Mateo 21:13

Jesus explained why He was doing what He did to the authorities. He quoted Scripture here similarly to the way He did in replying to Satan (Matthew 4:1-10). First, He referred to Isaiah 56:7, a passage in which Isaiah looked forward to a time when the temple would be a house of prayer. Significantly Matthew omitted "for all the peoples" from Isaiah’s statement focusing his readers’ attention on Israel as the target of Jesus’ ministry still. Second, Jesus referred to Jeremiah 7:11, a condemnation of superstitious reverence for the temple while the people dishonored it.

"No matter what they do even by violating the sanctity of their Temple, they imagine that their adherence to this Temple will protect and shield them from any penalty." [Note: Ibid., p. 816.]

In the context of Jeremiah’s prophecy, the "robbers" in view were nationalist rebels. That is also the meaning of the Greek word lestai that Jesus used here. Rather than being a house for prayer, Israel’s leaders had turned it into a stronghold of Jewish nationalism that dishonored the temple while they maintained a superstitious respect for it. [Note: For some insights into the temple environment to which Jesus alluded, see Karen K. Maticich, "Reflections on Tractate Shekalim," Exegesis and Exposition 3:1 (Fall 1988):58-60.]

". . . for Jesus to raise the claim through his cleansing of the temple that the temple has, under the custody of the religious leaders, become a ’den of robbers’ and that his purification of it from the desecration of merchants is its restoration to rightful use as Israel’s house of prayer and worship, is for him to mount a massive assault on the authority and integrity of the religious leaders (Matthew 21:12-13)." [Note: Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p. 81.]

By coming to the temple and purifying it, Jesus was making another messianic claim (cf. Malachi 3:1-4). However the nation’s rejection of her Messiah frustrated the cleansing of the temple and precluded the fulfillment of the blessing following purification (Malachi 3:5-6). This prophecy will finally find fulfillment when Messiah comes the second time.