A House of Prayer

Scripture: Luke 19:45–48 

“My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” (v.46)

As Jesus approaches the final days before the cross, He enters the Temple—not to teach at first, but to cleanse. What He finds grieves Him: the sacred space meant for worship has become a marketplace. The Temple, the very heart of Israel’s spiritual life, has lost its purpose. Greed and self-interest have taken the place of prayer and reverence.

Jesus overturns the tables, drives out the sellers, and reclaims God’s house. His righteous anger is not about violence—it’s about restoration. The Temple was meant to be a holy meeting place between God and His people. But now, it reflects the corruption of human hearts.

Eugene Peterson wrote, “Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.” Jesus calls us back to that kind of worship—real, attentive, prayerful.

This moment reminds us that Lent is a season of cleansing. What tables need to be overturned in our hearts? What distractions, idols, or misplaced priorities must be driven out to make room for prayer?

Even as Jesus cleansed the Temple, He stayed to teach daily—offering truth to the hungry and hope to the listening. Though the leaders plotted against Him, they could not silence Him, because the people “hung on every word He said” (v.48).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, come into the temple of my heart and cleanse it. Remove whatever distracts or dishonors You. Let this Lenten season be a time of repentance and renewal, where my life becomes once again a house of prayer. Amen.