When
Hezekiah, one of the last God-fearing kings of Judah, takes the throne, he
finds the temple of God out of order.
His no-good predecessor, Ahaz, sold the gold and bronze temple
furnishings to finance his predilection for wine, women and song. The general populace had long since forsaken
the boring temple for the more entertaining and sensational worship of Baal and
Asherah. The dutiful clergy, the
Levites, have all taken other jobs, and eventually just boarded up the doors and
windows. God’s temple is out of
business. At Hezekiah’s orders, the
boards are pried off the windows and the chain barring the door removed. The dust and detritus of years of neglect are
exposed to the light of day, and swept out into the street. The Levites are given their old jobs back,
and they get to work cleaning out the temple, and cleaning themselves up to
prepare for worship. When the work of
cleansing is done, Hezekiah commands his people to come back to God.
In the
Gospel of Matthew, the temple is once again out of order. At the
beginning of the week that will end with his death, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on
the back of a donkey. Onlookers
recognize him as the Messiah – the triumphant king come from God to set all
things right. Jesus rides straight to
the temple. There, he throws open the
doors. He kicks out the merchants who
are there to make a buck off of people too gullible to
know that God’s favor can’t be bought with a religious trinket and a Hail
Mary. He turns over the tables of money
changers who promise to turn Roman currency into the currency of Heaven – at a very
profitable exchange rate. Jesus sweeps
out the debris and detritus that have built up and blocked the way to worship.
In 1
Corinthians 6, the Apostle Paul says, “Do you not know that your bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from
God?” Paul’s addressing a church whose
hearts are at risk of being clogged with the debris of a broken world and the
detritus of sin. The Holy Spirit comes
to us, cleansing us and opening up the way to true worship.
When
Hezekiah cleanses the temple, it is finally fit for worship. When Jesus cleanses the temple, something
else happens. Matthew says, “The blind
and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” We resist the monumental task of temple
cleansing because we’ve gotten used to the debris, and we’re afraid of what it
will cost us to clean house. Look at
what happens when Jesus cleans house: Healing; restoration; redemption. Let him in, and let him get to work.
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