Cleaning House

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." 17His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your House will consume Me.”18The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 19Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"21But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 23Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. - John 2:13-25

Imagine your walk into church this morning was a little different. Imagine the first person you met this morning, the greeter, politely handed you bulletin and said, “That will be one dollar please.” The polite greeter then directed you to an offering exchange table where you exchanged your currency for official SoundLife offering chips. Let’s say the exchange rate was about 2 to 1, so your $200 in cash became one hundred dollars worth of chips with a church logo. Next you discovered we were observing communion today as you paid $5 for a Chicklet sized piece of unleavened bread and another $5 for a thimble full of official fruit of the vine. Would you have felt blessed and ready to worship or something else? I suspect something else, and you would be in good company. When Jesus, who was the true Passover ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ and the true Temple of God (His body was God’s dwelling) arrived at the representative temple during the Passover and found profiteers making a buck off God’s name rather than the prayers of worshippers honoring God’s name, the tables were bound to turn. Jesus knew well the inspired writings of Isaiah that expressed God’s intent for His temple, and He was passionate about the purity of worship. “Foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve Him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship Him….these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer….For My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" - Isaiah 56:6-7.

That was not happening and Jesus was good and angry. He was not out of control in a sinful rage. He was passionately purifying God’s house from the polluted practices that were defiling it and dishonoring God. He continues to do the same today. God graciously reveals to us in His inspired written word that we, the body of Christ, are now the temple of God, and the Spirit of Christ, who indwells every true believer, zealously works within us to clean out the clutter and greed that defile us and choke out the living word implanted in us.

Jesus said “stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” Let’s look at that, because I fear Jesus would overturn the tables in a number of our churches if He walked into them this morning. Here’s the deal. Christians in America, the world’s largest free market economy, rather than buying into dreams of greed need to convincingly communicate that some things are just too precious to sell. Some things are necessarily ruined when you sell them. Hillary Clinton was rightfully upset a couple of weeks ago when David Shuster from MSNBC accused her of “pimping out” her daughter Chelsea. I know he was just trying to use street vernacular and sound hip or whatever, but he struck a nerve and rightly so. A mother selling her daughter, pimping her out, is unthinkable to any mother with any decency, because children are too precious to sell. Likewise, love is a gift to be given. It gets ruined when it is sold. We arrest people for selling or purchasing ‘love’, because we intuitively know selling love ruins love. It takes something beautiful and makes it ugly.

As beautiful and precious as children are and love is, God is even more beautiful and more precious, and He and His bride, the church, are not meant to be for sale. We should think of selling God’s Gospel and of making a buck off God’s name, as if it were just another brand name, with the same disgust that we think of selling ‘love’ or selling children. It is no coincidence that God refers to the apostate church of the end times as a harlot. God’s church is the ultimate, supernaturally-instituted charity offering the ultimate Gift, God, to the needy, namely everyone - absolutely free of charge. It needs to be clear to all that the church is not just another business with something to sell. Toward that end, we need to carefully avoid using manipulative marketing techniques in the name of relevance. Such practices alert people to protect themselves against attempts to take from them. We should only use straightforward ways to assure people we are a true charity with something wonderful to give.

So, if we do not sell anything, how are we to be financed and continue ministering? God’s answer is pure and simple - giving. Churches are set-up to be exclusively funded through the generosity of cheerful givers, who freely give without being manipulated or coerced in any way. Let’s turn the tables in a society obsessed with siezing every opporunity to capitalize and honor God by operating under the banner of true love “Not for Sale.”