I was just listening to the Jars of Clay song “Jealous Kind“. I love that song, and for some reason it hits my heart and soul differently every time I listen to it. Well today these lyrics blew me away.
“You know I've been unfaithful
Lovers in lines
While you're turning over tables with the rage of a jealous kind”
I was heartbroken by these lyrics and all I could do was repent. All I could say was, I am sorry Lord. I felt like a fool. I felt broken. I felt embarrassed. I felt exposed.
Jesus’ frustration and rightful anger exposes us all and I was ashamed.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Let’s just say that when He turned over tables and chairs, they probably weren’t empty. Anyone could read this and easily pass over the particulars of the scripture. Lets think about the context in which Jesus came to the temple after literally weeping for Jerusalem the day before (Luke 19: 41). His heart was already broken for Jerusalem. And then to come into the Temple, to find the things he did was more than any man could bare. As a parent its not like you can compare this to leaving your teenage kid alone for the weekend, and upon coming home you find people partying in your house. No, I would compare it to going away for the weekend and coming home to find your spouse, The person you love the most in your life, in bed with the devil. That’s the slap in the face we’ve bestowed upon our Savior. We’ve reduced His sanctuary to a cheap assembly line of fast and easy offerings where we don’t even have to leave our comfort zone to repent.
The temple had turned into a one stop shop for sin and burnt offerings. How it got so bad as to sell the objects of offerings (pigeons) in the Temple isn’t so hard to understand with our history I suppose. They even sold one of the cheapest ways to offer repentance to Him. Generally two pigeons were acceptable if one could not afford a lamb or goat offering. Pigeons. To make it worse, the market in the temple created a breeding ground of thieves and decay. Interesting how the scribes were enraged by Jesus actions isn’t it? I’m sure their cut didn’t have anything to do with it. Or their anger through shame, which in reality is just a complex version of pride. Gods call to burnt and sin offerings had become hollow and false in the halls of the temple.
We have even found a cheap way to mainstream repentance. It has lost its meaning and became even less than an obligation. I suppose spitting on the Cross would be cheaper. Phlegm costs nothing.
Yet even through this, the incalculable glory and grace of Jesus bursts through, in the next versus. What He does is not only forgiving, but is proof of His everlasting loyalty and unbreakable covenant to us.
14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
Jesus holds His covenant to us like an unbreakable rod even though ours to Him is like a fragile broken twig, as He faithfully, mercifully and in grace, heals His wayward children. And even to this day through His death by our hands, He has offered us a forgiveness we will never deserve. Even though we ran from Him, turned our back to Him, beat Him to a bloody pulp and even worse, said we never knew Him. I wonder how that made Jesus feel. He has been faithful in cleansing us with his perfect blood. We are all in danger of doing the same. Cheapening the perfect atonement for our sins. Only this time its not a couple of pigeons. It’s the blood of Christ.
I am not strong enough to sacrifice my only child. I could not bare the thought. It sickens me, and because I am not my perfect God, I could never present a good enough argument to have to do so. But I thank my God that He was able to crush His only Son for my iniquities. I still find myself running from the very blood that covers me, I use dirty rags to try and wipe away that blood. I’m wondering if I will ever learn.
We still go to church on Sunday, then on Monday we find it impossible to forgive our coworkers, neighbors, strangers, government, friends and families. We like to hold on to their wrongs because it gives us power over them some how. Or so we believe. It comes down to specks and logs.
Above all, this song and the scriptures have convicted me and called me to repentance. I pray that it does for you also. Its gotten pretty easy to say I’m sorry hasn’t it? I’m finding that the easier it is to say “I’m sorry or thank you”, the less I am apt to mean it. And it crushes me to know that I am capable of this same kind of apology and thanks to my Savior. For more reasons that I can possibly put on paper, Lord I’m sorry that I cause you to turn over tables in you own Temple.
