Jesus’ Words of Anger

"When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘“My house will be a house of prayer”; but you have made it a “den of robbers.”’" (Luke 19:45-46, NIV)

During the week of Passover, thousands of people were coming to the temple to make sacrifices and pray. Many of the people traveling would need to first convert their money to a local currency and then purchase an acceptable animal sacrifice (bird, lamb, etc.). 

Imagine Jesus walking around the last street corner before the temple, and suddenly before him is a fleet of tables lining the temple courts with crowds of people bustling around them. What was intended as a house of prayer had become a variety market for spiritual products to be bought and sold.

Do you ever feel like we turn Christianity into a market?

Enraged at the temple “strip mall,” Jesus begins flipping tables over and kicking out all the religious retail vendors.

"Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” (Luke 19:47-48, NIV)

People needed to change their money. People needed to make sacrifices. Those weren’t the problem. The problem was that the temple had become a storefront. Once Jesus cleared out all the marketing confusion around the temple, he then began to teach the people. Once the distractions of a spiritual market were swept away, people were “hanging on every word he spoke.”

The weeks leading up to Easter are historically a time when people simplify life and focus on Jesus. Let’s do that together. I am asking myself these questions to remove the clutter of my life:

• How have I let religious goods get in the way of hearing Jesus?

• What things are distracting me from hearing Jesus’ voice?

Take some time to imagine Jesus clearing out your heart and mind. Ask him to prepare you to hear him speaking to you in a fresh way as you move through this journey and through this Easter week. Ask Jesus to clear out your life so that you can “hang on every word he speaks.” Now, you are ready to hear. Let’s pray together:

Jesus, I am listening. Clear away the clutter, and speak to me. Amen.

You are a miracle!