As I was reading in Matthew this morning (because that’s where I’m lingering these days), I stumbled upon the passage about Jesus cleansing the Temple of all the money-changers and those selling sacrifices (in chapter 21). But as I read it, I thought “I remember this being one of the first things He did during His public ministry, not one of the last”. So I looked. And curiosity has once again led me into the deeper crevices of Glory.
Jesus did do this at the beginning of His ministry, in John 2 (This is why it’s so nice to have four different accounts of Jesus’ earthly life!). The first time was just after the Wedding at Cana of Galilee where He had performed His very first miracle, and He made a whip to chase out those who had turned the Temple into a marketplace.
If we know much about ancient Jewish culture by reading the Old Testament, we understand that this was no ordinary marketplace. They were selling animals for the sacrifice God commanded be given through Moses. And from my understanding (though I confess I don’t know where I heard this, or if the information is correct, though it’s easy enough to believe), the Pharisees and Sadducees, who seemed to think a little too highly of themselves, and thought they owned a share of God, were filtering out the kind of homegrown animal sacrifices God had asked for by micro-analyzing any blemishes they could find, so they could rob poor people by forcing them to buy their “superior” sacrifices, should they hope to appease God. In other words, they thought they were better mediators between God and man than Christ is, and by doing so, prevented people from reconciling with God through His prescribed means of animal sacrifice (which we now know was just a foreshadow of Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice).
Jesus, with His fierce love for God and mankind, cleansed the Temple on two different occasions: Once right after the Wedding at Cana, and once during the final week before the Cross! These events were like the bookends to His’ public ministry.
In Matthew, after He chases out the profit-mongrels for the second time, He says this: “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” and the very next verse tells us “the blind and lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” Do you see what happened? Jesus chased out those who were hoping to make a profit off God and religion (let this be a severe warning to all those who pastor for personal gain!), He tells us the truest reason the Temple (Ancient Israel’s version of churches) which was to be a place of communion with God, and then, as a direct result, the blind and lame feel welcomed to approach.
Smiles and I started dreaming about Grace and Truth Church in 1997 (I know it seems like a rabbit trail, but hear me out). The reason we began to dream about church planting was because of all the sick churches across America who wouldn’t receive us because we smelled like the stinky, houseless hippies we were. We were hitch hiking the country, and many smelled our aroma, turned their noses up, and were blind to the fact that the God they professed to worship had also been homeless.
These people who attended church faithfully, tithed, read their Bibles, prayed, etc. but had no love for the blind and the lame (or in our case, the stinky, broken, messy) were more like Pharisees than Christians (if that statement personally offends you, please let it wound you in such a way that drives you to repentance).
It is such a catastrophe in the church, both ancient and modern, that we often think we own the market on God. That we are a shareholder of religion. But Jesus taught us, right here in this passage, that the purpose of the Temple was to be a place to talk to God, to meet Him and have communion with Him. And He shows us, by the immediate response of the blind and lame, that when our churches clearly reflect God’s purposes for them, then everyone will know they are welcome and know they can approach.
I would also like to point out that it wasn’t the religious elite who were approved and embraced by God… it was the messy misfits who dwelt in the margins. It was the inconvenient ones, who didn’t help His reputation. Just look at where Jesus decided to be born and to die. He was born among livestock and shepherds, and died among criminals. One of the main objectives of God inhabiting flesh was to make Himself approachable to the least of us. Why should we, Christians ( which means “little Christs”) be any different? And if Jesus came for the broken, and we are His’, doesn’t that make us the broken, as well?
Space 10/8/24
