A Den of Robbers

Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46; John 2:13-22

How would you describe your workplace? Some people have used metaphors like "when you work here, you're like family." Maybe your workplace isn't quite that warm. But look at how Jesus describes the temple in these passages. After ransacking the place, Jesus accuses the merchants of "making My Father's House a Den of Robbers." These businesses fulfilled an important need. People would come from far away places to worship at Jerusalem. They needed to buy an animal to sacrifice, so merchants were there selling such animals. And if you needed to exchange your currency to buy in this market, there were kiosks of the day ready to help you with that as well. The problem was that these people were not really interested in helping people worship God. Rather than any altruistic motives, they let laws of supply and, in particular, demand determine costs. These people didn't know the city that well, they didn't have the means to seek out other places to buy these things. So merchants were charging top dollar and getting rich off of the people's desire to worship God.

So think about where you work. Could Jesus make the same accusation against you? Does your workplace profit from the desperation of others? I think one plausible interpretation of these passages is a critique of supply and demand economics that privilege profit motives over the needs of people. You may not be able to control the economics of your industry, but what about how your department or specific responsibilities function? Are you putting profit and performance above people?

It's tough because I think the temple merchants would probably have done very well in 21st century America. Certainly, they would have been in step with the Enrons of 2001 or the Countrywides of 2007. I think "Den of Robbers" is a completely accurate title for some of the upper eschelons of those companies (although the majority of people working for both companies were not involved in either scandal). But the actions that made those companies personify greed were not decisions that were made overnight. The actions of a large number of individuals over a long period of time created the conditions for infamy. Your actions, no matter what your position or status, your actions matter. How can you privilege people over profit in your job? And then, how can you lead others to do the same?