Lk 19:45-48
45Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, 46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’ ” 47And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, 48but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
A HOUSE OF PRAYER, NOT A DEN OF THIEVES: In the previous episode, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because it did not recognize the time of her visitation (Lk 19:44). The prophet
Malachi had forewarned of the suddenness of the Lord’s coming to his temple, and so asked the people for repentance and reconciliation (Mal 3:1, 24). The people whom Jesus found, however, continued their business of selling and buying inside the temple, confident of God’s protection because they had the temple of the Lord, and the Lord himself in their midst.
Jesus moves from weeping over Jerusalem to demonstrating how unprepared the people of the city are for the moment of God’s visitation. He drives out the vendors and money changers who have turned the temple into a house of business. His action further antagonizes the chief priests and the scribes who, more than ever, seek his death.
Jesus then devotes the time before his passion to teaching in the temple area. People gather around him to listen to him, thus temporarily frustrating the schemes of the religious leaders. Luke underlines the contrast between these leaders who oppose Jesus and the people who hang on to his words.