Memesplanation Short 103

The cleansing of the temple. In most accounts, this happened just after the fig tree incident, a day or two after Palm Sunday. That is why I chose to put this on the Monday of Holy Week. Over the course of the week, I will show that the traditional accounts are incorrect in terms of when what happened. Why did Jesus clear the money changers and merchants out of the Temple courts? Why was he so upset by this situation? He knew that these individuals and systems, while originally intended to make life easier for the faithful, ultimately created a very oppressive situation. These bankers and merchants extorted the poor who came to worship and sacrifice. How is a church bookstore or coffee shop any different from these men who interfered with the people’s desire to be with God as best they could. The Temple was meant to point to the reality that after Jesus died, was raised, and ascended into heaven, we would each be our own place to meet with God, our own place where God can commune with us. It became a horrible situation, run by money-grubbing, power-hungry men (not all of the ones on the Sanhedrin matched this description, but most did). Jesus could not brook that continuing, so at the Spirit’s urging, he fashioned a whip out of cords and kicked all of that marketplace nonsense to the curb. What elements in your temple might need cleansing today? God is not against us providing for ourselves, as long as that provision does not preclude us from being with Him. If it becomes the center of who we are, and starts to control our lives, then God will probably desire to cleanse our respective temples.