January 5, 2018 Friday

13   It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14   In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15   Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16   Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” 17   Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”   John 2:13-17 NLT

            It is so easy to see this as dealing with selling out of our worship centers but maybe there is more going here.  Maybe Jesus is dealing with more than just being against merchandising in the Jewish Temple.

            In a few decades the Jewish Temple would be destroyed as God reacted to the Jews continuing the animal sacrifice and not accepting the sacrifice of Jesus.  The animal sacrifice was of temporary effect while Jesus is the eternal sacrifice Who replaced the animal sacrifice.

            Could it be Jesus is talking about us being the Temple of God and teaching we must not let our desire for gain keep us from being a people of prayer?  Could it be Jesus is reminding us that as God’s Temple we must put an emphasis on our relationship with God through prayer rather than settling for being a marketplace?  Do we settle for the temporary and lose the eternal?

            Will you choose the gain of this world and possibly lose the gain of the eternal presence of God?  Will your passion for God outweigh your love for this world?