What Have We Done to the House of Prayer?
A Sermon Preached on Sunday, August 28, 2011, by
The Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph. D.,
At St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him. (Luke 19:45-48)
One of our old hymns refers to our Lord as "gentle Jesus, meek and mild." Our Lord was meek and mild, referring to himself as meek and lowly in heart. He describes himself as the good shepherd who takes tender care of his sheep. He is the one who was so filled with compassion for the multitudes that he healed many of those who were sick and possessed of evil spirits. He showed tenderness and love for people such as lepers, adulterers, and even a thief hanging on a cross. But out Lord was also capable of being very stern and even caustic in his speech. He could look at a crowd of scribes and Pharisees and call them hypocrites, white-washed tombs, serpents, and a generation of vipers. Of all the incidents in the life of our Lord, the one that seems to be most out of character for the "gentle Jesus, meek and mild," is the one desribing his driving of the money changers out of the temple. We know the story of how on Palm Sunday he went into the temple and surveyed the scene. Jesus knew what was going in there at that time, and he could have driven out the money changers then. Instead, he goes back to Bethany, and has all night to think about it. Then, the next day, on Monday, he goes into the temple and cleanses it. This was not some moment when Jesus suddenly lost his temper and started overturning tables. This act was definitely a pre-meditated. He looks around, no doubt with fire in his eyes, and begins to cast these people out of the temple. Throughout the life of our Lord, I am sure that he saw many sinful things. He was treated in despicable ways by the scribes and Pharisees, but we never see him reacting like this to any of the evil activities around him. What happened in the temple that infuriated him so? He was angry because of what these people were doing to his house.
According to our Lord, the temple, the house of God, was designed to be the house of prayer. If you look at everything that went on in the temple, there were more activities than simply prayer. We know that there were many sacrifices offered. We know that there was music. We know that in some parts of the temple precincts, teaching took place. But it is interesting that our Lord does not say, "My house is the house of sacrifice." He doesn't say, "My house is the house of music." He doesn't say, "My house is the house of teaching." He says, "My house is the house of prayer." Why does he characterize the temple as a house of prayer above all else? The temple was, first and foremost,t a place where people were to gaze upon the glory of God and worship him. Prayer is our act of devotion whereby we lift the soul to God and seek his face and behold his glory. In Solomon's prayer when he dedicated the temple, he used language that indicated that prayer was to be the central activity connected with this place of worship:
