My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
Day 2: Jesus Clears the Temple
Monday
Mark 11:15-25 NLT
15 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 16 and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. 17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
18 When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.
19 That evening Jesus and the disciples left the city.
20 The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. 21 Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”
22 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. 25 But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”
Jesus' cleansing of the temple was a powerful act that demonstrated His authority and righteous indignation against the corruption and commercialization of a sacred space, emphasizing the importance of true worship and spiritual integrity over mere ritual observance. These people had made the temple a place for their own benefit rather than a place of worship to God.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6 that our bodies are a temple of God. The temple is not simply a place where we congregate on Sundays. Through the work of Christ, the Holy Spirit now lives within us, enabling our bodies to be a temple of worship to God everyday.
The question is, what does the temple look like in your heart? Is it truly a place of worship to God? Or perhaps it has become a place, as Jesus found it in Mark 11: a place of self-interest, a place of your own pleasures.
Perhaps your temple is filled with resentment, selfishness, stress, fear, or sin. Whatever it is, let Jesus come in and purify you. He wants to cleanse your life so that you live the way He designed you to be. His ways, His paths always bring the best for us.
Let Jesus come and turn your life around. Let Him examine your heart, your temple, so that your whole life may be a place of worship before our Savior.
REFLECT: What does the temple of your heart look like? Is it truly a place of worship for God? What do you need God to come and purify? What can you learn from this scripture? How can you apply it to your life today? Do you have anything for which you need to ask God's forgiveness?
Take a few minutes to think about this and right your reflections in a notebook or in your notes app.