If you have never read “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Philip Yancey, I really recommend it. It was written in 1995 but it is as fresh today as it was then. In his book, Yancey describes the Jesus he met in Sunday School as a child. He was tender, carried little lambs in his arms, and was quite unaffected by the world around him. He seemed to walk through life with an otherworldly look in his eyes (Hollywood version) being untouched as he moved toward the cross. Yancey later discovered a very different Jesus in the gospels and so wrote his book.
In the second chapter of John, the apostle records the moment when Jesus entered the temple courts in Jerusalem just before the Passover. As he entered, he found dozens of merchants selling animals to travelers for the sacrifices that would be required for the Passover rituals. Others were exchanging foreign currencies for money that could be used for those purchases. In a furious rage, Jesus crafted a whip out of rope and drove the merchants from the courtyard while turning over their tables and scattering their money. It must have made quite a scene on those stone floors of the courtyard with tables clanging, sheep bleating in panic, and coins ringing as they rolled across the court of the Gentiles. So much for the passive, lamb-petting Jesus.
His anger was stirred because these people had taken what was sacred and turned it into a merchandising flea market. You can almost see the coffee cups and multicolored t-shirts with the face of Moses smiling out or the listing of the Ten Commandments on cheap little wooden planks. For the younger crowd, you can imagine graphics of chariots and Egyptian soldiers being swept away by the Red Sea and dozens of booths with the latest C.D.’s produced by the group “Manna” or the “Holy Tabernacle Choir” or the “Four Fab Pharisees.” In his anger, Jesus screamed, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market and a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer!” It was such a startling moment that it is recorded in all four gospels. Very few events made it into all four.
I’m not opposed to CD’s. I have many. I’m not opposed to stores or churches selling items that enhance study, spiritual growth, books, or worship. I have it all in my house and office. I’m not opposed to T-shirts that give a witness (I’m just not a t-shirt guy). But we have to guard our hearts in relation to those things. The Temple was sacred ground. All those sheep, goats and doves were defiling the ground with their droppings only yards from where the Holy of Holies stood and where the Glory of God had once been so bright that even the priests could not enter. Passover was sacred and Jesus himself would soon be slaughtered for the very people who had lost the wonder of God’s great deliverance. The Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations where they could connect intimately with their God rather than a merchandising convention.
In those days, the Glory of God rarely, if ever, visited the temple. The great Kingdom of David had become a puppet state of Rome. The High Priesthood had become political and its influence was bought and sold in the Roman market place of power.The Glory and the Power of Israel had long departed.
It wasn’t that people who traveled a hundred miles for the Passover didn’t need a lamb for the Passover meal or didn’t need to exchange money. It wasn’t that something to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the Passover would have been wrong. It wasn’t that some items to enhance their joy and celebration of God’s great deliverance would have been out of place. The problem was that these items had actually replaced God in the hearts of his people. The awe and the sacred aura of the season had disappeared. The fear of God was “old school.” The temple was no longer the House of the Living God but simply a merchandising warehouse.
Many of us long for the presence of God in our churches on Sunday mornings. Many of us pray for the move of God’s Spirit or a fresh Pentecost in our midst. Many of us call for the church in America to rise up in spiritual power and retake America for our King. But there are many places where the glory of God is not present and the power of His Spirit is not moving – in our churches or even in our hearts.
Have we lost our awe of God? Have we made church a secular event in our hearts no different from a social organization that does a few good things for the community and shares secret handshakes? Has church just become a business? If so, we shouldn’t expect God to show up very often except to turn over our tables. Like many things, it’s not so much what we do but rather why we do it that makes it acceptable or unacceptable to Jesus.
Not many things made Jesus angry. Let me encourage you to read through the gospels with a fresh eye as we move toward Christmas (no merchandising going on there). I would even recommend of read of Yancey’s book. Pay attention to the things that made Jesus smile and the things that made him grit his teeth. Check your own heart on the matter. I will try to do the same. We may discover a Jesus we never knew and we may experience the presence of God in ways we have longed for as well. He wants to come but he will only come when we realize we are on holy ground. Be blessed today.
