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Published: 18 June 2015

All week I have been imagining Jesus entering the Temple during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  The Jewish people had meticulously rid their homes of leaven but a far worse problem was evident in their place of worship.  There was a leaven multiplying in the Courts of the Temple that would bring about the ruin of the Jewish way of worship. While they were making sure that all the leaven was out of their homes, an ever increasing accumulation of busyness and business was taking place.  The family of the high priest was raking in the profits from people who came to worship.  The homeless, the lame, the blind and the foreigners were pushed to the fringe so that they wouldn’t interfere with the making of money.  While it appeared that religion was alive and well in the Temple of the Most High God, the reality was different. True worship, worship in spirit and in truth was dying.  People were going through the motions.  Others were profiting from their motions and the weightier things that God really wanted were hard to find.  God really wanted “mercy and not sacrifice.”  You’d think they would have known this since their ancestors had been through all this before.  Isaiah and other prophets had given sermons about God’s heart on these matters.  Those sermons had been recorded by scribes and portions were even read during the Festival.  But, the attitude was often, “Pay the offering, listen to the reading, get the sacrifice done…let’s get on with it already…”  Of course that was not true about everyone.  There were people there that were grieved by the proceedings and wanted to worship God and love their neighbor but it had become increasingly difficult in that environment.   Enter the so-called “meek and lowly Jesus.”  He went to work on the leaven in the house of God.  He tipped over tables and benches.  He let the money fall to the floor.  He healed the lame and the blind.  He cleared the Court so the Gentiles could worship the God of all nations.  Jesus Christ was no namby-pamby.  He cared about the honor of God and believed that access for all people; rich, poor and foreign should be available.  That was the purpose of God’s house, the Temple was to be a House of Prayer for all nations but scally-wags had turned God’s house into a den of thieves.  Soon the Temple would go the way of the barren fig tree.  That which has appearance but no reality is not long for this earth.  I try to keep these blogs short…so I will end but if you have ears to hear, there is a lot of application available in Matthew 21:12-22.  May the Lord open our eyes and bring fruit that remains.

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Published: 11 June 2015

Many of the disappointments in our lives are the result of misplaced or wrong expectations. Our expectations are often based on our desires and/or bad information. For example, we’ve been told for so long that “anything is possible to those who dream,” that we believe it. The reality buster is harsh. Sometimes we dream about things that are just silly for us. I’m a fairly optimistic person and strange things do happen but I don’t think professional athletics have ever been or will ever be in my future. Facing the reality of life can be harsh. Some people never get around to it. I’ve preached about the event we are studying on Sunday over 20 times. Every time I think about Jesus heading down the Mt. of Olives into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday I’m impressed with His courage, compassion and commitment to the Father’s will. He had made His intentions clear, the symbol He used to reveal His character and purpose was not hard to understand. Yet, the crowd who wanted a better government and a better leadership looked past the intentions of God to their own expectations. Of course some of them would come to believe but many of them would leave disappointed. People are still disappointed with God on a regular basis—I have been too. As I look at my disappointment though, I realize that I had expectations that were contrary to His stated promises. I am free to ask for virtually anything but not free to expect everything I ask for. Asking for something “in Jesus’ name” does not mean using His name as a rabbit’s foot or magical incantation, it means that we are basing our request on His reputation and promise. We will receive what we ask for when He has made a promise. Millions of people can testify of His and provision in their hour of need. So, in addition to thinking about what you want from Jesus, think and pray about what you can expect. Don’t make the mistake of that crowd in Jerusalem that ended up sorely disappointed.