2019 Lenten Devotional 4

On the same day that I heard the sermon at my church on Matthew 16:21-26, my girlfriend also received a similarly challenging sermon at her church. When we talked that night, we compared notes and found that the two sermons together was even more of a doozy than each one by itself.

When I was visiting her the previous Sunday, the pastor at her church introduced the Lenten sermon series focusing on Jesus' last week leading up to His crucifixion, through the Gospel of Mark. The focus was on Mark 11:1-11, which basically summarizes the day that would eventually become Palm Sunday in the church liturgical calendar: Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, went into the Temple, poked around for awhile, and then turned around and left.

[Disclosure: I never really noticed the content of verse 11 before: "So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples." (New Living Translation)]

His overturning of the tables didn't occur til the next day. The disciples were shocked that He did nothing that first day. All that pomp and circumstance of Him riding in on a donkey (from the east side of town, no less) on top of garments that people laid on the ground for Him and His donkey to walk over while heading into town... and He did nothing. No lecturing, no screaming, no big acts of Holy Spirit power... none of it. Naturally, His disciples were confused.

We pick up the story, on Monday, in Mark 11:12-19, NKJV:

The Fig Tree Withered

12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”

And His disciples heard it.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. 19 When evening had come, He went out of the city.

The line that the pastor at my girlfriend's church highlighted was when Jesus referred the room where the money-changers were conducting their business as the "den of thieves." It was pointed out that in the temple in Jerusalem, there was a side room that was set aside for the Gentiles, for it was not allowed for non-Jews to go into most parts of the temple. (Hence the line about "a house of prayer for all nations.") But what had happened was that the Jews had pushed out the Gentiles from the room that had been designated for them, so that they could sell things. And from the looks of it, it was as if it were not just any market, but the black market. Yes, in the temple.

Anyway, the context of Jesus' comment about the room having become a "den of thieves" comes from Jeremiah 7:1-15, NKJV:

Trusting in Lying Words

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.

The bottom line of this passage can be found in verse 4, which I will share via the Message (the below is Jeremiah 7:3-7):

Say, 'Listen all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship God. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, has this to say to you:
Clean up your act -- the way you live, the things you do -- so I can make my home with you in this place. Don't for a minute believe the lies being spoken here -- "This is God's Temple, God's Temple, God's Temple!" Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods -- only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.

Two other passages to support Jesus' anger at the money-changers and dove-sellers:
Micah 6:6-8, NKJV

6 With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Amos 6:5-6, NKJV
5 

Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments,
And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;
Who drink wine from bowls,
And anoint yourselves with the best ointments,
But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

I am presently aware of the danger of this post, like the last, appearing merely a Bible passage dump. Sometimes this is what I do in my devotionals, oftentimes to over-compensate for the fact that I don't set aside time most days, let alone every day, to read the Bible and marinate my mind in it. If you have managed to make it this far in my post, I salute you. And if you haven't already figured it out, I am not a pastor, nor do I have any real aspirations of becoming one, at least not through formal training.

However, I am a big believer that if one responds to a personal growth challenge, whether from God or from others in their community, or even of oneself, you grow. Having been on the healing journey I've been on for many years now, I can say that, with the resources that are available (and there are resources available), there is no excuse for not pursuing personal healing and personal growth. That of course includes myself.

So my hope that both you and I will take away from this sermon and this blog post is this: it is not enough to merely go to church, kinda-sorta accept Jesus, move up in life personally, hit your dreams and goals, and then mail it in the rest of the way. And that, I think, is the bottom line of the pastor that preached the above sermon. I think Jesus was ticked off at the Pharisees, because, above everyone else, they were supposed to "get it": they knew the Law, they studied the Law, and they even followed the Law. But they didn't give a [bleep] about other people. They rejected Jesus' challenge to grow. Many Christians in this so-called "great country" are also guilty of the same behavior. And sometimes, I have been guilty of being one of them. The hard truths and opinions I have shared the last couple paragraphs, you can bet that I also struggle daily with following through on them, myself. (And if I'm really honest, some days, I just flat-out don't.)

As I believe I have mentioned in a previous post this year, Lent is for us. It's a great season set aside for us to really look in the mirror and be honest about what we see. Are we doing God's will? Are we resisting God's will? Or are we mailing it in? I hope that I can communicate that I too am working on walking this out, alongside you.