# Day 282

# The House of Prayer

Matthew 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19

Jesus went into the temple in Jerusalem and drove out the people buying and selling and upset their money tables. People were there selling doves for sacrifices. Jesus knocked over their chairs. Then he announced: “This is written in the Scriptures: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers.’ ”

The leading priests heard what he’d done. They kept looking for a way to kill Jesus. But they were afraid of him. The whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.

The blind and disabled came to him in the temple. He cured them. The leading priests saw these amazing things. They heard the children joyfully shouting in the temple: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” This made the priests angry. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” Jesus answered. “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures: ‘Praise has come from the mouths of infants and nursing babies’? You’ve prepared this praise for yourself?” Then he left for Bethany to spend the night.

Questions: God wanted the temple to be a house of prayer. What had it become? Why were the priests afraid of Jesus?