"Lazy Worship" After Jesus performed hi...

"Lazy Worship"

After Jesus performed his first sign during the wedding in Cana (by turning 180 gallons of water into good wine), Jesus made his way to Jerusalem (upwards of 60 miles) to celebrate the passover meal at the Temple. When He arrived at the temple, Jesus was so angered at what he witnessed that he made a whip of chords and started to drive out all the people and everyone from the temple courts. Why did Jesus get so angry? What was going on that disturbed him so much?

First of all we need to understand the role/history of what the Jewish passover was as well as the role of the Temple in Jerusalem. First of all, the passover was a Jewish worship service/feast that was instituted by God for His people as the way to remember/reflect on how God had saved His people from their captivity in Egypt. In the book of Exodus, God told Moses to tell the Israelites to take the blood of a lamb without blemish and kill it, then to take some of the blood from the lamb and put it on the doorposts of their houses, so when God sent a plague to Egypt that would kill the firstborn children, those who had the blood of a sacrificial lamb on their doorposts would be spared. God then commanded that the Jewish people should continue to celebrate passover feast throughout all of their generations. So here is what was required of the Jews for coming together for the passover feast:

1) Passover is to be celebrated during the first month of the year (Exodus 12:2-3)

2) Every household needed to acquire a lamb (without blemish/male/ 1year old) (Exodus 12: 3-6)

3) Each Jewish household needed to bring their lamb along with all of the nation of Israel to the temple to present as a sacrifice for the passover feast on the 14th day of the month (Exodus 12:6).

So now we get back to John chapter 2. When Jesus arrives at the temple in Jerusalem it reads:

"In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting there..." (John 2:14 ESV)

What where these people in the temple selling? They were selling the animals for people to sacrifice for the passover feast, because it was all about comfort to the people of God at that point. People were too lazy to take the long trek into Jerusalem pulling along a sheep with them to bring for the passover feast, instead out of comfort/apathy/laziness they had resorted to purchasing an animal for sacrifice when they reached the temple from vendors. They were worshiping God "the easy way" and just skipping the hard process of sacrificing their time/energy/livelihood and instead came to the passover worship service as CONSUMERS instead of as WORSHIPERS. Bottom line...they treated church as consumers. They were lazy. They wanted all the benefit of being a part of the church community without costing them any time/energy/hard work.

So the first reason that Jesus was angry when he saw what was going on was because His people didn't come to the temple as an act of worship to God but as consumers of God's blessings. Secondly, in verse 14 the word used for "temple" is actually the greek word "HIERON" which denotes the area surrounding the temple, which included the Court Of The Gentiles. At that time Gentiles (non-jews) were not allowed into the Temple but they were allowed to come and gather in the Court Of The Gentiles which was an area surrounding the temple where non-believers could come and learn about God and His will for their lives. And when Jesus arrives on the scene he sees that instead of leaving the temple courts open for those who were seeking God to come and see, in their place was merchants peddling to the needs of lazy/apathetic/consumeristic Jews who were all about their own comfort and ignorant to the fact that they had made it impossible for newcomers who didn't know God to come and learn about him.

Two reasons Jesus drove people out of the temple in holy anger:

1) They were CONSUMERS instead of WORSHIPERS

2) They were more concerned with their own COMFORT than they were about THE LOST.

Question:

When you attend church are you a CONSUMER or a WORSHIPER of Jesus? How can the church be more focused on worshiping Jesus and sharing the Gospel of Jesus with the lost?

Created 12 months ago