Let us do God’s business

“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (John 2:16).

While on His mission to save mankind from the reign of Satan, and realize the Kingdom of God, Jesus taught a lot and accompanied His teaching with miracles and other deeds. One day, on entering the Jerusalem temple and finding people doing their business in its premises, instead of doing God’s business, He sternly rebuked and expelled them. This prophetic move pointed to the very fact that we were created to be busy at God’s business of worshiping and serving Him. It further points to the fact that God gave us religious leaders to guide us in doing God’s business. 

At the time of Jesus, the clergy, led by Caiaphas, were taking advantage of their calling and advantage of the God’s Temple, to engaged in prosperity gospel. In fact, they were reckoned among the wealthiest people in the Jewish society. They owned a market at the premises of the Temple, where acceptable animal for sacrifices, were being sold, but at a very exorbitant cost.  There was also a bureau to change Caesar’s money into the acceptable Temple money; for offertory and tithing, but with a big commission levied. That was an unjust commercialization of God’s House of Prayer and the exploitation of the poor pilgrims in the name of religion. Jesus judged this practice as abominable and a desecration of God’s House. So He took a bold move to cleanse it, by driving out the merchants and traders.

Jesus’ objection was not to the ritual sacrifices but to the abuse of religion for financial gain by merchants and religious leaders who were more concerned for money than the worship of God. Jesus is always prompting us to reform and renew our institutions so that they serve God’s purposes more fully, rather than our own purposes. Every human institution, no matter how revered, will always be in need of renewal, because it will always be shaped by people who are tainted by sin.

The Church is more than a mere building; it is the people who gather there to worship God. Hence, it is purified by the cleansing of Her members. That means that Jesus desires, with perfect zeal, to drive out every sin from our soul; cleansing the filth that keeps us from fulfilling our essential role as members of His Body. To purify the temple means to let God be supreme in our lives. It is to let God’s will be done here on earth, as it is in heaven. That means that our business and financial dealings as well as our politics must be moderated by God’s law of justice and compassion. 

Sometimes we become slack in our own commitment to be purified. We can easily become comfortable with the sins we commit, and we can form habits that are hard to break. When this happens, it is useful to ponder this story of the cleansing of the Temple and see it as Jesus’ desire to cleanse our own soul. At times, we need to be shaken up, challenged, confronted and encouraged with the unwavering zeal in the heart of Jesus. His purifying actions are acts of love by which He desires to free us to become a more fully functioning member of His holy Church.

We are invited to renew our attachment to Jesus, by letting God say of us, “My house is a house of prayer.” (Isaiah 56:7). Let us bring every aspect of our daily lives, family and neighbourhood, study, work and recreation, into the temple, so that these can be purified, sanctified and placed under God’s protection. When we do God’s business, He does ours.
en and receive Him. (Revelation 3:20)