LONGSHOT

25MAR24

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’, but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” the were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?”

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. Matthew 21:12-17 (ESV)

Jesus drove out the sellers for his temple was a place of worship. The priests did not mind the presence of the merchants and sellers, as long as they could make money to maintain their rituals.

The act of Jesus cleansing the temple is also important because is shows that he has the power to purify them temple, which is a messianic action. (Ezekiel 43:1-12)

This story also has personal application. In 1 Corinthians 6:19, it says “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit”. Jesus has the authority to cleanse the temple and he will do the same for you. When we invite Jesus Christ into our lives, our temple, he begins to slowly clean us up, making us more in his image every day.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for sending Your Son so that we may have life more abundantly. Thank you for Your divine inspiration to the authors of the gospels, so that we may clearly see the fulfillment of prophecy and messianic actions. Thank you for Your love, that comes into the temple of a broken soul like mine, and cleans me up. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.