May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let
us pray! Heavenly Father, Your will and
Your way are sometimes mysterious to us, whether it is our receiving rain, or
trying to find the message You have for us.
May we hear Your Word with the goal being our not only fearing You, but
understanding Your love for us is unconditional for all of mankind, including
all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
“‘And
My House shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a Robbers’
Den.” These words uttered by Jesus after
His weeping tears of anguish and sadness over the state of Jerusalem as He
looked upon it, stung the people in the temple, just like these words still do for
me as Pastor today when I hear me personally as His target audience. Jesus Words did not have Gospel, hear that
again, Jesus Words did not have Gospel, they were the view point of God the
Son, Jesus Christ standing in the temple having experienced the place where His
Father dwelt being perverted into nothing better than a bank, social gathering
place or robbers den instead of a place of worship.
Jesus
Christ didn’t apologize for His harshness, because no longer do I nor did the
people in the temple understand nor remember the lessons learned by their
ancestors that had been driven out into the desert and wandered for forty
years. No longer did they remember clearly
the slavery in Egypt, the death of their family members and the destruction of
their pride that occurred with their fore-fathers departure from the ‘easy
life’ in Egypt. No longer did the people
remember that the same God Who had appeared in a burning bush and called the
ground surrounding it Sacred, came and dwelt in the Holy of Holies and Jesus
was now taking back the temple, reclaiming it as a ‘house of prayer’, cleansing
it and setting back in its proper place God as the focal point and making the
temple a place of worship and ceremonially cleansing it as Holy Ground once
again. Jesus Christ didn’t apologize then
for reclaiming not only His Father’s Glory and rightful use of the temple, but
re-instilling in the people the fear that the people of Israel had lost from
their ancestors.
The
fear was not in or of a man, but in a God Who had redeemed and loved them. Let me say that again, the fear was not in or
of a man, but in a God Who had redeemed and loved them profusely to safely
bring them out of the tyranny of Egypt, walked with them into a land flowing
with milk and honey and brought them to a place in time where they now had a
temple for God’s Glory to dwell and it would be Holy Ground. Jesus drove the money changers and
self-centered people out to re-instill the fear in the people that their
ancestors had. Whether it was of God’s
control of the plagues that were a pestilence to Egypt and finally broke
Pharaoh’s will and arm of control with the Angel of Death that took the first
born if there was not blood on the doorpost, to the pillar of fire that led the
people by night and the cloud by day, to the beginning where the people were
led through the waters of the sea parted by a man who had faith and feared a
God Who would be with them to the land flowing with milk and honey. This was not an unhealthy fear, but a fear
that was not born of wrath, destruction or death, but a fear that influenced
their lives and their decisions in order for God’s Glory to be revealed for
them and for us today.
Fear
is something that our society has perverted.
Whether it is marriage and the fear to speak the truth of needs of both
husband and wife, whether of intimacy or maturity, because we do not want to
‘hurt’ our spouse. To society where we
are afraid to hold our leaders, coaches, teachers, even pastors or parishoners
accountable for how they lead or treat one another when it is unchristian or
even mean and does not have love as its driving force. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus had no fear,
because He was doing His Father’s bidding.
Jesus had a direction He was headed and it ended at the Cross on
Golgotha. Jesus did not fear the
outcome, because He knew the future and what He offers us today around the altar
of His precious Body and Blood.
Yet,
if we only look for and understand His comments in the temple without the
Gospel or the Sacrament not only in mind, but also in healthy fear, we forget
God’s gift and the grace He offers to us clearly seen on the Cross of
Calvary. The lens of the Gospel that we need
to look through today here from this Gospel is to inspire us to fulfill God’s
calling that each of us have heard in the Commandments. Martin Luther reminds us in his catechism “We should, fear, love and trust in God.” For in our fearing God, loving God and
trusting God, we will be the recipients of the greatest blessing, eternal life
with Him in His Kingdom, where neither rust, nor hunger will exist. We in His Kingdom will not only be with Him,
but live for all eternity basking in the Glory of God sharing in the greatest
feast ever prepared.
This
is the promise that will be fulfilled for all of us when Jesus Christ comes
again. Jesus weeping, lament and driving
the robbers out of His House will be a memory that is replaced by what we
receive this morning, His precious Body and Blood given and shed for us for the
forgiveness of sins. Jesus gift given
around the altar will not only transform our thinking, but will transform our
understanding of God and reform, reshape and remind us of our need to fear God
for His Glory to be revealed. A Glory
that is given and shed for all of mankind, including all of us saints who enter
His Temple, gather around His table, eat His Body and Blood that prepares and
enables us to fear Him because of His love for each of us as shown on the Cross
of Calvary for all mankind, including all of us saints gathered here at
Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
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