“Then they came to Jerusalem. And [Jesus] entered the temple and began to drive out 

those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the 

tables of the money changers. . . . He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written, “My 

house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den 

of robbers.’” — Mark 11:15-17 (with references to Mark 11:15-19, John 2:13-21) 

Jesus’ response to a visit to the Temple in the midst of this busy, noisy, Passover “tourist 

season” is utter frustration turned to anger. With so much at stake, “business-as-usual” 

seems obscene. This can be true for us today. The banality of our everyday lives 

sometimes seems ludicrous in the face of such suffering around the world. But taking a 

moment inside the scene where Jesus is overturning tables in this “house of prayer for 

all nations” can offer us a way to see what we actually might do to reassess our own 

actions and make our own corner of the world (our “temples”) a more welcoming place 

for all people.