Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In Mark 11:15-16, Jesus cleanses the Temple for the second time in three years: “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.” The presence of “moneychangers” is a reminder that “the love of money is [a] root of all [kinds of] evil” (I Timothy 6:10a). Because the required annual temple tax had to be paid in Jewish currency, these “moneychangers” would take the Roman currency that was in daily circulation and provide the worshipers with the appropriate coinage. However, what could have been useful and helpful had become just another money-making scheme. The fact that these transactions took place within the Temple is doubly disturbing. All of this business was conducted in the outer part of the Temple in the Court of the Gentiles (only Jews could go further within). The casual use of God’s House was bad enough, but the callous disregard for Gentiles (non-Jewish people) was even worse. How could anyone worship in this noisy, smelly, busy, greedy place? Who would be attracted to the One True God after viewing business as usual? May we embrace the values of Jesus, including in the way that we present our churches to others. May our places of worship never degenerate into “den[s] of thieves” (verse 17).