Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“[Jesus] was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of robbers.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, March 12, 2020
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
Jesus’ problem with the money changers isn’t what I always thought growing up. I thought it was the presence of the money changers themselves. But the truth is that those folks were absolutely essential to temple worship. Worship in the temple was about sacrifice, and people came from miles and miles around, so they weren’t able to bring their animals to sacrifice with them. They had to be able to purchase what the law required in order to sacrifice it.
The problem comes in the use of the words “den of robbers.” A den of robbers is where thieves take their ill-gotten gains and hide away to avoid justice. Jesus was enraged about the temple authorities hiding away from the realities of what was going on in Israeli society outside their doors. Corruption within the religious establishment was rampant, and God’s laws about doing justice for the powerless were being twisted or ignored.
How tempted are we to hide away in our church buildings, in communities where we’re comfortable, ignoring the injustice happening all around us? How are we doing at examining the rules of our own religious establishments and being honest about where they exclude others or put up barriers? Jesus calls us to return to the spirit of God’s justice and radical welcome in our communities of faith.
How can I step outside my comfort zone and advocate for justice?
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