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Under the fig tree
I am someone who doesn’t consistently put away my things.
Unfortunately, little piles of mess can lie around for months, glossed over and undetected by my inattentive eye.
Clutter has insidious effects. A cluttered environment can breed bacteria, increase our stress hormone levels, and make the essentials—sleeping and focusing—difficult.
What might be a LinkedIn study of shrewd foresight was, to Jesus, an ugly desecration of God’s home. Cluttered with unholy yet normalised practices, this clutter tainted God-centred worship. It made the spiritual essentials difficult.
Having done their market research, these savvy businessmen of John 2 knew how to transform their consumers’ problems into profit:
- selling animals for sacrifice would mean worshippers did not need to drag these animals from home;
- changing foreign currency, even at a marked-up price, would assist foreign worshippers needing to offer the right currency.
These greedy businessmen, like “thieves”, exploited people’s desire to worship as a way they could quickly benefit. They preyed on equally culpable believers, who succumbed to the ease of insincere worship.
Angrily, Jesus flipped tables, poured out the changers’ money (He did not care about their profit!), and drove all the animals away. The animals could have been used for sacrifice, but He did not accept them.
We can reflect on these questions in prayer with our Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, who knows us better than we do, and work with Him to cleanse ourselves.
- What are 1-2 practices that affect my ability to worship God reverently—even if these practices seem “normal”?[1]
- As I worship God, serve, or have fellowship, are there ways I hope to gain personal benefits?[2]
- What can I do to cleanse my worship of this practice?
We don’t want to spiral to a point so dire that Jesus must step into our church/home/heart and cause a great upheaval to wake us up. Before that point comes, let’s cleanse ourselves of spiritual clutter, becoming sanctified and useful for our Master (2 Tim 2:20-21).
[1] Some examples may include: being “too busy” serving to pray, choosing to “catch up” with friends over joining in chapel sessions, having worldly conversations, playing games or watching shows during breaks in church, sleeping in and missing services …
[2] E.g. a padded resume, networking connections, certain opportunities such as seeing church brethren as possible business prospects …