Jesus Cleanses His Temple
Monday ~ April 18 - Passion Week day 2
Read: Isa 56:1-8; Mark 11:15-19
Jesus cleanses His temple
When Jesus entered the temple area, it was not like you or I would enter a worship service at church. Jesus was entering a sacred place, the place humanity gathered to worship God. It was a holy place that required the men to have gone through a sacred bathing ritual in one of the many bathing pools just outside the temple walls, where they would have disrobed gone through the pool and put on clean clothes before entering the temple area. Jesus would have entered into the large area called the court of the Gentiles where money would be exchanged for the temple tax and animals could be purchased for sacrifice, these are things everyone would have done before they would worship. This was a loud and busy place, in some ways not unlike the markets just outside the temple walls. The sacred had become the common, the holy reduced to crass commerce.
The God / man had just „come home‟ and it was not what he intended to find. It is interesting Jesus calls it “MY house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”. A presumptuous thing to say, unless it is YOUR house. Jesus expects to find his house, his temple, being used for the purposes He intends for it to be used.
Paul writes in 1 Cor 6:19-20 ―Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body‖.
Today, our bodies, our lives are intended to be used to honour God in everything we do. How often do we let the sacredness of our bodies become common? How often do we allow the
holiness of our personal temples appear as crass as the world outside the temple walls.
Life happens to us all and it can pile up over us to the point that we know our life with Jesus is somewhere down there, but I am just not where I used to be. For us to walk in the freshness of our relationship with Jesus, perhaps there are some things in your own life that need to be „dug out‟ and discarded. Ask God to show you the areas of your life that need to be dug out so you can honour Him as His temple.
Prayer:
Father,
Forgive me where my life has been reduced to the common and crass. Your Spirit longs to live in my body as a holy temple for your glory. Yet, so often I give so little attention to your presence in my life.
As Jesus came and cleansed His temple, please Father cleanse my life and remove the areas prevent you from receiving the glory you deserve. I long to live in a way that you are pleased to „come home‟ to. Amen.
Meditate:
1 Cor 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
“ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,”
Jer 6:16
Read: Isa 56:1-8; Mark 11:15-19
Jesus cleanses His temple
When Jesus entered the temple area, it was not like you or I would enter a worship service at church. Jesus was entering a sacred place, the place humanity gathered to worship God. It was a holy place that required the men to have gone through a sacred bathing ritual in one of the many bathing pools just outside the temple walls, where they would have disrobed gone through the pool and put on clean clothes before entering the temple area. Jesus would have entered into the large area called the court of the Gentiles where money would be exchanged for the temple tax and animals could be purchased for sacrifice, these are things everyone would have done before they would worship. This was a loud and busy place, in some ways not unlike the markets just outside the temple walls. The sacred had become the common, the holy reduced to crass commerce.
The God / man had just „come home‟ and it was not what he intended to find. It is interesting Jesus calls it “MY house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”. A presumptuous thing to say, unless it is YOUR house. Jesus expects to find his house, his temple, being used for the purposes He intends for it to be used.
Paul writes in 1 Cor 6:19-20 ―Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body‖.
Today, our bodies, our lives are intended to be used to honour God in everything we do. How often do we let the sacredness of our bodies become common? How often do we allow the
holiness of our personal temples appear as crass as the world outside the temple walls.
Life happens to us all and it can pile up over us to the point that we know our life with Jesus is somewhere down there, but I am just not where I used to be. For us to walk in the freshness of our relationship with Jesus, perhaps there are some things in your own life that need to be „dug out‟ and discarded. Ask God to show you the areas of your life that need to be dug out so you can honour Him as His temple.
Prayer:
Father,
Forgive me where my life has been reduced to the common and crass. Your Spirit longs to live in my body as a holy temple for your glory. Yet, so often I give so little attention to your presence in my life.
As Jesus came and cleansed His temple, please Father cleanse my life and remove the areas prevent you from receiving the glory you deserve. I long to live in a way that you are pleased to „come home‟ to. Amen.
Meditate:
1 Cor 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
“ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,”
Jer 6:16
Comments