Tables

Then 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 seats of those selling doves. And He declared to them, "It is written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer. But you are making it a den of robbers.' Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus will zealously pursue communion with us even if it means overturning some tables. Chris Tiegreen Many look at this Scripture and only see the outward understanding. They'll make it about reverence for the House of God, about behavior "in church." The church is indeed holy ground, but anyplace where we stand with Him is holy ground. He makes it so. Jesus was offended by the presence of worldly practices in His Father's House. His House of Prayer. Ungodly things will always deeply offend Him and will never have a place on His holy ground, and there is no more holy ground than the heart of a true believer and follower of Jesus Christ. So many of us can be so diligent about the physical ground of our church while completely neglecting the ground of our heart. Into the holy ground of our heart we can bring so many unholy things. We accumulate our own personal tables piled high with things that should not be there. Things that take our attention, our desire, worship away from Him and onto something else. They can be good things that have become so important to us that our desire is for them, far more than it is for Him. When this happens, Jesus is going to overturn some tables. The money changers and the merchants did not all "show up" in the Temple at once. It was a gradual thing. A little opening for one or two. A little compromise, a little less guarding of the heart of what the Temple was to be, a house of prayer. Gradually it became what it was, a courtyard meant for prayer and worship that had become anything but. It deeply offended the eyes and heart of Christ. He overturned the tables and drove them out. He cleansed the Temple of their presence. This is what happens in our hearts. The rivals to Christ and our love for Him don't all arrive together. They come in pieces. They come with our compromises. They come with our permission. As they keep coming, our awareness of Him dims, as does our love. Jesus will not be shy in His confrontation of it all. He will violently confront and overturn the things that have taken us from Him, that have taken up space that must belong to Him alone. Tables will be overturned and it can be painful, but oh, the cleansing that is the product of it all. Where have the tables of the world gained entrance into your heart and mine? Tables piled high with our earthly treasures didn't become so all at once. We've made compromises. We've given permission, and in our doing, have muddied our hearts and compromised our affections, blinding us to all that has happened there. What tables exist in our hearts today? We've likely grown so used to them that we don't even "see" them anymore. Jesus will bring us to reckoning. He'll begin overturning tables. Will we allow Him to cleanse our hearts as He cleansed the Temple courtyard? Or, have we grown attached and in love with our tables? Blessings, Pastor O