Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests
to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of
The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
After this, He went down to Capernaum with His mother and
brothers and His disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus
went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, He found people selling cattle,
sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a
whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle;
He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To
those who sold doves He said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning My Father’s
house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for
Your house will consume Me.”
John 2:12-17
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
Jesus had saved the day at the wedding feast, converting
water to wine so as to spare the embarrassment of a shortage of imbibement for
the master of the banquet and others in attendance. As we covered in yesterday’s
devotion, it constituted the first miracle Jesus conducted and quite a miracle
it was.
So what would Jesus do next?
As we see in today’s passage, He caused quite a scene in
the city of Jerusalem. Look at these words as we continue to study from the
second chapter of John:
After this, He
went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples. There
they stayed for a few days.
When it was almost
time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts,
He found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables
exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple
courts, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and
overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, “Get these out of
here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered
that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.” John 2:12-17
From Cana, Jesus traveled to Capernaum, not alone but
with a whole host of family members and disciples. Ultimately, they were
heading to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover as was Jewish custom.
Before we go to Israel’s holy city and cover what Jesus
did there, we need to not gloss over the fact that Jesus was not an only child.
We know Joseph and Mary parented Jesus but what gets lost sometimes is that
they had other children. Mark, Chapter 6, verse 3 tells us:
Isn’t this Mary’s
son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here
with us?”
Now most students of the Bible know the New Testament
Book of James is attributed to Jesus’ brother but he wasn’t the only male
sibling. The scripture from Mark tell us there were also Joseph, Judas, and
Simon. We also learn that Jesus had sisters even though we aren’t introduced to
them in the Bible outside of their mention here. The main takeaway was that
Jesus had quite a family outside of Himself.
From Capernaum, Jesus and His entourage traveled to
Jerusalem, a distance of 85 miles so it took some time to get there.
Considering that people could walk close to 20 miles a day, the trip would have
taken nearly five days total.
After arriving in Jerusalem, we read where He paid a
visit to the temple courts and what a sight He saw there. For in the place
where the Gentiles were allowed to come, worship, and pray unto God, the
Israelites had erected a marketplace of sorts, one filled with people selling
animals for temple sacrifices and exchanging money. The scene drew the anger of
Jesus who chose to take action.
The scriptures tell us He fashioned a “whip out of cords”
and proceeded to drive out everyone “from the temple courts” including all the
animals. He then overturned the tables of the money changers, scattering their
coins everywhere.
I’m sure everyone present who saw what was happening had
to wonder what had gotten into this man who was a Passover festival visitor in
their city. Jesus made sure they knew why He had done what He did saying:
“Get these out of
here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a market!”
God’s temple was to be a holy, sacred place reserved for
honoring Him with worship, atoning sacrifices, and prayer but there was no
opportunity for any of those things to be done within the Court of the Gentiles
with the market taking over the grounds. Essentially, the Israelites had
insulted divinity by failing to respect the consecrated ground they were on.
Well, as Jesus was consumed by a passionate rage to
restore reverence, His disciples harkened back to the Psalms and these words of
David:
“Zeal for Your
house will consume Me.” Psalm 69:3
Jesus loved His Father and was not about to allow anyone
or anything to disrespect or desecrate Him in any way. The Gentiles deserved a
place to worship God just as much as the Jews did and Jesus was going to make
sure that happened by standing up for what was right and just. He wasn’t afraid
to make a stand for the Lord, even when He knew it would draw negative reviews
within the Jewish community in Jerusalem, especially from the religious leaders
of the day.
Friends, we need to learn from and then follow the lead
of Jesus here. For every day, I think we see instances where people insult
divinity either by the things they do or the things they say. When we see those
things happening, will we be as bold and brash as Jesus, calling people out and
defending the sanctity of God, our Father in the process?
My prayer is that we all will do whatever needs to be
done to honor the Lord above all things, even if it means we need to ruffle a
few feathers. In those times, when courage and strength is needed, rest assured
God will give you everything you need to carry out His work, now and forever
more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment