In this passage, Jesus angrily clears the temple because his Father’s house of prayer had been turned into a marketplace. A place where there ought to be worship and surrender and devotion to God had been intermixed with non-religious activities such as buying and selling and making deals. How did this happen? People traveled far to go to the temple and especially on special occasions like the Passover Feast, they were coming to sacrifice an animal to atone for their sins. And how convenient it is with the local businessmen identifying the needs of these out-of-town visitors and they brought their merchandise into the temple. Instead of finding a lamb or goat on the other side of town, it’s right there. How convenient! What a blessing? Or is it?
How we often possess this mentality in our spiritual lives. We want everything to fit it nicely into our schedule. And in this technological age, everything is at our fingertips, even spiritual resources. It is quite conceivable that a growing number of believers in this generation and the next will forgo church attendance and resort to online sermons. Why bother with getting dressed and enduring traffic when God is right on our computer screen… How convenient it is click a button and have God’s blessings streaming into your home! Or is it?
Faith was never meant to be convenient. God wanted us to rest on the Sabbath because just the sheer fact that we put all other duties aside one day out of the week is an act of worship and an expression of how much God means to us.
This year, instead of fitting God into your schedule, how about trying to reorient your life around God and His Word? Though faith may be an inconvenient truth, may we all experience God in more intimate ways this year as we put Him first in our daily lives.