It’s Monday of Passion Week.
Jesus is fresh from His triumphal entry. Hundreds of people line the streets to welcome Him into the city. On this day, Monday, Jesus will curse a fig tree. Why? He wants to show that the Messiah has absolute power over all the physical universe. The unfruitful among men symbolized by the fig tree do not have such power. Jesus alone has the power to judge and to determine fruitfulness and unfruitfulness, life and death, salvation and condemnation.
Today, he also cleansed the temple and He healed in the temple. Jesus was revealing who He was by cleansing the temple. He was proclaiming to all generations that He had the right to determine how the temple was to be used and to purge it of corruptions. As God’s Son, the temple was His dwelling place, the place where the worship of God was to be especially known. In cleansing the temple, Jesus was revealing how men were to treat and use the temple of God. Jesus began and ended His ministry by cleansing the temple. The two cleansings were separate events which marked the opening and closing of His ministry. The importance of the temple as God’s house of prayer and worship was thereby demonstrated. Two wonderful things happened when the temple was cleansed of its corruptions:
1. The worshippers, those in need (symbolized by the blind and lame), were able to come to Christ and worship and have their needs met quietly.
2. Christ was able to take His rightful position within the temple. He was able to become the prominent figure and to receive the worshippers and to minister to those who had need.
We are now the temple of God. It is imperative that we keep our temple clean from the impurities of the world. 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
It was a long day for Jesus…the cross looms just ahead of Him….there is much to do before then.
Think of these things.
Billy and Sheilah Daws