Overturn Tables

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 (NIV)

This is one of the few times in the Bible Jesus showed anger and maybe the only time he acted on it with great force. He saw this temple defiling the place of holiness and worship it was meant to be and it angered him.

I'm currently in a cohort that is focused on developing leaders in my church. Not only are we looking at what makes a leader, but we're digging into who we are to the core; how do we function and how do we deny our true selves with actions and emotions that are fueled by impure motives? It's not an easy thing to do. One aspect of this process is a certain personality test we use as a tool for looking at positive characteristics and qualities within ourselves, but our brokenness and deep rooted struggles are also brought to the surface. Results to personality tests do not define anyone by any means, identity is discovered through Christ, but my results reflected what Jesus has shown me about myself. It's confirmed good qualities I have but also a lot of my brokenness - for the others as well. We're all struggling with confrontation of things we have buried or tried to ignore but need to lay at the foot of the cross. 

With Easter approaching I have been reading through the gospel on Jesus's life and ministry. As I wrestle through my hurts and selfish motives brought up in cohort this section in Matthew where Jesus overturned tables in the temple when he saw it's holiness challenged jumped out at me. As Christians, we don't worship in temples anymore and our churches don't have the same significance - we go to church to commune with God but we can do that anywhere because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are the temple now.

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

- 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

It's uncomfortable to deal with our struggles and the parts of us we know need healing and mending. But maybe we need to stick it out, because it's Jesus turning tables over in our hearts; he's getting violent with the things that threaten God's temple - us - and wants to bring purity to His sacred place of dwelling, holiness, and worship. 

I was traveling last week by plane. Early in the morning I landed in Houston, where I was connecting to another flight, and a fog was blanketed over the landscape. It was thick and kept me from seeing what was truly there. Soon the sun rose and and the fog dissipated. By take off on my next flight I was able to see the trees, grass, roads with cars driving on them, houses, etc. It was vastly more vibrant and I could look down and see the details that were blocked earlier by the mask of the fog.

If we let Jesus knock out the parts of us that are tainting the purity of our temples, we can overcome the things that are fogging up our vibrant identities in Christ. Let Him shine into and penetrate the cracks and crevices where we have allowed brokenness to burrow so He can work with us to rid us of the masks and false selves we create because of them and bring out who we truly are because He is in us.

"Spiritual progress is like detoxification. Things have to come up in order to be released. Once we have asked to be healed, then our unhealed places are forced to the surface."

- Marianne Williamson

It's not easy, it's uncomfortable, and it may take more time and effort than we want, but we have God in us who can overcome anything. Stop shoving the things unhealed back down and let Jesus get violent with them.