Jesus & The Tables

As we begin our journey of Holy Week together, we encounter Jesus inside the temple courts the Monday after Palm Sunday as chaos unfolds. Slowly read the account below, re-read it if you want, then follow the guide to reflect, respond, and pray!

READ

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer, ’but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. Matthew 21:12-17

REFLECT

As Jesus flips over the tables in the temple, He is demonstrating physically what He will soon accomplish spiritually on the cross. See, the tables in the temple stood between people and their ability to participate in worship. Through His sacrificial death, Jesus will tear down every barrier that would hinder us from being in relationship with God. Through His death and His life, Jesus welcomes all to come to God! The blind, lame, outcast, ridiculed, and marginalized are welcomed by Jesus, and so are you. In God’s Kingdom, all are invited!

RESPOND

Take a moment to imagine Jesus flipping over tables, not because He is angry but because He loves you so much that He doesn’t let anything stand in the way of you and God! How does this make you feel? What does this make you think?  

Now write down any barriers you feel are hindering your relationship with God. Then cross them out, one by one, signifying that because of Jesus, nothing stands in the way.

PRAY

Lord Jesus, disrupt my complacency.

Rattle my routine. Overthrow my pride and fear.

Replace my old ways with something new.

Let me remember the only barrier that exists

between me and You is the one I construct.

Today, I will come to You unhindered in worship. Amen.