Joyful in His House
Jesus spent Monday and Tuesday of Passion Week in the temple by day and staying in Bethany by night. The temple was designated as the place where the presence and glory of Yahweh would rest, and the place where priests ministered night and day so that the fire on the altar would never go out (Lev 6:12). But this temple had become something altogether different. Built by Herod the Great, it had become a symbol of his greatness and the deal he had struck with the Jewish leadership to keep the peace. It was a temple that had become political, not worshipful. Though the structure stood, the heart was lost, the glory was gone. The ark had vanished hundreds of years earlier.
Jesus approached the temple early in Passion Week and found the hustle and bustle you would find today in a shopping mall or county fair. It was, after all, the week of a high holiday, Passover. The buying and selling took place in the court of the Gentiles, the section of the temple complex designed for foreigners to congregate and for the nations to come up to seek the God of Israel. It was overrun with opportunists trying to turn a profit on worship. The Jewish leaders had let this happen. Their greed and false sense of security in the temple had crowded the desire of God for the nations to draw near His Presence. The robbery wasn’t only economical but spiritual. The rows of products and price-gouging left no room for the Gentiles, the poor, and the outcasts to come to God. When Jesus entered the court of Gentiles, where the moneychangers were price-gouging those that came to bring their offering, He took action. He cleansed the temple.
Jesus dealt with the outer courts violently because it was violently opposing all that He came to accomplish. He dealt violently with the outer courts on Monday and violently with the inner courts on Friday, tearing the veil to the Holy of Holies from top to bottom (Matt 27:51). In turning over the tables and rending the veil in the temple, Jesus was overturning one priesthood and program of worship and inaugurating a new priesthood that would spread across the whole earth until incense would arise in every place (Mal 1:11) and every nation would see and sing of His worth.
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 1:11
The real injustice was how out of sync Israel’s worship was with the great end-time vision Isaiah saw and prophesied. Isaiah saw a global worship movement composed of foreigners (non-Jews) who had joined themselves to the Lord (1 Cor 6:17), taken up the priestly ministry (1 Pt 2:5), and sung joyful songs in the House of Prayer.
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant-- these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." - Isaiah 56:6-7
Isaiah must have been reeling from the impossibilities of this prophecy. Foreigners were going to be joined to the Lord. Gentiles were going to approach the altar as priests and minister to Him. They would come to know and love the name of God. They would rest from their dead works and striving by entering Sabbath rest. God would bring them up to His holy mountain. They would offer acceptable sacrifices on His altar. In the end, He would make all the nations joyful in His House of Prayer. What an impossible prophecy! Yet it was this prophetic promise that was in the heart of Jesus as He was flipping over tables and driving out the money changers.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." - Matthew 21:12-13
Can you hear the prophetic unction in Jesus’ words? “My house…shall…be called a house of prayer.” Can you see the zeal in Jesus concerning this prophetic word? Can you see His commitment to making us joyful in His house of prayer?
Jesus was in Jerusalem that Holy Week to open the way for the very nations who were being disinherited to be brought before the throne of God with confidence by the free gift of grace through a new and living way: His very body. His eyes were set on the cross, where, in just a few short days, He would purchase men from every tribe, people, nation, and language and make them a kingdom of priests (Rev 5:9-10). What He encountered walking onto the temple grounds was not just unfortunate; it was in direct opposition to why He came up to Jerusalem in the first place.
The outcome of all that would take place over Holy Week would be the joy of all nations as they come into Jesus’ house; the house of prayer. Prayer is not a monologue. Prayer is not a grocery list. Prayer is a living, breathing conversation with a living, breathing God. Prayer has to do with seeing and hearing just as much as it has to do with speaking. Church is not just the place where we meet with other believers; it is the place where people meet with the Living God.
Our identity as a royal priesthood or a kingdom of priests has as much to do with the way we live together and how we express church as much as it has to do with our access to God. Jesus “made us a kingdom of priests” (Rev 1:6) through the finished work of the cross. The church is now the new “tribe” camped (Numbers 1:52-53) around the Presence of the Living God; it is the dwelling place of God (Eph 2:22) and it is a new priesthood ministering to Him. God is committed to making us joyful in His presence as we contend for heaven to invade earth in our neighborhoods and in the nations.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. - Psalm 16:11
That supernatural, non-circumstantial, unspeakable joy will call the lost, win our children, and sustain every assignment that will be given. Jesus turned over tables and tore His own flesh, paying the most unimaginable price to ensure this joy for us. With grateful adoration, let us return, glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, - 1 Peter 1:8
In the same manner, let us turn over every table in our own hearts. Let us throw out our religious performance in all of its pomp and pretense. Let us come into His house to meet with the Living God. Let us draw near to Him. He has cleansed the temple, He has torn the veil, and He has made a way. Let us receive with gladness what He paid such a high price for us to enjoy. Let us remove every obstacle in our churches standing in the way of His people experiencing the freedom of encounter with Yahweh and making us anything else but joyful in His presence.