Cedar Park Church
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A Den of Robbers or a House of Prayer?

This is a study on the question of “money-changers” in the temple. Because some have not understood the historical context, they have mistakenly assumed that this somehow forbade any kind of selling in church. Since some aspects of the Cathedral Church model depend on fee-for-service ministries, Pastor Joe felt it was important to address this question.

A Den of Robbers or a House of Prayer?

Did Jesus forbid selling in the Church foyer?

When Jesus drove the moneychangers and animal sellers out of the temple on Palm Sunday long ago, was he sending a message to Christian churches thereafter that they should not sell things in the foyer of the church? Should we take from the incident a subtle emphasis that selling things in a church setting is displeasing to God? If Jesus came to our churches today, would he immediately shut down the cassette tape table in the foyer? Would he close down Christian Schools that charged tuition? What is the lesson that we should draw from the life of Jesus?

In three of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and John, we have the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. It is a dramatic and readily illustrated account of Jesus, in apparent anger, driving out the sellers of animals and money changers from the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple. John gives us the most detailed account in John 2:13-19.

13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." (NIV)

Mark, the oldest Gospel, gives us the sense of what upset Jesus. The people exchanging money and selling animals were ripping off the people. Mark wrote,

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"[24] (NIV)

The abuse of the Temple congregation came in two forms. Both forms involved overcharging. The first rip-off had to do with changing money. To understand how this worked you need a little background on how their money was different from ours.

In America, our currency has an exact value that is printed right on the money. Furthermore, we do not allow foreign money to be used. Sometimes even a Canadian nickel is given back to us because it is not as valuable as our nickel. In ancient times, the value was in the metal itself, not in the coin. At any given moment, money would be in circulation that was minted by countries, cities, kingdoms, or empires. Coins two or three hundred years old were not uncommon. Those very old coins circulated alongside freshly minted coins. No one cared because they were really exchanging gold, or silver, or copper of a basic weight.

A typical coin of that era would have the image of a person on one side and the image of a god on the other. The silver denarius of Severus Alexander, shown here, is a good example. It has his image on one side and the Roman god, Mars, on the other. When Jesus said “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” he did so holding up a coin similar to the one shown here. In a way, he was saying that Caesar should receive his due, but he was actually speaking against the Roman gods on the coins. People should honor the living God, not the gods of stone or metal.

In addition to the Roman and other pagan coins, there were also coins that had been issued by the various Jewish rulers of the previous century. The Jews were particularly proud of the Hasmonean leaders and the coins they minted. The coin shown here was minted by Herod the Great. The difference between the Jewish coins and the Roman coins was that the Jewish coins generally did not have any images of people or gods on them. They used symbols such as a star, a barley stalk, or an anchor. Such symbols were not objectionable to the Jewish leaders because they did not violate the command against graven images.

There are not problems yet. The issue came with respect to the use of pagan coins in the holy temple. Could a pagan coin, with an image of Caesar or a pagan god, be used to pay the half-shekel temple tax? If the Roman coin was not accepted, it needed to be changed into Hasmonean money, hence the money changers. Unfortunately, they saw themselves as providing an important service for which a substantial fee should be charged. Jesus saw it differently. He saw it as robbing the people. For Jesus, the image on the coin was not nearly as offensive as cheating the people of God with high prices as they came to pay their temple tax. Jesus stood up for the tax-payers and threw out the robbers.

The issue of selling of animals is quite similar. Again, a little background would be helpful. There were many occasions when Jews would be called upon to offer an animal sacrifice at the temple. For example, when Jesus was born, his parents had to offer a sacrifice in the temple. If they had more money, they would have purchased a lamb to offer for their son. Because they were poor, the law allowed them to offer two pigeons instead.[25] It would have been difficult for them to get one of their own animals since they were a long ways from home. They would almost certainly have purchased the pigeons in or around the temple for this purpose. Possibly birds could be transported from home for this purpose, but bringing a lamb one hundred miles or more was simply not practical.

If thousands of animals are being sacrificed every day, it would take quite an operation to supply such a need. In fact, the whole region around Jerusalem, all the way to Bethlehem some seven miles away, was devoted to raising the thousands of sheep necessary. The size and scale of this commercial operation is hinted at by Ezekiel when he prophesied,

"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep, as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Alfred Edersheim tells us a little about the extent of this operation.

For, close by Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, was a tower, known as Migdal Eder, the 'watch-tower of the flock.' For here was the station where shepherds watched their flocks destined for sacrifices in the Temple. So well known was this, that if animals were found as far from Jerusalem as Migdal Eder and within that circuit on every side, the males were offered as burnt-offerings, the females as peace offerings. R. Jehudah adds: 'If suited for Paschal sacrifices, then they are Paschal sacrifices, provided it be not more than thirty days before the feast' (Shekal. vii 4; compare also Jer. Kid. ii. 9).

Jesus did not have a problem with animals being sold. He was not some sort of crazy anti-business socialist who opposed buying and selling. The sale of sheep and other animals for sacrifice was perfectly acceptable. God used it as an illustration of blessing. With hundreds and even thousands of sheep passing through the temple every day, he did not have a problem with animals in the temple. What he had a problem with were these merchants ripping off the incoming pilgrims. The pilgrims needed animals for their sacrifices. There was a whole industry set up to meet that need. What Jesus objected to was the overcharging of the people. These sellers had a monopoly on kosher animals suitable and approved for immediate sacrifice. They were charging more than a premium for their services. They were using their monopoly for price gouging. Their practices were so egregious that Jesus called the operation a “den of robbers.”

Careful people are sometimes too careful. For example, when we sold our old church building to the Church of Christ, they immediately dismantled the kitchen. In their church they do not allow any eating of food because of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:20-22.

When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! (NIV)

Even though Paul was talking about eating in church, the very thing the Church of Christ were forbidding, they missed the point entirely. There was nothing wrong with eating in church. Paul just didn’t want them drinking to excess and stuffing themselves while others starved. In the same way, the objection of Jesus was not the mere act of changing money or of selling animals. He objected to cheating the people.

When people say that materials should not be sold in the foyer or when they object to other aspects of selling, they always use the story of Jesus driving out the money changers. It will help us all to remember that the comparison of Jesus was not between prayer and selling. It was being praying and being a den of robbers. If we are not robbing and cheating people, then the words really don’t apply to selling tapes in the foyer.

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