Slices
Prepare
‘One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple’ (Psalm 27:4).
Bible passage
Jesus at the temple
12 Jesus entered the temple courts 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. 13 ‘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.”’
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.
16 ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him.
‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read,
‘“From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise”?’
17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Explore
Sometimes we hear of the institutional church in crisis, and this can dishonour God, which makes me feel both sad and angry at times. I’m passionate about God’s church and yearn to see it not only as a place of welcome, but as a place of safety, a place where all people can grow and flourish.
In our passage today, Jesus is both fiercely confrontational and yet also deeply compassionate. Both are motivated by a profound love for God’s people, for the poor who are being abused by moneylenders, the blind and lame who seek healing, and the children who continue to shout out their praises. Jesus is angry. Trading in the outer courts of the Temple, motivated by greed, is dishonest and damaging to the throngs of pilgrims who have come to worship. Gentiles and the disabled are not allowed into the inner courts; so, with the marketplace in full force, they have no place to pray and worship. Jesus is angry, but it’s an anger motivated by a passion to honour his Father’s house and to enable all people to worship freely.
Respond
Pray for churches to be a place of welcome and worship for all, and consider how you can contribute to this in your context.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 25,26; John 10
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks to God for the faithful service of SU Local Mission Partners across the country. Ask him to continue to bless all they are doing in their communities and with their local churches to reveal Jesus to the next generation. (This week's prayers relate to this article.)
A child has started following Jesus. Help them keep growing.
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