"Jesus entered the temple area 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. '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'"
Matthew
21:12-13
True relationship with God was what the temple was about.
It's what God has always been about. In Leviticus 26:12 God expressed
this to the Israelites in this way, "I will walk among you and be your
God, and you will be my people." The temple was to be a house
of prayer, a place where people could connect with God and be His
people. Instead it had been turned into a place to buy and
sell merchandise -- apparently at exhorbitant prices. In this
case commerce with physical stuff was getting in the way of people's
relationship with God. Religion and doing religious things supplanted
real relationship.
One could characterize the teachings of Christ in the days before his
crucifixion as being, "get real with God." Matthew 23 relates
Jesus' pronouncement of seven woes where he takes the teachers of the
law and the Pharisees to task for their hypocrisy and phoniness -- for
their self-righteous relationship with the written word of God rather
than a direct relationship with the Word, Jesus -- more concerned about
their external religiosity than a substantive relationship with God for
both themselves and those whose care was entrusted to them.
Jesus soundly and vehemently denounced them for their hypocrisy.
In Jesus' Parable of the Sheep and Goats related in Matthew 25:31-46 He
teaches the importance of our love to fellow humans; meeting their
needs for food, drink, clothing and shelter. This is real
relationship with God, that we become tools in His hands to love and
care for the needy. "The King will reply, 'I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.'"
The night before He was crucified Jesus prayed to God the Father about
the kind of relationship he desires with us, "My prayer for all of them
is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father--that just
as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world
will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you
gave me, so that they may be one, as we are--I in them and you in me,
all being perfected into one."
Let's make this season a time to remember the awesome reality of God
and His love for us.
And if we're not, we need to get real with Him -- in a real
relationship with Him.. |
