Cleanse the Temple

Implications regarding the cleansing of the temple:

What other portrait of our Lord, Jesus, so rattles the mind as the panorama of His assault upon the temple merchants? Humility, servitude, and a manner of restraint from all but the necessary (even if as according to divine, not human, precepts...) characterize so much of what we see recorded of His ways among us. Like a lamb led to slaughter, even, as Isaiah foretold--horrific though the thought, but still...apt.

So, to have witness of such a bold and unexpected show of indignation...

...all the more known, then, as ruled by passions unfathomable to those even nearest Him.

The care with which He constructed the tool, though, doesn't give indication of impulsivity. Nor of any lack of restraint. Meticulous. Diligently prepared. Mayhap reluctantly undertaken, but nonetheless a necessary statement, violent though it might have seemed to those taken wholly unawares. 

I wonder if He seemed a madman, raging, to them. I can't help but think that the terror which struck those who even saw Him approaching was like enough to completely shock their minds into utter silence, cowed and trembling, only to flee the wrath evident. 

Surely He struck the fear of God...fear of His Father...into them, more than anything, no matter who may've been struck. He took the time to heal the ear of a guard come to take Him captive, at Gethsemane--how likely would He have harmed anyone else? 

Moreso a testimony against the lawlessness rampant. A testament to the wrath to come. 

And what, but when a heart of love is so stricken as to reach a point of necessary extinction of cause of pain? How long should He suffer us to continue heedless His loving arms, outstretched, yet blindly and willfully and rebelliously continuing to make merchandise of His name, His love, His will and His ways?

How long should He suffer such unbelief as would set up a mercantile, profiting off the poor in the name of God, in the very temple He'd agreed to visit upon, among His own? 

A house of prayer become a den of thieves. 

And what is prayer, then? ...what is prayer, a lifting of one's spirit to the Creator of all?...in worshipful supplication, seeking a communion with the One amongst all whom ever could succour all need, yet in Himself alone? This, without even needing redirect to the physical--He, Himself, in Himself, is capable of satisfying all need--He is the source and the satisfaction of our need. All else is shadow.

So, what, a place given to prayer, to such holy communion?

Sacred, surely. Sanctified, given to worship. Not self-seeking, but to the glory of the One whose name is eternal. A place ordained by Him, so to meet and worship His Holy Presence? 

Surely sacred.

Until self-seeking, self-exaltation enters in. Posing as a means of glorifying the One to whom the temple is dedicated--further blasphemy, given such a pretense. But justifiable, before men...undiscerning. 

So, what were they stealing, moreover? ...beyond taking advantage of the poor--a seeming advantage, perhaps (surely, convenience is a price well paid, no?), but cunning nonetheless, for whatsoever a profit was made. 

But what were they stealing?

Exalting the reasons of man, defaming the sanctified house of the Most High God by claiming justifiable reason for the present effort...in the name of God...thus, by elevating self as rightly situated, making merchandise of God's glory. For perhaps little to no profit, financial, but yet exalting their names within the temple. Exalting their services within the very realm of God's own tabernacle. Stealing His glory, for themselves. 

...a den of thieves, indeed. 

So, what a difference. Seeking God, or seeking self-exaltation?

Hasn't that always been the question?

...would you like to be as a god, knowing good and evil--needing noone to direct you, to instruct you, to teach you...never having or feeling need to submit to anyone's authority except your own, in making moral and logistical determinations?

...would you like to do what's right, in your own eyes? Rather than always seeking to submit to God's will?

...perhaps for the sake of little more than a "quiet life," "a comfortable retirement," "a healthy family," "a successful career," "a meaningful life," "self-realization," or any other such and the like?

Are you willing to compromise...just a little...for the sake of convenience?...for the convenience of yourself, or of others? And call it good, on your terms--perhaps not profiting much, except as a self-congratulatory exercise in what you perceive is "the right thing to do," "on God's behalf?"

When you do what you do, "to the glory of God," "in Jesus' name," do you do it on your terms, or on His?

We all have this same temptation. It's the same as ever: to want to do what's "right in our own eyes," and call it good. Regardless what God has said. Regardless what He does say, on the matter.

Knowing that He does not change. 

