Temple Priorities
This day was like the “lull before the storm.” It was the first Monday since the end of December I have not been thinking about or involved in a political campaign. I did have a couple of meetings but for the most part a good day to even get out and ride my bike for an hour. Tomorrow night, I am sworn in as a new Council member.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…. Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and 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.” Matthew 21:12-13 ESV
Have you ever visited a city for the first time and have planned ahead and thought, “the first place I want to go is_______”
Jesus was not on a vacation, He was a man with a purpose who knew His destiny and what He did and where He went was important. So, after entering Jerusalem, He first goes to “His Father’s House.” Jesus is visiting in human flesh the Temple that was built in honor of the Lord God of Israel. As the Eternal Son of God He was mindful of all the Temples of the past. Solomon’s Temple, the rebuilt Temple under the leadership of Ezra and now “Herod’s” Temple.
God’s House is a “House of Prayer.” As Jesus comes to the Temple, He finds misplaced priorities and abused power. The practice of “money exchange” for those who traveled a long distance, that was intended to facilitate worship began to replace worship. So, often that is the case. We can observe it in and outside of the “Church.” A practice that was intended for good, becomes the “end”, instead of the means to an end.
This is not “Jesus meek and mild.” This is the God who sets things right as He overturns tables and drives people out that should not be in the Temple so that those who should be could have free access. “My House shall be called a ‘house of prayer’.” Prayer over profit was the order of the day.
Then we see the Lord’s House is a “house of healing.” “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.” (Matthew 21:14 ESV) In Jesus’ ministry we see people healed in towns and villages. They were healed as they came to Jesus as He walked the road. Now here in the Temple the lame and the blind come to find healing.
God’s House as a “house of prayer” should be a place where people find “restoration and wholeness.” People in need were in the Temple. This was not just a place for the “trim and fit” and “well off.” God’s House is a place where people in need of help and healing find hope.
God’s House is a “house of praise.” “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:15-16 ESV)
People being healed, praise to the Lord from children. It is obvious that the children didn’t realize the “parade” that brought Jesus into the city was over. They were still offering up their “Hosanna’s.” The excitement of earlier had not left them. They didn’t just get back to “business as usual.” They may have followed, Jesus, stayed close to Him and continued their shouts of praise.
This became an irritant to the religious leaders whose traditions was being upset along with the tables of the money changers. What Jesus heard was natural and anticipated, to the religious it was “out of order” and “inappropriate.” Simple praise, sincere praise should characterize the lives of all God’s “children.”
Prayer, healing and praise. They were priorities for God’s house to Jesus and they should be for us in “God’s House” today.
Prayer for today…. Lord allow the priorities that we see reflected in Your actions and in this visit to the Temple, be those that we seek in our day when we gather in “Your House.”