PASTOR RYAN LADEN – DEVOTIONALS
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Today, we continue in our journey through the Holy week as we reflect on the actions of Jesus Christ that fell on or around the Tuesday of that momentous week. Today, we are going to hear about one of the times when we get to see Jesus taking action against those who were defiling the worship of Israel in those days.
In the passage that follows, we hear about how the Lord saw a systematic acceptance of sinful greed and abuse of the poor and needy within the confines of the Temple.
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
(Mark 11:15-18 NIV11)
Enough
Jesus Christ had been to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem many times in his life. We remember the teenage Jesus reminding his parents that it was right for him to be found in the Temple, as it was the physical embodiment of the faith of the Jewish people.
Jesus Christ loved the idea of the temple. To Jesus, the temple was a gathering point for the faithful to come together and offer up worship and praise to the Lord as a community called by the name of the Heavenly Father.
Sickening
There is no doubt that what Jesus saw in the actual temple made him sick.
- Jewish leaders made up laws that required worshipers to sell their “pagan” money for “holy” money at an appalling markup.
- Priests demanded that worshipers buy special animals for sacrifice because what the farmer brought from his home was unfit for worship in the temple.
- The poor were being singled out for religious abuse in the temple. We know this because of the mention of the doves being sold to worshipers. The poor were allowed to substitute dove for the more expensive animals that the wealthy typically offered.
Action
Jesus Christ took this opportunity, when the crowds were shouting “Hosanna in the highest,” to take action against these bullies. Jesus had warned all of these hypocrites that their day was coming, but now it was upon them.
Weak
I have heard some very weak-minded people complain that Jesus was being abusive or mean to those he drove out of the temple on that day. Clearly, these soft-headed people have not thought about the negative impact these merchants of worship have on those who were being taken advantage of while seeking to honor the Lord with their worship.
Those whom Jesus drove away did not belong in the temple. They were squatters, liars, manipulators, and would-be sellers of access to God. Their time had come, and the worst thing that happened to them that day was the annoyance of having to pick up their supplies after ignoring the Word of the Lord.
Prophecy
When Jesus overturned those tables and drove those rascals out of the temple courts, he was doing more than a public service, he was fulfilling prophecy.
In the passage that follows we hear about more about the warning that the Lord gave to those who would try to buy and sell God at a profit:
1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.
(Malachi 3:1-2 NIV11)
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.
(Malachi 3:5 NIV11)
Discipline
The Lord came to his temple, in person, when Jesus, the son of Mary, was presented before the Lord as a baby, and he again is seen entering his temple as the revealed Christ, full of glory and power.
What Jesus did on that day of cleansing was the beginning of a long process of discipline for the rebellious leaders of the Jewish religion. Jesus showed constraint and love as he challenged the sin of those clogging up the conduit of faith in the temple.
Soon, the people would lose their temple completely as the discipline of the Lord came to them with swift and terrible judgment at the hands of the Roman Tenth Legion in AD 70. If the sellers and moneychangers had listened and the people turned from their wickedness, they could have changed the outcome of those terrible days.
Check Yourself
Learn from this situation. Apply the message of this experience by asking yourself these questions:
- Am I engaged in any action that I know does not honor the Lord?
- Am I willing to submit this decision to the authority of God and ask the Holy Spirit to be my help and guide as I turn away from this area of sin?
- Am I ready to turn to the Lord now, or will I wait and invite the discipline of the Lord?
In Christ,
Ryan Laden
PASTOR RYAN LADEN
Senior Pastor at PARK HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
Worked at MTN. CHURCH
Former Senior pastor at Warnbro Community Church
Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Studied at Baylor University
Studied at Texas Tech University
Went to Castle Hills First Baptist
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