Lent Day 41.
If you don’t have a timeline of Jesus’ last week on earth, you can find a completed one here on this website. It’s quite detailed. However, if just a “sketch” will do, here’s an image you can grab a quick glance at during the week (you’ll need to click on it to enlarge it). Starting in Matthew 21, you can read the recorded events in your Bible. It’s interesting to follow the journey… During this time period, Jesus was staying in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, with his dear friends, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.
Keep in mind, all week, Jesus knows what’s coming next.
So, He begins His week with intention…
The story of the MAIN EVENT of Monday is found in Matthew 21:12-16.
The heading in my Bible reads:
It’s the second time He’s done this…apparently, the first time, no one learned anything.
When “money” is involved, it’s harder to make life changes.
The money being tossed about here on the temple patio is nothing more than a representation of any idol-of-the-heart.
It’s that one thing that supersedes our worship of the Lord.
It’s that one thing that motivates and directs our decisions.
It’s that one thing we believe will bring us satisfaction, and fill up the hole in our hearts.
It’s that one thing that we think we need more than our Heavenly Father.
Whatever it is, that is the thing that will make it difficult for transformation to take place in your life…
…Because, that is the one thing that keeps you from finding true worship.
You and I can’t give our pure worship to more than one thing. We can’t serve God and “mammon”…
We will ultimately discover that “one thing” will never satisfy. It will only hold us captive, demanding more and more…
Only Jesus, Himself is our ONE source of satisfaction.
Only He can quench our thirsts.
Jesus knows this.
When I think about Jesus on that Temple porch, tossing coins, turning over tables, I see the man David spoke about in Psalm 69:9:
“ZEAL for YOUR house has consumed me…”
In other words, Jesus is saying: “My desire for my temple is eating me up!”
God the Son is passionate for His temple.
He is a JEALOUS GOD.
He desires all of His temple to be completely, and wholly, for Him.
He doesn’t want to share!
Today, my body, your body, is the temple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He purchased it with His blood on Good Friday.
He’d like it cleaned up.
He’d like to turn over a few tables in my heart and yours.
Today, let’s let Him show us what’s on the tables?