Date: 25-08-24
Preacher: Ps Lam
Title: Cleansing the Temple

Cleansing the Temple

This morning’s biblical reference for Ps Lam’s message was taken from John 2:13- 22.

The background to the Passover cleansing of the temple makes for interesting archaeological knowledge but of course that should not over-ride the biblical principles involved and Ps Lam took pains to set it right. He also said Jesus’ cleansing of the temple could not have been a one-off incident and He could have done it more than once and not just once after His triumphal entry before He was crucified. Also Ps Lam explained the significance of the Passover being celebrated in Jerusalem and how the Jews then would take the trouble to travel there to celebrate the event. Some would have spent days or even weeks to travel there and because of the great length of travel time, most would not risk bringing offerings of livestock as these could be injured and hence not acceptable. Hence many would then buy the offerings of livestock in the vicinity of the temple itself and in the mind of those business-minded Jews, where better than to set up stalls in the temple itself. In those days, the concept of rental was alien and probably frowned upon as exploitative so the temple priests devised a currency medium for the purpose of buying and selling as they felt that the currency of that time with Caesar’s image would not be appropriate too. Archaeological findings of ancient Temple coins did indeed support this notion.

However, this arrangement also brought about a spiritual decadence among the priests and Jews as the motive for profits soon loomed larger than the consideration of God’s worship. The temple soon became a place where everyone, from the priests to the common Jews, to turn a blind eye to the going-ons so Jesus had to personally deliver God’s temple from the filthy hands of man. However we must note that nobody then stopped Jesus from throwing the merchants and the livestock out of the temple because all knew they had done wrong in their hearts. The lesson here for us is to pause and question our motives behind the behaviour. Is what we are doing a pure act of worship or something else?

Humans die hard so just when we thought they would accept Jesus’ actions, the ordinary Jews then responded by asking for a miracle from Jesus. Again if we were to see the motive behind that question, the Jews were questioning Jesus’ authority. Jesus responded that even if they were to pull down the temple He would rebuild it in 3 days. He was referring to his resurrection 3 days after His death but most did not know that and thought He must be out of his mind. He must also be mulling over His impending death for these that had no heart for God.

Notice also that Jesus did not perform any miracle for He knew the hearts of man. These people just wanted to know who had the power and authority and then they would follow the one with the power. This is not what God wants for at the core is still the spirit of repentance.

Ps Lam’s message tells us as Christians we are to look into the mirror ourselves often enough but not with our own eyes but through God’s eyes. We would then see all our warts and all and then we are to repent to be made whole again in God’s eyes.