By His Wounds We Are Healed – Zeal for Worship brings us into the temple courtyard with Jesus. What would it take to get Jesus SO riled up?! It’s not the money – per se – it was the abuse of the worship of God’s people just to make money.
I wanted to reference the stats I shared on Sunday. HERE are the stats on churches and giving. And HERE are the stats on soda consumption – it’s not really all that much money for the church, is it?
Jesus throwing around tables in the temple might seem surprising. I wonder if people have this cute picture of Jesus petting bunnies and plucking flowers as he dances all the way to Jerusalem to be betrayed into the hands of sinners? Jesus isn’t a “nice guy” in the sense that he won’t do anything “mean”. God is harsh. The kids would say – he’s not playing. Do not be deceived God cannot be mocked! Maybe I’ll commission an artist someday to make a painting of Jesus flipping over a table.
But what’s the big deal – you say – it’s just a little money. Before we go there, why did the Jewish authorities let him? They didn’t call him out – “Stop it, Psycho!” They simply asked for a sign?! Did they know what they were doing was wrong?
Finally what is the temptation for us? Part of the answer with that would go into why Jesus was so angry and started table flipping. The story of fluffy is a hard one to hear, but it was a beautiful picture of worship. The family lamb (think like family dog) ate peas from the table, watched survivor with the kids, and ran in the yard. Fluffy – we’ll call him – was part of the family. Every year the average Jewish family would make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Fluffy. Take him to the priests who would NOT slit his throat, drain his blood, and offer him as a sacrifice. They would REJECT fluffy (who was perfectly fine) so that they could force God’s people to purchase a “good” sacrifice from a merchant on hand. They turned the worship of God’s people into a business. It was despicable.
There aren’t direct parallels today. Can you think of any ways we abuse the worship of our God? Maybe it’s not greed. Want to hear more? Watch this week’s Bible study from our series By His Wounds We Are Healed – Zeal for Worship.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.