Cleaning House

"Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, 'Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!' 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.' 18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, 'What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?' 19 Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' 20 Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. "

To set the story, Jesus comes to Jerusalem at the time of Passover. One of the first places He goes to visit is the temple. When He walks in, He sees there are people selling sheep, selling oxen, selling doves, and tables for exchanging money, The religious leaders of the day were using this as an opportunity to line their own pockets. When people brought oxen and sheep and doves to the temple for sacrifice, they would usually be found unfit for sacrifice because of some microscopic blemish. But the people were instructed that they could buy a "pre-approved" animal out in the courtyard. These were sold at exorbitant prices. The same with the money changers. When the people came to pay their temple tax, their money was declared no good because of the image of Caesar on the coins, but were instructed that they could exchange it for shekels in the courtyard. And the money changers would charge exorbitant fees. When Jesus comes into the temple, He sees that the people were being robbed and ripped off in the very place where they should be introduced to the True and Living God.

This seems to be happening, sad to say, across the Church today. But instead of sheep, oxen, and money changers, we have books, seminars on tape/CD/DVD, and podcasts on MP3. All designed to take your money, and always justified with "we are helping people." We have allowed the marketplace to come into our churches, and that is one of the things that Jesus demonstrates here: it is not to be. I personally made the mistake of allowing ladies in our church to talk to other ladies and invite/pressure them into hosting parties in their homes so that they could sample/buy whatever was being sold, with the exchange taking place at the church. This is one of the tragic mistakes of my career. It should not happen in our churches. Commerce should take place outside the walls of the church. Am I saying that a church should not have a bookstore? I am not saying that at all. Some of the finest bookstores I have ever been in are located in some of the churches I have attended. I am saying that daily commerce should take place somewhere else. The buying and selling of items for your kitchen or to decorate your home should be done outside of the church meetings and fellowship.

There was another feast that was linked to Passover, but was seven days later. It was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where the Jews would scour their homes to make sure there wasn't any leaven present in their homes. They searched every corner, every cupboard, every cooking utensil to make sure not a trace of leaven existed. Leaven in the Bible represents sin. That is exactly what Jesus was doing here, as He cleanses His Father's house of the evil and sin that existed there. And beloved, that is what we must do with our own lives. In my life, in your life, we must clean it up from the leaven. We must look in every "nook and cranny" of our lives, and make sure there is not even a trace of leaven to be found, because that will give our enemy, the devil, a foothold in our lives.

"Oh come on now, this is 2008. Are you saying the devil will infiltrate our lives?" Beloved, we have been called to be separated from this world. Not weird or anything, like the dudes on the street corners with bullhorns, yelling at people to be saved (I wondered aloud about how many people they had converted that way as I looked around and saw all the windows going up in the other cars). We are called to separation from this world. Sad to say, to some that means weirdness. To me it means live in this life like there is no tomorrow and store up treasures in heaven, because that is really where my home is. I cannot let myself get too attached to this world and the things (and people) in it. But if I don't clean out the leaven in my house, my daily walk is not as meaningful as it could be, and not as impacting as it should be. Beloved, it is time to clean house; our own. Amen? Amen. Shalom.