Lent devotional 37

At the temple

To be honest, Jesus’ clearing of the temple is one of my favorite Bible scenes. Why? Because it is the most “human” moment we see. Here is the moment of a man who sees something that used to be beautiful, something He loves, desecrated by people. So He makes a whip and in a moment of agony so deep that anger filled His heart Jesus drives people out of the Temple, He scatters money, (so precious to some, so easily evil in the hands of others,) across the floor so it is lost between the slats. It was a good business idea, a great way to make money, but it was also sinful and wrong. We have seen so many ‘great business’ ideas and good ways to make money that have cost people and caused pain. Take the rainforest, one of the major heart beats of sustaining this planet, and what do the great ways to make money tell us to do? They destroy the forests. They clear cut full groves! Something beautiful, desecrated. So to a small extent I understand Jesus’ rage. Unfortunately deforestation is not a sin, but selling offerings at the temple gate was. Jesus saw something He adored being tarnished and in a moment of pain He tore the scene apart and cleansed the Temple. He did the same at the cross, He tore apart our sin and cleansed us. Even Jesus who is pure knew the rage of seeing an atrocity. He understands us better than we bother to remember . He gets your rage and pain because He has felt it too. But He healed the world by dying. So how can we help stop the wrong in this world? By being like Jesus and being the right.