Worship Service

Temple Worship in Jesus’ day had degenerated into a commercial enterprise that benefited the religious elite, gouged the worshippers, and excluded the Gentiles.  Jesus observes this just before his death and loses it.  Picture an angry Jesus, whip in hand, upending tables, chasing animals and merchants alike from the temple courts, and yelling something about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days.   This is a picture of Jesus  that we’re

not comfortable with – Jesus walking on the wild side, pointing to a new reality that will soon be ushered in.  It’s a story that prompts several questions:

1.       Are we guilty to the same kind of marketplace religion that Jesus reacted against?

2.       Are we cluttering up access to God with the stuff of life?

3.       Is there so much clamoring and chattering in our lives that we can’t hear God speak?

Discussion Questions

1.       In what ways do you see similarities between the scene that Jesus reacted against to the evangelicalism of our day?

2.       If, as Christians, we are the temple of God, how  do we guard our lives against the temptation to ‘commercialize’ our faith?

3.       If Jesus were to take a ‘walk on the wild side’ in our lives, what would he see?  What would he have to purge?

4.       Does the world around us – the people we interact with daily – see God in our lives?  Are they attracted to Him, or can’t they get close for the clutter?

While John places this event at the beginning of his Gospel, the other gospel writers place it right after the Triumphal Entry and before the crucifixion.  It was Passover,  a time  in which Jewish households purged their homes of any leavening agents.  It was a time not unlike our Lent.  How might we purge our lives of that  which gets in the way of our relationship with God?