Passion Week: Monday-Jesus Cleanses The Temple!

Passion Week.... a week not void of energy, emotion and life, continues into the next activities during Jesus preparation to liberate all humanity at the cross and then the crescendo of rising from the dead and ascending to the Father.  This week Jesus comes into a Passover packed Jerusalem.  Flooded with Jews from EVERYWHERE to do their religious acts of sacrifice and worship of the Lord that saved them from the death angel years prior.  The Lord "passed over" their very homes and allowing the death of every young boy child of the Egyptians, pushing the final button for the release of their slavery situation they had been in for hundreds of years.  The Jews were very familiar with this custom and religious activity.  And so we see Him step up into the temple area and do a very overwhelming act.  He turns over tables and runs out the money changers and yells that the house of God is to be a house of PRAYER and not a DEN OF THIEVES!!!

C. Baxter Kruger helps explain it in a way we can understand in a more American cultural form (God Is For Us): "About the time the main service is to begin (church), in walks a man.  He is young, and the great crowd recognizes Him as Jesus.  He walks up to the front and grabs the microphone.  We all assume He is about to teach.  But instead of teaching, Jesus rips the microphone from the pulpit, jerks the cable from the socket, and starts slinging it around like a whip, running people out of the church.  He turns over the communion table and knocks down the pulpit.  He shouts at the top of His lungs, 'Stop making My Father's house a house of dead ritual, bereft of true zeal and life!' 'What is this?...where is the real passion for My Father?"   Baxter goes on to write and too much for me to include but a snippet: "The Son steps into the stream of human existence where we have all failed to answer the call of God.  He steps into Adam's shoes, Israel's shoes, our shoes.  And He stands against he whole history of human sloth and indifference, weakness and frailty, obstinance and failure.  He shouts an almighty and intolerant No! against it.  He attacks and destroys it.  He cleans house.  But even more than this, Jesus Christ does not leave the house empty.  He not only takes away our failure, He replaces it with His own rightness for the Father.  He not only removes our false answer, He puts His real answer in its place.  He fills the temple with Himself and all that He is before His Father.  He puts our name on His answer.  He is our priest  int he temple ministering our response and answer to God."