David Bahn – Reflections

It is difficult to imagine how something so good as a place of worship might become bad. But on this day Jesus makes it clear: the unnecessary and mis-leading requirements that the Jewish leaders had put into place in the temple had turned a house of prayer into a den of robbers. Such evil is never about calling people to repentance, confronting sin, holding to the truth of God’s word. Always it is about making access to God’s throne of grace a matter of human traditions and requirements. God’s house of prayer is to be for all peoples so that all who seek him may find rest and hope and life in him.

But just as we can undercut God’s kingdom by our duplicity, we can actually allow someone to encounter Christ by simply offering our home for a meal, or allowing someone to use our car for the day. Every good thing that we do can be a means by which God advances the cause of his kingdom.

There will be opportunities today to make inconsequential moments into kingdom-important events. There will also be opportunity, unfortunately, to make good things bad. Sometimes the choice is obvious, sometimes not. But whenever we do as Jesus directs us (v. 6) we will further the cause of his kingdom. And whenever we clutter the pathway  of those who seek to worship God, we turn a good thing into something bad. And I, for one, would rather advance his cause than confound those who seek him.

Matthew 21:1-13

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”