Read Today’s Scripture
“The temple of our hearts”
After Jesus enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he enters the temple to pray. But seeing it’s corruption he violently upturns the tables and kicks out the sinners (Mk 11:15). And in doing so, he seals his fate to be crucified by the chief priests and the scribes (Mk 11:18). As today’s Isaiah reading prophesies, the Messiah will not bring only Israel into right relationship with the lord, but he will be a “light to the nations” (Is 49:6). So, notice Jesus’ reasons for clearing the Temple—the moneychangers and merchants had corrupted this place of worship so that it was no longer recognizable as “a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mk 11:17). If you remember, from Ash Wednesday to today, from Abraham to us, one of Lent’s themes has been God’s desire for the nations, for the people of the world to know his love. Yet, are we like that corrupt temple? Do our corrupt hearts make God’s love unrecognizable to the lost? Do we desire to be his light to the nations? Because the path to becoming a sanctified people of God is through the Christ. To follow Jesus is to have him violently clean out our hearts from sin and darkness so that our lives bear witness to God’s love for the World. Do we desire Jesus march into our hearts and violently cleanse it from all unrighteousness?
Collect
O God, who by the passion of thy blessed Son didst make an instrument of shameful death to be unto us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.