Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Matthew 21:12-13 – “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.'”

In Matthew 21, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. This was the second time Jesus cleansed the Temple; the first was at the beginning of His ministry on Earth (John 2:13-17), and this one was near its end. The first time, He called it “My Father’s house,” as He cleansed it in His capacity as the Son of God (John 2:15-16): “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!'”

The Temple in Jesus’ time was the second one, rebuilt after its destruction. It was a very large area. The Temple was a place for all nations to come and offer sacrifices, pray, and worship God. It was the center of Jewish faith and an extremely holy place. So how did the business of selling sacrificial animals and exchanging money end up inside the Temple?

Matthew 21:12-13 describes Jesus’ second cleansing of the Temple. At that time, the Temple priests allowed merchants to sell the necessary animals and offerings—such as cattle, sheep, and doves—in the Court of the Gentiles. Because the Temple did not accept Greek or Roman currency, Jews had to use specific Tyrian shekels to pay the temple tax or give offerings. Therefore, money changers were present to provide this service. This all took place in the Court of the Gentiles, the outermost court of the Temple, which was the only area where non-Jews could pray and draw near to God. When Jesus arrived at the Temple, He saw not the solemn worship that should have been there, but a marketplace filled with merchants and money changers. The priests and merchants had turned the Temple into a “den of robbers,” and the opportunity for Gentiles to worship God was being stolen from them. Jesus was grieved and filled with urgency, as if with a fire. He overturned the tables and drove both the people and the animals out of the Temple. He then used the words of Scripture to sternly rebuke their behavior.