Holy Week Service
Church of the Atonement
March 21, 2005
“A Place of Prayer”
Matthew 21:10-17
INTRODUCTION: The next day after the trimphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus went to the temple. What he found there was anything but a house of prayer.
Picture in your mind the confusion with all the people rushing around to buy supplies and animals for the sacrifices. Listen to the clanging coins on the marble tables as they exchanged their money into the local currency for the temple tax. Hear the merchants and money changers talking and laughing loudly as they went about the business of the day. Imagine the bleating animals and the cooing birds smelling up a sacred place of worship. There was no way the people could concentrate on God and on prayer. The sellers were carrying merchandise through the temple court as a shortcut between the city and the Mt. of Olives. (Mark 11:16). It had become a lucrative business, and they weren’t about to stop it. The money changers charged a high rate to change the pilgrims’ money into the local currency. This was not the first time that Jesus had found these abuses in the temple. At the beginning of His ministry, He had driven the merchants out with a whip; but over time they had made their way back into the temple gaining a strong foothold.
1. Why Did Jesus Bother?: Here it was the last week of Jesus’ ministry. He would soon die on the cross. Why bother to do anyting about the problems he faced in the temple that day? Why didn’t he just let it slide? Too late to make changes now. Can’t do much about it. Why disrupt things now and experience more opposition? Don’t rock the boat.
One reason He got so upset about it was because the Gentiles were being cheated out of their rightful place of worship. They were being treated as second class citizens and ignored. Hundreds of years before, the prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time when the temple would be called a “house of prayer,” but now at the dawn of the Messianic age, Jesus finds it to be “a den of robbers.” (Isaiah 56:7).
The temple service required provisions be made for getting what was needed for sacrifices--animals, wood, oil especially for the pilgrims. Money changers converted the standard Greek and Roman currency into temple currency in which the half sheckel temple tax had to be paid (Matthew 17:24-27). It seemed to be a logical thing to do. Although the merchants had once performed a useful service for out of towners, it had become corrupted.
APPLICATION: Many times we find that our lives have become in many ways like the situation Jesus found in the temple. We allow sin to creep into our lives. At first it doesn’t seem so bad. It may have seemed like a good idea in the beginning. We justify it by saying, “I didn’t have a choice” or “this is just the way things are. This is just the way I am.”
I Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.”
As the clutter and the confusion becomes more intense in our lives, we recognize that things are not as they should be, but we don’t know what to do about it. We know that we are being cheated out of what God intends for our lives. We go about the business of our lives trying to do the best we can--running through the days with our load of responsibilities. We have somehow learned to “cope” with life that is packed with noise, confusion, and lack of purpose running from one thing to another. We look at dreams and hopes that have been lost in the shuffle of daily living and wish things were different but think, “What can I do about it now?” Sometimes we pick and choose habits and sins that we want to hang on to.
The pilgrims who were trying to worship God in the noisy temple may have been every bit as frustrated by the distractions surrounding them in the temple. Could Jesus ignore these people? Can He ignore us? I don’t think so.
2. Jesus Walked In: Jesus walked into a messy life situation. His very presence was disturbing to anyone who was there that day. People who saw Him would ask, “Who is this?” (vs. 10) and people recognized him by saying, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (vs. 11). He focused on BOTH buyers and sellers who were abusing the area. He OVERTURNED the tables of the moneychangers scattering the coins. He disrupted things as they were in the area. It was a disturbing moment for all of them. It was evident that he had authority and power to do it. His goal was to create a sacred space--a place of prayer especially for the Gentiles who were being denied this.
STORY: Six-year-old Angie and her 4-year-old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough.
"You’re not supposed to talk out loud in church."
"Why? Who’s going to stop me?" Joel asked.
Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See
those two men standing by the door? They’re hushers."
I think that Jesus showed that he was more than a husher.
APPLICATION: When Jesus shows up in our life to deal with sin, it is disturbing to us. Sometimes we become angry or defensive about His focus on us. We don’t know the reaction of most of the people that day, but we do know that His actions caused a violent REACTION by the authorities. It was disturbing, and it was painful for a lot of people. How much easier it would have been for them to continue on day after day as usual. It would not have rocked the boat or upset anyone; but neither would any improvements have occurred. The temple would never have become a house of prayer as intended.
Neither will we become the people that God intends for us to become if we are not disturbed by His presence. Jesus came to set us free from the slavery of sin. John 8:36 tells us “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Too often we become upset when He walks into our lives and begins to turn over the tables. His presence becomes unsettling to us. We try our best to keep things the way they were because we are familiar with it, but He doesn’t want us to remain comfortable in our sins and self-destructive habits. He sees a much greater vision for our lives than that.
3. Jesus Brought Restoration: In the temple, He saw not only the problem but the solution. He needed to root out the sin and abuses that were hindering the rightful purpose from coming into being. Once that happened, He invited the blind and the lame into the temple and healed them. That was a miracle in itself because they were not permitted to enter before. The temple was abused when it was made into a marketplace, but honored when it was made into a place of prayer and healing. Only Jesus could step in, make these changes, and bring about restoration. Only He had the power and authority to restore it to its rightful purpose and He did all of this during the last week of His life.
APPLICATION: He can make the necessary changes that are needed in our life to bring about restoration and unfold his purpose for us. We may be inclined to resist His work and even be fearful about it. Think about how He has been working in your life during this Lenten Season. Has He started to disrupt the familiar--but unsatisfactory--patterns of your life? Has He started to disturb your comfort zone? Maybe; maybe not. Think about how you have been responding to Him or resisting Him.
With a ruthlessness that must have astonished all of his onlookers, Jesus rid the Temple of those practices which could never co-exist with a Holy God. Jesus did not let things slide by that day in the temple because he cared enough to set things right. Today we can appreciate his love toward us that He wanted more than anything else to “do the will of the Father who sent Him.” ( ).
Because of His great love for us, He does not let us go or write us off. He “upsets the tables” in our life in order that we can see His plan and purpose fulfilled in our life. In spite of our resistance and hesitancy to allow Him to make changes, He continues to draw us to him in many different ways. We can appreciate His intervention. We can appreciate his persistence because he is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” ( II Peter 3:9).
CONCLUSION:
Shall we pray: “Lord, your Word reminds us that we, too, are temples of your Holy Spirit. During this Holy Week deal with each of us individually. Show us what needs to be corrected in our life--which behavior patterns, attitudes and failures that cannot co-exist with your Spirit. Then give us the courage to deal ruthlessly with them before Easter Day dawns. Amen.
