(a) Highlight the story of the cleansing of the Temple in the Gospel of Matthew. (b) In what two ways is the Church defiled today?

(a) The cleansing of the Temple in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 21:12-17)

After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers," quoting the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. By this He condemned the commercialisation and corruption that had turned the house of God into a marketplace of cheating and profit.

Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things He did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant and asked Him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus answered, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have brought perfect praise'?" He then left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He lodged.

(b) Two ways the Church is defiled today

• Turning the church into a place of commerce and materialism, where money-making, selling of miracles and exploitation of members replace true worship.
• Immoral and ungodly conduct by members and leaders, such as fraud, sexual immorality, hypocrisy and quarrelling, which pollute the sanctity of God's house.