The House of God and Prayer

Matthew 21:12-22

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"

14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant 16 and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?"

And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read,
'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise'?"

17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

The Fig Tree Withered

18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.

20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"

21 So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

The house of God and prayer were next on the words and demonstrations of the authority and power of Jesus to point God’s people to honoring Him in worship and with faith in prayer.  First the Lord entered His temple with the authority to cast out those who had made it into a place of business and personal gain instead of worship and service to God.  As He turned over their tables of gain in the Lord’s name, He quoted from the scriptures how it was to be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves (Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11) to remind them what the temple was built for and for whom it existed.  After clearing out the profiteers, Jesus was able to use the Lord’s temple for healing others in the body and soul with His healing words and wonderful works.  The children in the temple cried out to Him with phrases pointing to the Messiah (Psalm 118:26) as the Son of David whose lineage and type led to Him.  The religious leaders were outraged at the children saying these things and told Jesus as if to make Him stop the sincere praise perfected in the innocence and faith of a child saying what they dared not.  Jesus pointed them back to Psalm 8:2 to learn real praise from these little ones who had not yet learned to allow the pride of life and intellect drown out taking God at His word and expressing it without reservation as a child.  The Lord then went from Jerusalem to Bethany to stay and when hungry the next day approached a fig tree for food but found none growing on the barren tree.  He commanded that it should never bear fruit because it did not do so for Him; the disciples witnessed it withering away straightaway and asked Him how that happened.  He told them not of how it did not please Him with bearing fruit to God, but did hint at that in how they (and we) approach prayer in supplication.  He told them that prayer must be trusting in God’s working and power.  If we pray according to His will as revealed in scripture without doubts or fears, the Lord will answer that prayer of faith as a child and we will receive what He promises and we have asked for.  Like the house of God for worship, likewise prayer must be to honor and glorify the Lord of our requests of our needs in prayer as the scriptures of 1 John 3:21-22, 5:14-15 remind us.  Neither the house of God nor prayer is for our own profit or honor, but for God alone.