On Monday of Holy Week Jesus went into the temple and caused quite a scene. It’s called “the cleansing of the temple.”
Mark gives us the added detail that Jesus didn’t go straight to turning over the tables of the money changes et al when he entered on the donkey from the Mount of Olives. He looked around, thought about it and came back the next day. This was a deliberate, thought through, calculated act on Jesus’ part. It was designed to make a statement.
Read Mark 11:11-18.
What was “the statement” that Jesus was making?
Jesus came into the “temple” and made a mess of the orderly system they had set up. There are lots of orderly systems that God wants to mess up (See 1 John 3:8)
Now that WE ARE the temple of God (take a quick look at 2 Cor 6:16 and 1 Peter 2:5), are the tables, systems in my life that we need to invite Jesus to mess up. Sometimes we like the order in our lives, but it’s not an order that is really of God. Jesus may have to turn over a few tables for us to really experience God. How does God want to mess some stuff up in our lives? Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you as you reflect.
Bonus: Can you connect the whole “fig tree cursing” with the cleansing of the temple?
