Day 11 — The House
Matthew 21: 12-15
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.
This week is often called Holy Week when we follow the journey of Jesus, carried triumphantly on a donkey into Jerusalem and, just a few days later, executed on a Roman cross. It is a week filled with crowd-fuelled drama and passion, jealousy, betrayal and, most poignantly and powerfully of all, Jesus’ continual call to love, love and more love. But today’s reading reminds us that Jesus was by no means the ‘meek and mild’ Jesus of Victorian hymn-writers.
When someone displays real passion, for those watching it can be polarising and sometimes frightening but more often than not it can also be magnetic. Think about it, a great singer like Adele singing, ‘Never mind I’ll find someone like you…’ we are totally drawn in to this classic break-up song that rinses the emotion out of every single syllable!
Or take the powerful and passionate boxer Tyson Fury who is all over the TV right now – or the history-changing courage and zeal of Martin Luther King with his transformative, ‘I have a dream…’ speech in 1963 . His passion for change left a deep imprint on human consciousness. We recognise and respond to passion that is real and authentic.
In this scripture today we see the passion of Jesus - he is sold out to see revival and repentance in the house of God. For ‘the house’ to be a place of prayer, a house of the presence of God, a house of real spiritual power, a house full of people who are passionate about him, a house reflecting the unshakeable promises of a faithful God. Not a house of corruption and dead religion but a house of vibrant worship and life.
As we are currently confined to our own houses let’s look around and be aware this Holy Week of the things within us – the new temple - that might serve to deflect from the glory of God - and allow Jesus to turn the tables upside down. Let’s ask him to clear the space again for his praise to be re-established, his presence known and his power unleashed today.
One prayer: Let’s use our hours on the 24/7 sign-up to reflect on a Holy God and allow His Holy Spirit to make His home in us.
Nick & Ali Herbert