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. he said to them, it is written, ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 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!” they were indignant, 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’?” [matthew 21:12-16]
purity.
Jesus was absolutely concerned with the purity, the holiness and ‘set-apartedness’ of the temple. for those who really had no regard for God, but their own traditions, positions, power and money, what was practical was practiced. people are concerned for their souls, so why not make a little cash on the side?
1500 years after Jesus, another man, martin luther was concerned with the practices of the church–to fund st. peter’s basilica, dominican monk johann tetzel was the proponent of selling indulgences for the freeing of dead relatives from purgatory to heaven–“as soon as the gold in the casket rings; the rescued soul to heaven springs.”
when luther nailed the 95 theses to the door a wittenberg, it boldly, sharply made the statements:
thesis 1. “when jesus said “repent,” he meant that believers should live a whole life repenting”.
thesis 27. “it is nonsense to teach that money can save a dead soul from purgatory”
thesis 32. “people who believe that indulgences will save them will always be damned, along with those who teach it.”
thesis 36. “a man can be free of sin if he sincerely repents – an indulgence is not needed.”
luther, who spent much time in the presence of God, was righteously angry, and was concerned for the holiness and purity of God’s church.
this would be luther’s ‘temple moment’–he would be targeted and persecuted for the rest of his life because of the truth he was speaking. Jesus, knew that going into the temple was one of the final actions that ultimately ended in his death at the hands of the romans and jewish leaders.
we know it goes deeper than just the doors of the church in wittenberg. when we come to Christ, he is turning over the tables in our hearts, smashing our idols, calling us to purity and holiness–we are no longer spectators, we are no longer dabbling in the practical and worldly–we are made pure to be in the presence of God:
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. [ephesians 2:18-22]
in him we are being built in to a holy temple of the Lord–he makes us pure so that we can be a dwelling place for the Spirit!
or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. so glorify God in your body. [i corinthians 6:19-20]
paul is speaking specifically here in reference to purity when it comes to sexual sin–and it has applications that extend further–let us flee sexual immorality, let us flee worldliness, let us be who we are, bought, loved, and found in Christ! by doing so, he will do what he does–he will tear down the idols that are still in our hearts and in our flesh.
~ce