During the course of this Lenten Season, we are going to trace the events of Jesus’ last week, the days that led to his crucifixion and resurrection. Today, in the last week of Jesus’ life, is Monday.

The season is Passover and thousands upon thousands of pilgrims have come to Jerusalem to remember and celebrate the Exodus, the Children of Israel’s escape from slavery in Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land.  Thousands of people made their way to the temple where they paid the price for a dove or lamb to sacrifice. They then stood in long lines waiting their turn at the altar where the priest would slaughter the animal as an act of sacrifice and offering to God.

Can you imagine the number of animals that were bought and sold?  In order to buy the animal in the temple, secular money had to be exchanged for temple money and, of course, there was a fee to be paid for the exchange.

In my own mind, I can see the temple transformed into a kind of holy Wal Mart with thousands of religious shoppers pushing their way up and down the lines of birds and goats and lambs and calves, all certified acceptable for the holy sacrifice.  I can hear the merchants bidding prospective customers to their tables, “You do not want to settle for a little dove, do you? For only a little more money, you can offer God a lamb or a goat.” “I have only one lamb left and I want to go home. You can have it for a deep discount. It’s already been certified acceptable for sacrifice. It’s a bargain. Buy from me.”  I can hear the animals making all of their animal noises and I can smell the animals making all of their animal smells and I can feel the crowds pushing and pulling and the irritability grows and we find ourselves in the middle of Temple Wal Mart.

It’s Monday before Passover and it is business as usual in the temple and here comes Jesus. Just yesterday, he made his grand entrance into Jerusalem. Like some kind of comic King, he rode a donkey into the city and the crowds had raised palm branches and put their coats on the road before him and they had shouted “Hosanna” declaring Jesus to be the one who saves. And now, here he is in the temple.

Suddenly, he is creating a scene. He is throwing over tables and he is shouting at the merchants. He has made a little whip and is using it to chase the animals and he is quoting scripture, “My house is to be a house of prayer for all people but you have turned it into a bazaar, into a flea market, into a Wal Mart! (That is a free paraphrase.)

Now, I have no doubt that Jesus spoke the truth and the truth had to be spoken. In fulfilling its function, the temple had lost its purpose!  In making sacrifices easy and efficient and in making the animals available at an almost reasonable price, in fulfilling its function, the temple lost its purpose, to be a house of prayer for all people!

It became the financial center of Jerusalem, the source of the city’s economic vitality. Today, we might call it religious tourism, people from long distances coming to worship to offer sacrifice, to see the magnificent temple and in doing so spending money on food and lodging and sacrificial animals and souvenirs to take home.

It was a political center. The temple leaders had been appointed and approved by the Roman government and it was their job to use the agencies of religion to keep peace in Jerusalem. In their hands, religion became an instrument of the government and consequently the religion was distorted.    In fulfilling its function, it lost its purpose, to be a house of prayer for all people.

I would really like to be a little self-righteous and pontificate about the sins of the temple people. Righteous indignation can be good for a preacher’s image. But the truth is that when I point an accusatory finger at them, I am really trying to cover my own mistakes and in trying to divert attention from my mistakes, I find myself trying to avoid the word that God might have for me.

So, let’s take a moment and try to sympathize with the temple people. What in the world could have been going on?

Jesus said, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all people.”  Do you realize just how hard that really is? Of course you do.  All of my life, the church has been fighting about this notion that the house of God is for all people.

In my high school and college days, we fought about the place of African Americans in the church. The largest business meeting that I ever attended was in Tallahassee, Florida where they voted not to allow African Americans to be members. Thank God, that decision has been reversed and is a distant and painful memory.

We fought about the place of women in the church. They could pray as long as they did not pray out loud! They could put money in the plate but they could not pass the offering plate!

We fought about divorced people, especially divorced pastors. We fought about allowing modernists or fundamentalists into our churches.  We have fought about allowing non-Christians to pray in our churches. And currently, the question of sexual identity is tearing us apart.

When Jesus said, “for all people,” we are not sure if he really meant “for all people.” It is not as easy as we first think.

And the part about prayer is nearly as hard.  Think about it, just how much time do we spend praying in church?  How much of our time is given to an intentional effort to give our full attention to the presence of God?

In recent years, we have been told by the people who really know how to grow churches that the way to make the church grow is to put on good programs, put on a really good show with music and entertaining sermons and high tech imagery. We’ve been told that fellowship is the key to everything. We’ve been told that recreation is the key. In my early years, making a political impact was seen to be the key.

But, has anybody ever said that the key is prayer? Well, yes, prayer is always mentioned, at least in passing, but it is seldom the center piece in the program. And the reason is that prayer, genuine prayer is subtle and sometimes hard. 

So, perhaps we need to be a little gentle with the temple people of Jesus’ day simply because we find their mistakes so easy to make ourselves.

Now that we remember how hard it can be and how easy it is to miss the mark, I want us to listen to Jesus say again, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” 

I find myself with a special empathy for those poor guys who were selling the doves and lambs that day. I can imagine one bird seller who had been working at his stand for ten, twenty, or thirty years.  He did it every day because he had done it every day and everybody thought it was a very good thing to do. He thinks that he is doing the Lord’s own work, selling birds for sacrifice in the temple, and suddenly Jesus scolds him for violating the purpose of the temple – my house shall be a house of prayer for all people and you have turned it into a shopping center!

You can imagine his dilemma.  What he always thought to be the right thing to do, Jesus says, all at once, is wrong!  Can you imagine his spiritual confusion?  Of course you can. Many of us have been there.

It happens. We go along, minding our own business, trying to do the right thing, when all at once, some new piece of information or some new place in life or some new experience will reveal something new about an ancient truth and we slap ourselves on the side of the head and say, “I missed it.” I did not mean to miss it. I was doing the best I knew with the best that I had but, I missed it.” God puts something new in front of us and we understand an ancient truth in a new way.

The ancient temple merchants were suddenly asked to understand an old truth in a new way and I suspect that most of them were unable to make the transition.

When Jesus trashed the temple that day, I believe that he was taking apart an old truth that was no longer true. They had lost their purpose, to be a house of prayer for all people. That is our purpose too. Our purpose is to be a people who help one another to connect with God. Our purpose is to pray, to be a place of prayer for all people.

I have a parting request for you. During this Lenten Season, I invite you to read, in its entirety, the Gospel of Mark. It’s short and can be read in a single sitting. During this season, read the gospel and ask God to speak to you through the reading. Make this season a season of prayer.