Jesus Cleanses

Summary

Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. 21.21-22

It did not take long for Jesus to overstay His welcome. After the celebration of His arrival, Jesus marches into the temple and starts flipping over tables. For the Jews this would have been very confusing. He was supposed to come and affirm the Jews and attack the Romans. Instead, here He was cleaning out the temple – the symbol of the Jewish faith. His anger is aimed at how the religious function had stripped the meaning out of the faith. No longer were people being healed, served, and loved. Instead, people were being given merchandise to purchase. It is very easy to allow our faith to become routine, apathetic, and consumeristic. The solution to this is to remember who is at the helm. If God were simply a product, then once we had Him, He could lose luster. Since He is alive, we must maintain a relationship with all of its passionate ups and downs. Jesus main point here is about the importance of prayer and its connection to the life of the believer.

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