Matt 21:12-13

"Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, "It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer," but you have made it a den of thieves." Matt. 21:12-13

I find it interesting that immediately upon entering Jerusalem, .Jesus made His way to the Temple. Once achieving this goal, the first order of business was to cleanse it. This is especially interesting because the first thing done on Passover week was the cleansing of the house. The mistress of each household, along with her children, went through all the home looking for "leaven." When they found it, they would sweep it up with a feather and remove it from the building. Jesus found "leaven" in His house.

It had become the custom of the priests to authorize booths to be set up in the Temple for providing authorized sacrificial elements. The price was always too high, and the homegrown sacrifices were always too poor of a quality for the Unspeakable God. These changers would exchange the lesser offering for one "certified" by the priests. Of course a bit of cash had to be included in the deal to make up for the improvement of quality. Even cash offerings had to be made in "Temple" money. And this, too, was offered, with an exchange fee. You can see that this was big business - crooked big business - and the priests were on the receiving end of the exchange.

On a deeper level, two things happened with this event. First, Jesus was proclaiming that He was the rightful owner of the Temple. "My house shall be called ..." He didn't call it "God's house" or "this house," it was My house. He was the owner and it was time to clean out all the leaven of the world. Second, Jesus was declaring that His house would be a "house of prayer" - a place dedicated to meditating and conversing with the God of the universe.

Paul tells us: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Cor. 3:16 Jesus has taken up residence in the hearts of those who have received Him as their Savior. This parallel to today's verses raises two questions. First, have you invited Him to take residence in your heart? If not, now is the perfect time to do so. It is a simple task. All you have to do is admit that you have made a mess of your life and want Him to clean it up. He is happy to do that, and when He does, He will make your heart a permanent residence of His.

Second, is your heart, your flesh-home, a house of prayer? If you are like me, you find that you are so busy that you have little time to devote to meditation and conversation with the Father. It is a common ailment in today's age. We want to see all we can see; taste all we can taste; enjoy all we can enjoy; and do all we can do. That leaves little spare time for the really important things - our relationship with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I have come to the conclusion that we must be willing to give up some of the things WE want to do in order to do the things God wants us to do. That is a part of making God the focus of our lives. We must make room for Him on the throne of our lives. If we don't, we will be left totally devoid of the riches that really matter. Amen and Amen.