Scripture: Mark 11:15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tablets of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves… (11:15)
Observe This is a fairly violent act! I’m not sure if there’s a parallel act in the gospels. Jesus gets angry. It’s public for there’s a lot of people around at the Passover celebration. And his clearing of the temple would take more than a few minutes (and longer, depending on the number of the sellers and money-changers). So Jesus didn’t just fly off the handle but acted deliberately. (And what did his followers think?) He certainly acted in anger for the sake of his Father’s and his Father’s intent. What was his Father’s ‘house’, a house of prayer, doing as a corrupt marketplace?
Applications Where the Father ‘lives; is to be a ‘house of prayer’. Jesus is offended when prayer doesn’t happen, or, worse, it becomes perfunctory: to ‘pray’ without really praying, to not even consider whether God is there or not. And I am (we are) the Temple, the Bible says. Am I a person of prayer? Are we a place of prayer? I have to make prayer a conscious, continual habit. Not prayer in and of itself, but prayer to touch the heart of the One who is there. He values that as much as he values anything.
Life application for today Simply pray, today and every day.
Prayer Lord, help me to clear out my heart to allow some time and space to pray today. Amen.