Prayer House Not Robbers Den
“My house will be called a house of prayer, [not] a den of robbers”
(Matthew 21:13)
Jesus’ attacks on the temple’s money-changers and animal-sellers, both at the start and stop of his ministry—they’re ever so striking. Not only do Jesus’ actions give us a fairly rare insight into his holy anger over sin, but at first glance his attacks might seem a bit unfair.
Arguably, the money changers needed to do their thing: so that the payment of God-ordained fees not take place with blasphemous & idolatrous foreign currency. Inarguably, the animal-sellers were necessary; the Old Testament itself said provision had to be made for distant travelers to buy needed sacrifices. A person might argue that the powers that be made the costs exorbitant. But that’s not an inarguable point from history.
Instead, Jesus himself described the problem: “My house will be called a house of prayer” for all nations, according to the Prophet Isaiah (56:7), “but you have made it a den of robbers” according to the prophet Jeremiah (7:11). In the only part of the complex a godly Gentile could enter, there was the clanging of coins and the smell of sheep.
That explains your church’s aversion to (even fairly legitimate) commerce of any sort in the sanctuary. It starts to explain our reluctance toward “fundraisers” per se—not at all because of their (always very wholesome) objects, but rather because of the impropriety of getting a deal on giving to God. Why not just open our hearts and our pocketbooks wide open to the Lord’s labor? Why not give so generously that there is no whiff of impropriety? In fact: Why not give so over-abundantly that we hardly need to talk about money at all?
You have that opportunity. Our sanctuary is for regular worship—including the regular worship of bringing an appropriate present to Jesus.