Passion Week Journey - on Monday Jesus Cleared the Temple

Jesus taught His disciples for nearly a year, "I must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests, and be killed, and on the 3rd day be raised." (Luke 9:22) The plan of God for our salvation was no secret and certainly no accident.

As we journey alongside Jesus this week, let us notice how driven He was to get to the cross. On Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem like a king just as the Zechariah had prophesied, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." (Zech. 9:9 & John 12:15). This audacious sight stirred the Pharisees into fierce anger.

Then on Monday, Jesus entered Jerusalem again and walked right into the temple. What He found upset His soul - they had turned His house of prayer into a marketplace of thieves. When Solomon built the temple and dedicated it to the Lord, he said, "Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house I have built? Yet, ... may Your eyes be open day and night towards this house, the place where You have promised to set Your Name, that You may listen to the prayers of Your people. Listen from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive" (2 Chron. 6:18-21). The temple was built to be the mediating vessel of the grace of God, but robbers now stood in their way. Sinners seeking grace now had their money unfairly exchanged so that they could then buy exorbitantly priced pigeons for their sacrificial offering. This infuriated our Savior.

When Jesus entered the temple, the jealous anger of God lashed out. He drove out these wicked men and overturned their tables of commerce. Jesus did what the temple priests refused to do. These priests must have been receiving some major kickbacks, because, after Jesus cleared the temple of its corruption, they went out and conspired how they may destroy Him.

It's Monday and it is good for us to remember: We have a jealous God. God wants us and loves us so very much that He hates anything that stands between us and Him. What's stands in the way of our relationship with Him? Our sin. And through the destruction of His own Son on the cross as He died for our guilt, God cleared and purified His new temple -- our body and soul -- so that we may not only receive grace, but that we may also be vessels of His grace to others with His gospel.

"For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." ~~ 2 Corinthians 6:16

Have a very blessed week!

Pastor David