Access Denied

Getting Closer to Jesus: I have always enjoyed this story of Jesus cleansing the temple. I love the robust image it paints of him. It stands in stark contrast to most of the historical paintings as well as the more recent images we get from the portrayal of Jesus by filmmakers. For some reason, artists from the Renaissance on up to this very day have given us a soft, tender, doe-eyed, almost porcelain-like Jesus—a kinder, gentler Jesus, if you will.

That is not the Jesus of John 2:13-17,

To those who had, in effect, turned God’s holy temple into a one-stop shop place of commerce, he said, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” (John 2:16, The Message)

Jesus doesn’t appear all that soft in this encounter, does he? As a matter of fact, he opened up a can of comeuppance on these greedy merchants of religion, and no one dared stop him. Go down to your local Saturday Market and do that and see what happens. People typically don’t take too kindly to their economic system so abruptly and ingloriously disrupted.

Jesus was different. He was right—and people knew it. His anger was one of righteous indignation and holy zeal for the House of the Lord. So why was he so angry? Was it simply because these merchants had ruined Jesus’ preferred way of experiencing worship at the temple? I don’t think that was really it.

No, Jesus was upset because, at the end of the day, enabled by a religious system that had grown corrupt and with the full support of a self-serving priesthood, these merchants had made it more difficult for worshipers to come and freely experience the love, acceptance, and forgiveness of their Heavenly Father. The drift in temple worship had been to restrict access of people seeking God, whereas everything Jesus stood for and did—his miracles, his teaching, and ultimately his death—was to open up a “new and living way” into the very throne room of God (see Hebrews 10:19-25). If you want to get Jesus mad, just make it hard for people to find his Father.

In this case, a house cleaning of the strongest order was long overdue, and if the worshippers present that day didn’t overtly cheer him on, my sense is they were applauding on the inside.

Now as much as we enjoy this story, it really is incomplete if we don’t fast-forward to our time and ask how Jesus would respond if he walked into our church today. How much more zeal would Jesus have for his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit—that is, the church? How much more holy fire and righteous indignation would he display for that which he suffered and died to purify and redeem? How much more upset would he be that the new community of grace—the New Testament church—had denied access to seekers by the very activities, programs, and systems it claims will attract them?

In the new economy of the Kingdom of God, the church has replaced the temple as the dwelling place of God on earth. Of course, that refers more to a people than a place—and yet both are the church. What would Jesus see in your church—in you, in your brothers and sisters in the local community of Christ, and in the activities that take place in your church building?

I have a sense that each—both people of worship and places of worship—is due for a little divine house cleaning. How about we get started before the Lord of the church is forced to show up and do it for us? And if nothing else, let’s eliminate anything that in effect, communicates “access denied” to people desperately needing to experience the presence of God.

Take the Next Step: Is there zeal—a fire in your bones—for God’s house? If not, rethink your attitude and repurpose your energies toward the place where you worship. And not only the physical house in which God’s people gather, but also in the spiritual house made up of his redeemed children—the Body of Christ. Examine your attitudes toward the worldwide church of Christ. And one more thing: How about your physical body? God’s Spirit dwells there, too. Is the way you treat it God-honoring? Change the way you treat God’s house so that it will be said of you, “zeal for your house consumes me.