“Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
– Luke 19:45-46
As I read this passage, a childhood memory comes back to me. I’d gone to church with my mother one Sunday morning and we got there rather early. A handful of people were standing around outside the entrance and the conversation became quite animated. “I’m sorry, I just cannot allow it. Not here, not today,” the pastor said. One of the church members was hoping that her daughter would be allowed to sell Girl Scout cookies in the church foyer that day, but the pastor politely-but-firmly refused. Not understanding the significance of his decision at the time, I just thought the pastor was being mean.
I saw neither the lady nor her daughter at that church ever again after that.
Luke tells us that the religious leaders had allowed a house of prayer and worship to become a marketplace; a place where vendors would come in, set up their tables and turn a profit. The Pharisees were more concerned with maintaining their own power and influence than honoring and obeying God’s commands.
Rarely do we read in the Bible that Jesus becomes angry. Frustrated? Sure. But angry? Not all that often. But this was one of those rare instances. Three years earlier he’d done the same thing – gone into the temple to drive out the moneychangers. And here he was at it again, flipping over tables and running out the sellers. “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”
Jesus was restoring the temple for its intended purpose.
How often it is that we, too, need our own ‘temples’ restored for our intended purposes…
Aren’t we prone to falling into the same trap? More concerned with our own wants and desires than following Jesus’ example? Using our gifts and talents to serve ourselves instead of God?
Sometimes we need Jesus to come inside our hearts and do a good housecleaning on us, too.
Let us take this opportunity to examine our hearts and motives, and ask God to help us align them with His will. Let us also pray for the courage to stand up against injustice and hypocrisy, even if it means going against the status quo.
May our lives be a testimony to the transforming power of Christ, and may we always remember that our ultimate goal is to glorify God and make His name known to all.
Amen.
Former Blackout Artist 