Cleanse Your Church!

This morning I felt led to read from Matt 21, which is the beginning on end of Jesus’ ministry, for it starts with the procession into Jerusalem, in what we refer to as Palm Sunday.  I was reading through these familiar verses and saw something this morning I hadn’t noticed before.  Here are the verses - Matthew 21:6-15 NIV:

[6] “The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. [7] They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. [8] A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 

[9] The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

[10] When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 

[11] The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” 

[12] Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. [13] “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” 

[14] The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. [15] But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.”

What caught my attention this morning was verse 14, and specifically how that happened immediately after He cleansed the temple!  He cleared out the businesses, the money-making, and immediately it became a house of healing and joy!  The other accounts in Mark and Luke don’t bring out this specific fact, but allude to it.

I do see in this a bit of a prophetic picture of a call to the Church to stop acting like a business and focus on the Gospel and ministry.  The Church has become, for many, a giant business and money-making is part of the focus for sure.  With huge buildings, and staff, sound and video teams, spectacular programs, concert-like services, it is clear that we have lost much of the focus and ministry of Jesus!  Oh Lord, help us!

It is very likely that our focus on flashy and glittery things, on the size of the congregations, and their giving is because we have no power to heal and deliver, to change lives, and we don’t really believe Jesus words in John 14:11-12 NIV:

[11] “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

I am sure of one thing, Jesus was not talking about light and smoke shows, fancy videos and programs designed to entertain when He spoke verse 12.  

Oh Lord, forgive us for making Your church a place of business and entertainment, rather than a house of prayer and healing!  Oh Lord, forgive us and help us to return to Your ministry, to Your compassion for the people, to Your Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven present!  Oh Lord, cleanse Your Church!  

Amen and Amen!