Devotion - Tuesday, November 29

After Jesus enters Jerusalem, he enters the Temple. We are told that he is displeased with what he sees. In one version, we are told he fashions a whip out of rope. He drives the money-changers out of the temple. He overturns their tables and says to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers."

Jesus understood the Temple to be God's. The use he saw of the Temple was not consistent with what he knew the purpose of that place to be. This angers him. And he responds.

There may have been some there that day who applauded. Others may have seen, as Jesus saw, that the Temple had come to be misused. Others were taken aback. They had become so accustomed to the activities in the Temple that they ceased to evaluate whether it was appropriate. It simply was the way things were.

How does Jesus respond, upon observing our practices? This might be asked of what we do together (as the assembled people of God, in our sanctuaries,) or it might be asked of the conduct of God's children (you and me) in our daily lives. Are we making the use of these things which God would expect?

Worship/prayer - these are opportunities to commune with God. They are times in which we express the concerns of our hearts and lift up the prayers of our hearts. They are also times when God comes to us. These encounters with God inform us in our understanding of who God is and what it is that hopes for us. Surely those encounters need a critical eye - an eye which asks whether it is obviously a house (or time) or prayer, or an encounter beneficial for other interests.

Jesus enters the Temple and acts in such a way as to make all aware of how it is that God intends us to order and structure our surroundings and our lives. As we move into these days of Advent, our task is to invite Jesus to enter. This is difficult work in that welcoming him means being prepared to hear his critique of what he sees when he arrives.