From Holy Week To A Holy Life: Clean Out Your Temple

2 Apr 2012

Mark 11: 15-18 declares:

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹⁵So 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. ¹⁶And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. ¹⁷Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’?^[e] But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”^[f]

¹⁸And 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. ¹⁹When evening had come, He went out of the city.

We are discussing how Holy Week can be symbolic of our walk with Jesus. On Palm Sunday Jesus entered the city to fanfare and parades. The people shouted Hosanna which means save now. Our initial salvation experience can be like a Palm Sunday for us. We rejoice in the fact that we are saved from sin, but this is just the beginning of our journey with Jesus.

After we accept Jesus as Savior, He also wants to be LORD of all in our lives. We read in the above passage how Jesus cleansed the temple and drove out the money changers. This represents Jesus wanting to drive out anything out of our lives that would hinder our fellowship with him.

I Corinthians 6:19 tells us:

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁹Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

Our bodies are his dwelling place, and sin has no room in HIS temple which is you and me. Jesus goes on to say His Father’s House is a house of prayer. Since we are HIS temple, we should be people of prayer. Prayer is simply communication and conversation with God. Hence, God is telling us that HE so deeply wants to communicate, and have a loving relationship with us, HE will drive out anything in our lives that will hinder that relationship. God loves us, and hates sin. If we do not let him drive out sin, we cannot have fellowship with him.

God hates sin. HE hates it so much because in destroy, hurts, and corrupts the live of it’s victims. Most importantly he hates it because it separates us from HIM. This is why he wants to drive it out of us. This process may sting for a while, but it will restore our fellowship with God our father. In the long run that will bring peace and joy to our lives.

The story goes on to say that the religious folks wanted to destroy Jesus for upsetting their corrupt business practices. When we allow Christ to drive out the sin in our lives it will upset those who sinned with you. It upsets folks when you make a life change for Jesus because now they have to deal with their own sin and shortcomings, and some will look for an opportunity to trip us up. The good news is that Jesus will help us up if we do stumble.

So we have gone from rejoicing on Palm Sunday to being cleansed of sin as we have just read. What comes next? The next post will explain how Jesus’ last supper represents how we may have to suffer for him.