When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. 35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, 36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
What’s the difference between the Berlin Wall of Communist East Germany, and the walls around our house? One is to protect us from weather, intruders, and to define our space. The Berlin Wall was to imprison, and proclaim to all how supposedly great they were. Walls can be good. They can also be overly protective – those we build between ourselves and other people. Those we use to close off our hearts to others’ needs. Those we use to separate the privileged from the inferior.
The Jews in Paul’s day thought of the walls in the temple were to protect God’s house from sacrilege and contamination. They saw God’s house to be so sacred that no sinner ought ever go there. They thought that if a Gentile came into the temple, it would pollute their faith, and adulterate their religion.
They were adamant about this. They thought that Paul had desecrated the Temple by bringing a Gentile into the holy part of the temple. This so upset them that they were ready to have Paul executed.
How right and wrong they were! Right in that only the pure in heart and holy ones can be in God’s presence. Wrong in that they thought they could be there, but others they judged to be unfit could not. They ignored the truth of the Psalm: There is no one righteous. Not even one. (Paul quoting Psalm 14 in Romans 3:10-12)
The only one truly righteous was crucified as a common criminal. He was perfectly pure in heart and mind, body and soul. He belonged in the Temple. And when he died the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The separation between man and God was removed. Through Jesus we all have access to God. Whoever comes in humble repentance and the weakest spark of faith is welcome in God’s house.
Sometimes we may need to protect ourselves from those who would desecrate our religion, demean our Savior, or ridicule our faith. But to assume from the outset that someone is not worthy or welcome in God’s house is a dangerous and destructive thing to do.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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