Holy Week 2.0 - Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 And Jesus entered the temple[b] 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. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 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, 16 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’?”

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Matthew 21:12-17

When you read any passage, you should be thinking to yourself, “how can I apply this to my life?” The easy take-away here could be about the local church. You could also draw parallels to how we handle money and how we respect the words of children, but indulge me for a moment… Take some time to picture your self as the temple. the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”

Now, I’d say close your eyes, but then you couldn’t read this. So, picture Jesus as you read this, picture him coming in after his triumphant entry. People are worshipping him as King. They are shouting praise to him. He’s riding in on his donkey, and he stops at the temple. He enters the temple (YOUR HEART) …Now, what does he see? He’s asked for his house to be a house of prayer, is your heart a heart of prayer? Check the activity logs of your heart. Compare and contrast the sense of value your heart puts on things of the King and his Kingdom vs. things of this world and your own desires. How much time is your heart spending thinking of selfish things that indulge your own senses? How much of your relationship with Jesus is just concerned with making yourself “FEEL GOOD”? Is the temple of the Holy God inside you set aside for things above? After all, this is really what the guys selling pigeons were doing. They were devoting God’s sacred house as a place to make a personal profit and satisfy their worldly longings in ways they could control themselves. There was no trust in God for provision. They would take it any way they could. 

It’s easy to think, “I would NEVER treat God’s church like that”, but we often fail to see the reality within our own hearts. Jesus wants you. He has plans for your life. Plans for your heart. He wants to heal you. He wants to provide for you emotionally, physically and spiritually. Let’s pray that he would cleanse our temple in ways only the true King of Kings can. Get rid of anything that you are putting in the way of Jesus, and make way for the triumphant King of the universe. 

Hosanna in the highest!