, etc. are
expressions of the respect due to the Lord in His temple.
[The notes on Mark 11:15-18 states:
15-18. Our Lord does not abide lack of faith or piety in things to do
with the worship of God. If He acts so vigorously to defend the temple
of the Old Law, it indicates how we should truly conduct ourselves in
the Christian temple, where He is really and truly present in the
Blessed Eucharist. "Piety has its own good manners. Learn them. It's
a shame to see those `pious' people who don't know how to attend
Mass--even though they go daily,--nor how to bless themselves (they
throw their hands about in the weirdest fashion), nor how to bend the
knee before the Tabernacle (their ridiculous genuflections seem a
mockery), nor how to bow their heads reverently before a picture of our
Lady" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 541).]
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.