House of Prayer

Indian Christianity is, in some way, ancient. I like that about it and am saddened that Western or modern Christianity is destroying it. For example, when I grew up in India, people gave the church their first fruits—whatever grew for the first time in their gardens, farms, front yards, or barns—Jack fruit, papaya, banana, coconut, rice, baby chicks, rabbits, or calves. After the service, the congregation gathered outside the church, and an elder auctioned for them. The money collected went to help the poor. I couldn’t wait for the service to be over to see what I could purchase with my allowances! The elder repeatedly warned us that the church service and auction were separate; God’s house wasn’t a den of thieves.

He was referring to an incident from Jesus’s life. Jesus and his disciples had entered the temple in Jerusalem. There, the main attraction was the sales instead of prayer. So, the Lord chased away the merchants (Luke 19:45), shouting Scriptures from two prophets (19:46).

The first one was from Isaiah:

“My house will be a house of prayer” (Isa 56:7).

Among Israel, the most despised were the eunuchs because they were mutilated and could never serve in the temple. But Isaiah prophesied of a time in God’s rule when eunuchs could enter the temple freely, pray, and worship because it was a house of prayer. (In Acts, this was the passage the eunuch from Ethiopia was reading when Philip appeared to him, shared the gospel, and the eunuch took baptism.) Instead of making the temple a place of prayer for even the most undeserving (a eunuch), the merchants had turned it into a circus—a supermarket. That bothered Jesus. He wanted it to be a place of prayer and worship for anyone, even a eunuch. That was why he chased away those who made it into a mall, a merchant’s paradise.

The second quote was from Jeremiah:

“You have made it a hideout of thieves” (Jer 7:11).

During Jeremiah’s time, the people weren’t dealing justly with one another (Jer 7:4–5). They weren’t caring for the refugees, orphans, and widows. Instead, they were killing innocent people (7:6). God was grieved (7:7–8). Their actions were evil—stealing, murdering, committing adultery, perjuring, and idolatry (7:9). At the same time, they pretended to be holy by standing in the temple and thinking they were safe because they were in the temple (7:10). By their evil actions, they were turning God’s house into a hideout for thieves (7:11). Similarly, people in Jesus’s time were giving lip service to God but their hearts were evil. They were turning God’s temple into a hideout for thieves—those who rob others of their wealth, life, and dignity.

The Lord didn’t want God’s temple to be like that. So, he chased the merchants away. He wanted the temple to be a house of prayer.

What an alarming warning! What are our churches and lives like? If Jesus were to examine it, would he find that we uphold justice and rescue refugees, orphans, and widows, or would he see that we steal, murder, commit adultery, perjure, and practice idolatry? May our churches be a house of prayer and a refuge for those oppressed by society!