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When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. \u201cIt is written,\u201d he said to them, \u201c\u2018My house will be a house of prayer\u2019; but you have made it \u2018a den of robbers.\u2019\u201d Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. (Luke 19:45-48).

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Luke has the least vehement version of Jesus\u2019 clearing of the Temple.\xa0 In all the other gospels, Jesus overturns tables and scatters coins.\xa0 In John\u2019s gospel, Jesus even has a whip of cords as zeal for God\u2019s house consumes him.\xa0 But Luke doesn\u2019t focus much on the how of Jesus\u2019 action.\xa0 No, Luke just reports that it happened.\xa0 Jesus drives out those who were selling and reminds them all that the Temple must be a house of prayer, not of commerce or corruption.\xa0

Jesus is not here seeking to overturn the Temple itself.\xa0 No, that will happen all on its own because Jerusalem did not recognize the time of God\u2019s coming to them to bring peace, as Jesus has just said through tears at the time of his entry.\xa0

Instead of overturning the current religious order, Jesus is calling that religious order back to itself.\xa0 He is calling the religious leaders, the worshipers, the merchants who facilitate access to the sacrificial acts of worship\u2014he is calling all of them back to the primary purpose of the Temple.\xa0 Which is to connect with God.\xa0 To pray and renew the covenant.\xa0 Not to gain power, influence, or wealth.

So as we hear this teaching from Jesus today\u2014and especially as we prepare to emerge out of Covid-restricted worship\u2014the question is what practices have crept up in our church that Jesus might seek to purify?

Where and how do we seek to gain power in the church?\xa0 Or influence?\xa0 Or wealth?\xa0 What church practices or habits have distracted us from the simple act of prayer, communion, and restoration of our relationship with God?

Whatever they are, Jesus\u2019s word challenges us here to turn away from our self-serving habits and in humility and repentance turn back toward him.\xa0 But note here: Jesus does not abandon the Temple, corrupt though it may have been at the time.\xa0 Instead, he seeks to purify it from within.\xa0 He takes up residence within it.\xa0 And he ministers to and from it\u2014both with his peace, and with his word of challenge.\xa0 Ultimately, Jesus remains the God who is with us.\xa0 \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0

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