Devotional Thoughts: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable

Am looking at Matthew 21:12-13 this morning.

This is the incident where Jesus goes to the temple and drives out the merchants and money-changers.

Since people would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, they wouldn't bring the animals with them. They would use money to buy them there and then use them for sacrifices. And I suppose if they came from far away they might need to exchange currency.

Jesus takes these people to task saying to them, "The Scriptures declare, my temple will be called a place of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves."

Jesus' objection to them seems to be that the merchants and money-changers short changed and short weighed the customers and thus were acting like thieves. Another possibility is that this activity was taking place on temple grounds (perhaps in the outer court) and not just near the temple.

To read about the temple, check out this article from the non-religious online info source answers.com.

Historically, there was the First Temple built by Solomon which was the grandest. That was sacked by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. By 536 B.C., the Persians allowed the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The story of the building of the Second Temple is found in the book of Ezra in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, it was nothing like the spectacular one Solomon built. Eventually, the temple was renovated and expanded around the time of Jesus and became known as Herod's Temple (click to see diagram). This temple was destroyed completely by the Romans in 70 A.D.

To read about the temple from a Jewish perspective, see the pages from TempleMount.org. As you might guess the idea of building a Third Temple is highly controversial because the site of the previous temples on Mt. Moriah are now home to the Muslim Shrine known as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

But back to the driving out of the merchants and money-changers from the temple.

We have a picture of Jesus as serenely holding a sheep and blessing children. I don't doubt that that picture of Jesus is true. We have many episodes in the Christians Scriptures where Jesus is compassionate and gentle. But we also have incidents, like this one, where Jesus takes to task those who have done wrong and mistreated and misled the people.

There is a cliche, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I think that describes Jesus very well.

If one approached him in humility and in recognition of ones sinfulness and neediness, then Jesus offered forgiveness and restoration.

If one approached him in pride and arrogance, then Jesus pointedly showed that person that they have fallen short of the standard of God's righteousness.

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Forgive me and help me to live a worthy life. Help me to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" as I walk in humility through my day with the people I met. Help me to do so always calling upon you and pointing others to you in my words and deeds. Amen.