When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

–Parallel verses:
‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Psalms‬ ‭69‬:‭8‬-‭9‬
I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

To fully understand this passage, we must understand what Jesus means by “a house of prayer”. I see two ways to go about gaining this understanding: The first is to look up prayer in a dictionary, technically describe it, and diagram what its components are; the second is to review the examples of prayers that honor God in the Bible and extract the heart, motives, and intentions of those who prayed. I will be taking the latter approach, as I believe prayer cannot be understood outside of the relationship it builds.

Example 1: Hannah – After suffering through ridicule and shame for not having any children for her husband, she prayed fervently to God for a son and committed him to the service of the Lord. God was pleased with her prayer and gave her Samuel.

Example 2: Samuel – God called to the boy Samuel and after a few times of being confused, he answered, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Samuel worked under the priest Eli, and Eli let his sons run wild and disobey God. Normally the sons were next in line for the priesthood. But Samuel was true to God and he honored him for it and made him a priest/prophet over Israel. He was blessed by God to anoint King David, the greatest king in the history of Israel, besides Jesus.

Example 3: King David. In one of his most important prayers in the Bible, David repented of his sins of adultery and premeditated murder. He fully confessed in Psalm 51. It stands out as a model of repentance to this day. In one of the most famous sections he says: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
(‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭16‬-‭17‬)

So when Jesus references a house of prayer, these are not mainly wishlist prayers or prayers for comfort. They are mostly prayers of intensity and passion in which people get real with God, repent of their sins, and seek his face — his justice, his love, his grace, and his truth. Hannah prayed for his justice when persecuted. Samuel prayed for his favor while in a tough family dynamic. David sought his forgiveness when he had fallen in sin.

So back to this passage …
When Jesus said, “my house will be a house of prayer”, he meant it was to be full of all of the components of a real and vital prayer life: relationship with God, repentance for sins, justice petitions, forgiveness, prayer for peace to rule, and prayers for truth to reign. Prayers that draw us closer to God and understanding his heart in the matters of this world.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were focused on using the temple to 1) inflate their power and position, 2) turn a relationship with God into a contest of obeying the rules, and 3) make money off of the sacrifices required of the people. They stole from the people the true intent and purpose of meeting at the temple — to meet and know God! And this created a holy anger and a righteous zeal in Jesus’ heart.

Jesus gave his followers, by his death and resurrection, the opportunity to be human temples to God. Why? Because he puts his Holy Spirit in our hearts. So what will your temple be full of today?

Lord, may I be so close to you that when your heart is compassionate towards those in need, I am also compassionate toward them. And may my prayer life be so real that when your heart is angered by manipulation and sin in your church I also am angered and take appropriate action! And may I be a temple that honors you in my thoughts, motives, and actions!