Cleaning God's House
Monday: Clearing the Temple
READ: (Matt 21:12-17, Mark 11:12-18)
Cleaning God’s House
It’s Springtime, and with the extra time at home comes the opportunity to clean the house. Our family has been organizing closets, pantries, cleaning up the garage; even my office at church. It's a miracle! Perhaps there is a little cleaning in your house to be done.
On the Monday following Palm Sunday (when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey), Jesus returned to the temple courts. Matthew 21:12-13 says, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”
It was during the Passover celebration that close to two million people would fill up Jerusalem to visit the temple to worship, pray, and give of their offerings and sacrifice. What set Jesus off that morning was seeing two things: First, the money changers were charging outrageous currency rates to convert the participants’ money into shekels to pay the temple tax. Secondly, traders were charging outrageous prices to those looking to buy a lamb, pigeon, or dove that they alone deemed worthy to be offered.
It was this unholy commercialism in God’s house which makes Jesus righteously indignant and causes him to turn over the money tables, driving out the traders and declaring, “My house will be a house of prayer.” Don’t know about you, but I get the strong impression that God takes our worship, service, devotion, and attitude in His presence seriously.
I wonder what our Lord’s reaction would be as He looks around His Church today?
Not just the building we gather in and call “church,” but the reality that our Lord, more importantly, sees each of us as His Church.That our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, meant to honor and glorify God. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
So, go ahead and take advantage of this time to do a little house cleaning, but I encourage you, start with your spiritual house first.
READ: (Matt 21:12-17, Mark 11:12-18)
Cleaning God’s House
It’s Springtime, and with the extra time at home comes the opportunity to clean the house. Our family has been organizing closets, pantries, cleaning up the garage; even my office at church. It's a miracle! Perhaps there is a little cleaning in your house to be done.
On the Monday following Palm Sunday (when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey), Jesus returned to the temple courts. Matthew 21:12-13 says, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”
It was during the Passover celebration that close to two million people would fill up Jerusalem to visit the temple to worship, pray, and give of their offerings and sacrifice. What set Jesus off that morning was seeing two things: First, the money changers were charging outrageous currency rates to convert the participants’ money into shekels to pay the temple tax. Secondly, traders were charging outrageous prices to those looking to buy a lamb, pigeon, or dove that they alone deemed worthy to be offered.
It was this unholy commercialism in God’s house which makes Jesus righteously indignant and causes him to turn over the money tables, driving out the traders and declaring, “My house will be a house of prayer.” Don’t know about you, but I get the strong impression that God takes our worship, service, devotion, and attitude in His presence seriously.
I wonder what our Lord’s reaction would be as He looks around His Church today?
Not just the building we gather in and call “church,” but the reality that our Lord, more importantly, sees each of us as His Church.That our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, meant to honor and glorify God. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
So, go ahead and take advantage of this time to do a little house cleaning, but I encourage you, start with your spiritual house first.
Posted in The Passion Week
Tagged with Passion Week, Palm Sunday, Easter, Passover, Temple, Holy Spirit
Tagged with Passion Week, Palm Sunday, Easter, Passover, Temple, Holy Spirit
2 Comments
This message is certainly a confirmation in what I have been doing with my cleaning house and tossing out many old files and stuff I don't need or forgot about. Yesterday after our virtual church service & communion, I listened to wonderful uplifting music and praise music. What a difference it made in my outlook. Thank you for the blog to start my week with spiritual cleaning.
So interesting how God has chosen this time to keep us from worshiping Him in the building we call church. He's stretching us to be the Church in ways we haven't had to before - as individuals and as a family, without anyone else around to bear witness.