Breaking Barriers - Turning Over Tables - Jesus Style

Scripture: Mark 10:15-19; Luke 4:18-19

Theme: Breaking Barriers – Turning Over Tables – Jesus’ Style

One of the things that Jesus loves to do is to break barriers that keep all of us from Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at a few of them.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

I want to share with you today God’s joy in breaking down barriers. Breaking down all the things that hinder us from becoming His (God’s) People living an Abundant Life on His Good Earth.

Our Markan text this morning takes us into the very heart of the matter.

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Temple only to find that there were all these barriers keeping the people from being able to sacrifice and to pray (spending some quality time) with God.

What were some of those barriers?

+Most of the people had come with Roman/Greek or other native coins which had to be changed over to official Temple coins. Because foreign coins bared an inscribed image (Cesar or some other ruler) they violated the 2nd Commandment and therefore couldn’t be used in any orthodox Temple transactional business or placed in the offering boxes.

+They also needed an official sacrifice – one that had passed the strict regulations of the Temple inspectors. This would have included the likes of a dove, sheep, goat, oxen and/or even some grain. Even if a person had attempted to bring their own sacrifice it would have been rejected and a substitute would have been necessary.

Temple money changers at that time were notorious for shortchanging people (hence Jesus’ use of the word “robbers”). And often a sacrificial animal costs were exceedingly more at the Temple than it would have been on the streets of Jerusalem.

Temple business had become big business with the major emphasis on making as much money as it could even if it meant fleecing God’s people.

All of that angered Jesus. It angered him because:

+The Temple was to be God’s House. It was not to be the house of either Ceasar or King Herod. It was not to be the house of the Sanhedrin. It certainly was not to become a place where money had become its own god. It was to be God’s House – the House where God’s people were invited to come and spend time with Him.

It was to be a place of prayer, refuge, repentance, restoration and renewal. A place that reminded people of the time when God would come down and spend precious time with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in love and fellowship.

Seeing all of this, Jesus does what His Heavenly Father wanted Him to do. He got rid of the barriers. He got rid of anything that was keeping people from being able to talk to God, spend time with God and be transformed by God. That’s what Jesus does when he upsets all those tables. He is getting rid of the barriers.

When you look at the entire Old and New Testament you see that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY – The Good God of Creation – Father, Son and Holy Spirit are constantly doing all they can to get rid of any type of barrier that separate Them from Their Creation.

These were not the first tables that Jesus turned over. In fact, if you look throughout His whole mission on earth we can see other tables – other barriers that Jesus turned over to help rescue, redeem and restore humankind.

Let’s take a minute or two to look at some of them using His words in Luke 4 as a background.

1. The Biggest Table Jesus Overturned – Sin –

The Prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 59:2 – But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

Sin is the biggest barrier any of us face.

It is a barrier that is bigger than us.

It’s a table we cannot even budge.

It’s too big. It’s too powerful. It’s too nailed to the floor.

But here comes the Carpenter – Jesus of Nazareth – The Anointed One - The One who Created Us and Everything Else that we have on our earth. With one touch – His touch – the plan of Salvation comes to fullness.

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are justified (made right) by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus – Romans 3:23-24.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but enjoy everlasting life.” – John 3:16