Scripture
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.”…all the people hung on every word he said. Luke 19:45-46,48
Observation
In John 2:14-22 we read of the first cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Three years later He arrives in Jerusalem and finds that they are at it again. All of those bad habits had been picked right back up along with those tables He had flipped over. They were making money off worship and Jesus wasn’t going to have it. They were putting barriers between the presence of God and the people that He loved. If you were poor, crippled, or outcast you were doomed to a life unforgiven because no sacrifice would be provided on your behalf. Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, put an exclamation point on why He was about to lay His life down. Once, and for all, He would die so that all who would believe could have access to God. No tables, no barriers, no spiritual hoops to jump through, no hierarchy of spirituality. Jesus was tossing tables to turn the tide against the sin of religion. He was cleaning house to make room for the cleansing of hearts. Jesus was flinging wide the door to The Fathers House and inviting everyone who repented to a constant conversation with their Creator. So, while the religious leaders chose to kill Jesus the crowd drew near to Jesus. They were hanging on every word He said. In the Greek it says they “stuck by him” because access to Jesus should never be denied.
Application
On one level it had to be frustrating to Jesus to see that everything He had sought to correct in the Temple system was completely unchanged 3 years later. It’s kind of like when our family spends a Saturday morning cleaning the house for company coming that evening and then one hour later it looks as if we have done no work at all. Sometimes, we will clean the house and get the boys out of the house until the company comes over just to keep things in place. Jesus knew this was the inclination of the human heart. Our default is distance, distraction, and a divided heart. We set up tables in our lives that support our habits. Jesus knew this and therefore was not after behavior modification but rather spiritual transformation. The Temple was simply a mirror for our souls proclivity towards building barriers to intimacy with God. Jesus didn’t spend much of His time on earth in the temple because He knew the real work would be done in the “real world”. Jesus made Himself accessible outside the religious system so a sinner like Zaccheaus, desperate enough to climb a tree just to get above the crowds, could not only see Him but have dinner with Him. Jesus preferred the tables of tax collectors and sinners to temple tables. He was tossing any table that stood in the way of real relationship with God. Jesus is doing the same in His church today. Notice, Jesus didn’t toss the tables of sinners, but only those who were supposed to show the way to God and built a wall instead. 2020 was a year of tossing tables and facing the fact that many of our religious traditions might have become barriers rather than bridges to the Gospel of Jesus. 2021 looks to be wrecking shop again. Will we be working with Jesus or against Him? Will we show Jesus every day to everyone?
Prayer
Lord, my sincere prayer is that I won’t forget the lessons of 2020. I choose to walk in humility and turn from hubris no matter how familiar and comfortable the old forms and rituals may feel. If You’re wrecking tossing tables in 2021 I pray that I’d be doing it right alongside you. This world doesn’t need more religious traditions as much it’s crying out to see if You are real, if there’s a way to relationship with You. If I’m setting up any tables up this year let it be tables at the coffee shops, job sites, neighborhood BBQ’s, House Churches and outdoor gatherings on Sunday that invite others to You. I’m sticking by You, hanging on every word You say and inviting others to do the same. This is a dangerous prayer, but I invite You to toss any tables that are a barrier between my heart and Yours and Your heart for others. Political, religious, traditional, emotional, financial, cultural, scheduling… anything that inhibits those around me from seeing You in me.
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