Tuesday, March 3
Isaiah 58
Hebrews 3:1-11
Zeal and passion are characteristics that are very foreign to our Scandinavian cultural context. They make us uncomfortable because it seems that anyone expressing passion in word or deed is out of control, or even on the fringes of what is considered to be acceptable. We generally strive to express ourselves in measured, polite, and considerate terms. We frequently veil our opinions in inuendo because we rarely want to take the full brunt of consequences for opinions that seem to be confrontational or radical. We don't want to make waves.
Jesus appeared at the temple in Jerusalem consumed with zeal for his Father's house. He confronted a system that held the people of Israel captive to the usary of the temple sacrificial system. The temple coffers were filled as a result of milking money from the people that were compelled to travel from afar to offer their yearly sacrifices and temple taxes.
Diaspora Jews were victims of the money changers, and sacrificial animals were sold at extremely high prices leaving many familes in poverty.
It is not surprising that Jesus reacted with such passionate zeal in cleansing the temple. He was confronting the perversion of a sustem which originally had been created to minister to the needs of the very people that they were robbing.
Holy wrath is vented against the systematic abuse and neglect of the poor and marginalized in society. Read the prophet Isaiah and you will see over and over again that the righteousness of God's people is revealed in their care for the poor, the orphaned, widows, and the stranger.
The house of the Father is not only the temple - it is the household of men and women and children who worship him. Jesus reacted to the profanation of the holy temple, but it was because of the abuses practiced there in relationship to those coming to worship. The legal tax system had ceased to be a practical expression of the care and mercy of the Father. It had becme a massive oppressive machine in the hands of the Jewish elite.
If Jesus appeared on the scene today in the midst of our highly technological and streamlined churches how would he react? Would he be capable of waking us up from our complacent slumber so that we remember what the true essence of worship is? Or do we prefer the "nice" Jesus we remember from Sunday school who gives us a feel good experience occasionaly when we make it to church?? Do we enter the house(hold) of the Lord with a zeal and a passion for what is on his heart? Is our worship on Sundays the culmination of a life in daily worship, expressed in our stewardship of our time, energy and means, our relationships to our family collegues and friends, and the extension of ourselves to those in need?
Can we say with Jesus "Zeal for your house has consumed me"?
Pastor Linda
John 2:13-22 NIV
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
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