Coming Clean!

We all, yes, all of us, are good at doing things that cause harm to us. Physically. Spiritually. Emotionally. Relationally. The things we do. The things we think. The things we eat and drink. The things we watch. The people we sometimes hang with. The things that come out of our mouths. We somehow find ways to justify all those things. Sometimes we even know they are unhealthy, but we do them anyway. They often give us short-term pleasure but cause long-term harm. In the end, many of them end up leaving us with guilt and remorse.  

There is a word for this act of making ourselves “unclean” – defile. Think of graffiti on an abandoned building. It desecrates and defaces the building. Defilement is the act of desecrating ourselves. Not only is defiling ourselves potentially harmful to us and others, it is also an act of great disrespect toward God. When we defile ourselves through sin or neglect of God, we must seek cleansing by confessing our sins  (1 John 1:9). Only the blood of Jesus Christ is can make us fit to commune with God (1 John 1:7).

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. After His triumphal entry, Once in the city, we are told went to the temple area. Since it was late in the day, and the crowd had left, He and his disciples withdrew to Bethany for the night, possibly staying with Jesus’s good friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. We read this in Mark 11:11 – “And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he… had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

According to Mark 11:15-19 (also Matthew 21:12-17 and Luke 19:46-48) Jesus returns to Jerusalem today and as He enters the Temple He finds the money-changers extorting money from those who had come to the temple for the Passover.

Here is the context – it was easier for those who came to offer a sacrifice to purchase an animal (to sacrifice) at the temple than to bring one with them and then have to get it inspected to see if it met the kosher laws. The pilgrim’s money first had to be exchanged into the local currency, since law required the temple tax to be paid in that local form of currency. The money-changers were charging exorbitant prices for the exchange of “pagan” money into Jewish coins. This infuriated Jesus and the text tells us that He cleared the temple and overturned their tables. This was a direct challenge to the high priest, because the money-changers were there by his authorization.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus returned once again to Bethany that evening (Matthew 21:17).

Now read Malachi 3:1-4. The cleansing of the temple – both the physical structure in these biblical narratives, and now you and me, the living temple – fulfills the prophecy found in these Malachi verses.

Look at your own life and see where you might be defiling your body the temple (1 Corinthians 6:19) and pray with Jesus as He is desires to purify you. What better time than this week, Holy Week, to come clean with Jesus!

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