Read John 2:12-25
“How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market?” (v16)
“How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market?” (v16)
Some Thoughts…
Worship is a gift not a product, and I am a contributor not a consumer…
Jesus was zealous about the Temple, because worship is God’s top priority, birthed in the hearts of holy people. Worship is God’s chosen path of communication, healing, and communion with those He calls. This is something we modern-day consumers have lost sight of. We live in a day where the gospel has become a marketable commodity and some ministers have become fast talking salesmen. Oh, what a dangerous place we are in when some of our religious leaders teeter on the edge of the judgment of God and the only reason Jesus may be present in our worship is because of a few faithful hearts that beat for Him.
Verses 24 and 25 are sobering words of Jesus’ willingness and unwillingness to trust some people. His testing ground is individual hearts. And on that day when the Temple tables flew and livestock was set free there were few who had hearts ready to hear from God. So, He spoke to the Pharisees and made accusations in ambivalent “Temple” terms (v.18-21), knowing they wouldn’t understand. And He knew that the “sign-seeking” hearts of so many in that crowd were too dull to grasp His message. So, He “would not entrust Himself to them” (v24).
I hope that the temple of my heart is a place Jesus can (and will) enter with joy instead of anger, that as He looks around the corridors of my soul he sees an unmixed life, and that he doesn’t hear the noise and clamber of a consuming world screaming for my attention at the expense of me missing out on hearing His voice. I pray that my life is a testimony of glory to the Father to point any wayward seeker to the only solution to what ails them; a gift that can’t be bought on the black market of counterfeit worship and quick-fix theology.
A Prayer…
Dear Glorious Father/God, forgive me of my self-centered worship, of my attempts to package your truth in a way that is more palatable. Make me ever conscious of what pleases You and what causes anger to well up in your eyes… I want to make you smile, not infuriated; I want to be a light that illuminates the real You, not some man-made counterfeit. Lord, turn over my tables of self-dependence and drive out all the distractions in me, so that you can be worshiped in spirit and truth. Amen.
might it be possible to use this picture in a poster for a free public lecture on behalf of there Fernley Hartley Lecture on 1 May 2013 by Rev Dr Calvin Samuel?
best wishes
Penny
p.a.bissell@dur.ac.uk
I’m sure you can Penny… I found it online myself