Why did the Lord permit his temple to be desecrated by Gentiles? Primarily it was permitted as a punishment for the sinful ways of the chosen people. It was also the fulfilment of many prophecies given to the people by way of warning, which they ignored. But how could God permit the heathen to enter His sanctuary and do things that were taboo in the Jewish context. The simple reason is that long before the Gentiles profaned the temple, God’s own people had already done it.
Ezekiel saw in a vision how the elders of Israel conducted themselves in the temple premises. An entire chapter (chapter 8) is dedicated to describe the abominable acts that Israelites committed in the temple. God could not tolerate it anymore. So He declared: ‘Therefore I will act in wrath; my eyes will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them’ (Eze 8:18). God permitted Nebuchadnezzar to complete the final leg of desecrating the temple; its first leg was already executed by God’s own people!
Then came the second temple during King Herod’s reign. It was a splendid structure that took forty six years to complete. It had an outer court called the Court of the Gentiles where non-Jews could come and worship God. It was there in God’s original plan too. ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’ (Isa 56:7).
But this temple, a gift from God to Jews and Gentiles alike, was also desecrated and destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans. How the same fate befell Jerusalem temple a second time?
According to Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, the temple attracted nearly 2.5 million people during the Passover season. They came from different parts of the world to pay the temple tax and more importantly to offer their mandatory sacrifices. There they had to convert their national currencies into a currency valid in the temple. Moneychangers were there to help (or exploit?) them. They had to buy cattle, sheep, and doves needed for the sacrifice and merchants were ready with everything pilgrims wanted. It was brisk business in the temple premises during the festival season. During Caiaphas’ chief priesthood, the outer court (Court of the Gentiles) was given for merchants and moneychangers to carry on their business. By the time Jesus arrived at the temple it had already become a market place.
All canonical gospels narrate how Jesus cleansed the temple. ‘The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!(Jn 2: 13-16). He was indeed angry. ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers” (Mt 21: 12-13). The Lord was repeating the words of Jermiah when he called the place a den of robbers (Jer 7:11).
Perhaps what irritated Jesus more was the sight of Gentiles finding no place to worship in the temple. God wanted all nations to come to the temple to worship him, and King Herod made it a point to construct a sufficiently large outer court to accommodate the non- Jews coming for worship. But now those merchants, with the active connivance of the chief priests, have encroached upon the only place where Gentiles are allowed within the temple premises. They were effectively preventing Gentiles from approaching God. Elsewhere Jesus makes this point more clear. ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them’ (Mt 23: 13-14).
God’s chosen people failed to give the temple the reverence due to it. They filled the outer court that was supposed to accommodate genuine worshippers with cattle, sheep, and doves. They made no distinction between a cattle market and God’s holy temple. So Jesus took a whip in his hand, the same instrument used to strike cattle!
They polluted the sacred place by thinking that the LORD’s table may be despised (Malachi 1:7). Yes, the temple was defiled first by God’s own people. Titus, the Roman General was just an instrument of God to complete the desecration already started by God’s own people. And he executed his mission in a most professional way, ensuring that ‘not one stone was left there upon another’ (Mt 24:2).
If Gentiles defile our holy places, know that we defiled them long ago. If others commit sacrilege in our churches, know that we have been doing it for years. If our places of worship are converted into pubs and recreation theatres, know that we have done it many times before.
Let us acknowledge our sins towards the Church and pray for the grace to give Holy places the reverence they deserve.
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