...and, we, now, are the extant and potential temples of the Holy Spirit. So, we have ever had the same necessity of cleansing as the Lord then evidenced. That He should come in and drive out all which would seek to make merchandise of the Lord--everything which would seek to glorify self in the name of God, everything which would seek to exalt itself alongside Him or even above Him. So that humility can reign, as true submission to God is born per His entrance--to begin to worship in Spirit and truth, become a house of prayer. 

Of learning. Of healing. Of supplication and intercession. 

Of fellowship with the Creator. 

Self cannot be exalted alongside God, is all. Otherwise, we only evidence a lack of awareness of who He is. To whatever extent pride remains, there stands such evidence. Even as...it seems, at least...the process of becoming properly humbled is ongoing, and not always progressive. 

Self doesn't want to be ousted. Let alone mortified. It wants to continue to hold court, entirely to the exclusion of the needs of others. It wants to continue to exalt itself as an upstanding contributor to the well-being of the all, through purposeful, yet self-glorifying efforts. Dross. Wholly dross. 

It just can't be.

And perhaps that's why the exodus is so violent, so severe: that which is being driven out absolutely refuses to listen to reason, having exalted a reason of its own in place of that which otherwise would be sound logic. Departing from God-given morality, though, tends to flawed logic, and where flawed logic persists as the backbone to reason, any attempt to reason is generally an exercise in futility.

Violent upending, though. Unexpected wrath come to oust that which is false, self-exalting, attempting to cling to the coattails of God, as to filter of bits of His glory unto self--profitting thereby, in ways social, economic. False, but accepted without question or qualm in a society which is every bit as bent on exalting self at the expense of all else--even claiming to exalt "others" as worthy, so long as self-referential exaltation is wholescale part and parcel the process: bring everyone along, on the way up, so long as everyone agrees that "self" is rightly ordained as the key order of necessary focus. 

So that self gets the glory. On the way in, and on the way out. In all the common areas of discourse. Without question. Without remorse. 

And, then, everything falls apart. 

Because self is a lousy god. It's fickle. It's frayed. It tends to shift and change over time, given various circumstantial effectors. And as having no point of reference, as a total foundation unto stability, outside self...then there are no unwavering tenets, either, ultimately. So, as goes one, then all eventually tend to flounder. 

Until the poor have become lost in their own deceits--starving of love, nourishment, and direction. Justice is seen as only due the highest bidder. And it's quite as easy to make any decision relativistically equivalent to the next, only determined for pursuit according to matters of convenience and self-indulgence. Without reverence. Not even reverence for self. 

Because, ultimately, when self becomes god, it self destructs. 

So, it's all the more a display of mercy that He would come and cleanse the temple. By whatever means He so deems necessary and right. Otherwise even the outer court remains so clouded that how a person could conceivably approach to worship, unto the power of God in truth...isn't so much even a possibility. So much distraction tends to refrain from abject realization of His glory, given the attempted distribution of glory to all else which presides. Then an inability to focus, as such, also means inability, eventually, to even discern His presence.

So, as the court has become all the more cluttered, then the form of godliness has not ceased, but all power has become beyond realization: undiscernable, as increasingly unrecognizeable by the distracted masses. As unrecongizeable, then if tentatively grasped (ever)...also feared, as wholly unknown. So foreign, at such points. So very foreign.

What might it have been, to've experienced the temple, after His cleansing? Might there have been some greater hush of reverence, as the presence of God was realized manifest, in the wake of such unexpected violence on His behalf? Even as with Uzzah?--David then feared the Ark...

...is that what's necessary? 

Fear?

But, at this juncture, we're all so blind to Him...He could pick up Mt. Rushmore, set it on its head, and leave a cross etched across the whole...and yet, no one would think twice that it might be God. Except those who do know Him, to whatever minor extent we do. And even then, wouldn't there be a sort of divide in response? ...some, hushed and wondering, perhaps all the more fearful of supernatural matters. ...others, gleeful and mocking unbelief all the more, as though there were some bit of personal involvement in the matter. ...and perhaps some quieted in spirit, wondering, and all the more given to prayer as a result?

As to more ardently seek Him, then.

What would it take? 

What will it take, for us to cleanse the temple?