Matthew 21:12-17
12 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. 13 “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.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
As we have seen so far, Palm Sunday is all about the inclusion of all in worship. Jesus came to proclaim peace to all the nations and to welcome even the despised fully into worship. His indignation at the charade Temple worship had become led to him sending a powerful message as to what true worship involves. He proclaims that not only should the Temple be a house of prayer for all, but that it should also not be a den of thieves. In other words, that true worship not only upholds justice (in demanding the fair and equitable treatment of all), but it also opposes injustices that oppress the other. Once again, we need to take the “den of robbers” quote in its original context.
Jeremiah 7:1-11
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message:
” ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9 ” ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
So the people have strayed from true worship because of their sins – which include oppressing the foreigner and not dealing with each other justly (or fairly). They assume the Lord favors them (notice the “we’re number one!” chant), but they miss the point of worship. When Jesus quoted these phrases, in this oral culture the people would recognize the context and place the phrases in these prophecies about worship and treatment of the foreigner. So as Jesus comes upon the temple full of “foreign” Jews who are being taken advantage of he loses it. Israel apparently hadn’t heeded the call of the prophets to reform worship. They thought they could just continue going through the motions and rituals of worship without participating in the worshipful way of life God insists upon. But when the rituals support (or simply ignore) the oppression of the poor, then they are no longer true worship.
In many ways it is easier to participate in the fun parts of worship – the singing, the rituals, the bible studies, the gatherings than the demands to serve and welcome the other. The crowds gathered to sing praises as Jesus entered Jerusalem, but even his closest followers deserted him when things got difficult and dangerous later that week. The crowds liked the pageantry, the miracles, and the healings but when demands were made of their lifestyle and their treatment of others they walked away. How often these days is serving the poor mocked within the church – or written off as “just the social gospel”? We deceive ourselves into believing that showing up, singing songs, and hearing a sequence of words equate with worship. But the Bible tells us that God detests all that if we are not also doing whatever we can to care for the poor and the foreigner. Worship is not about us – it is about God and the other, the ones God instructs us to love. Following Jesus and participating in true worship is hard.
So do we choose just to follow the palm strewn path – full of exuberance and passion, excited and joyful? Or do we also follow Jesus all the way to the Temple – even when it is dangerous, or uncomfortable, unpopular and demands something more than us than singing songs, hearing stories? Are we just as excited about changing our lives, standing up against oppression, and following the commands God has given us as we are shouting “Hosanna”? Worship encompasses it all.