stephen R Harrison

“In The Temple”

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple,

and I will raise it again in three days.’”

-John 2:19

Imagine going to worship at your church on Sunday and finding the parking lot filled with vendors set up, making an extortionate profit off items used in worship that day. Before you enter, you must pay $1000 for communion elements, $500 for baptism, $250 for a seat, etc. Would this cause you any righteous anger? It should. While that may seem an extreme and unequal comparison, John 2 tells us Jesus did experience religious extortioners who set up stalls for currency exchange and sacrificial animal purchases in the temple courts. Although there were approved locations and guidelines for these items and practices, certain priests took advantage of their religious status and worshippers who arrived during high holy days like Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles. 

Jewish Law required a temple tax to be paid (Exodus 30:11-16), but foreign coins were not allowed and were traded for Jewish currency, often at a high exchange rate. This took advantage of the poor and those who came to worship during Passover. They would frequently disapprove of animals brought to be sacrificed, deeming them unfit and requiring the purchase of “better ones” at an inflated rate. This religious price gouging angered God as it was forbidden in the Law of Moses (Exodus 22:21). When Jesus witnessed it happening in the temple courts when he came to celebrate Passover, he was justified in his righteous anger. 

Just after beginning his ministry, Jesus saw the Temple, God’s house, being desecrated and transformed from a house of worship into a market. He would say it had been turned into “a den of thieves” on a second occurrence after his Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:12-17). The time between these two instances shows the ongoing problem of greed and corruption in the religious system of Jesus’ day. Where those with zeal to worship can be found, those who wish to profit off them are also present. 

Jesus made a whip and unapologetically drove them and their livestock out of the temple courts while turning over the money changers’ tables. Quoting Isaiah 56:7, His house should be called a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). This upset those profiting from the worshippers. When questioned by the Jews about his authority to do this, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They thought he was referring to the physical temple surrounding them. Jesus, however, referred to the person right before them – himself (v. 21). He would be killed, crucified on the cross, and raised three days later (v. 22). More than a pure place of worship, Jesus wants pure hearts of worship. While our churches should be places void of extortion and other evils, Jesus desires pure and holy lives as we are the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit resides (1 Corinthians 3:16). During Lent, allow the Holy Spirit to help you keep our sacred spaces, hearts, minds, and mouths pure and pleasing to the Lord. 

Questions:

What causes our sacred spaces of worship to become tainted?

Are your heart, mind, and mouth pure and pleasing to the Lord?

Prayer:

Jesus, we desire the temple in which your Spirit resides, our bodies, to be pure and holy. Drive out any unclean attitude, action, or desire from our lives. May your Spirit make us aware of worship corruption, and may we be righteously angry at it just as you were to rid it foremost from our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Read: 

John 2:13-25

Action Step:

Allow the Lord to walk you through your daily worship routines, like reading the Bible, praying, fasting, meditating on the Lord, etc. Ask him to show you any impure motive or selfishness that may be present. During your next Sunday worship gathering, ask the Lord to purify your motives, thoughts, speech, and actions before, during, and after the service.