tossing tables…

Palm Sunday marked the beginning of Holy Week… we will look at Jesus’s days leading up to Easter…

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’“

Mark 11:12-19 NKJV

Jesus went from a triumphal entry… to cursing trees… and tossing tables…

The tree and the tables in the temple had something in common… they both looked fruitful… but were in reality… empty… useless…

The fig tree fully leafed drew the hungry Savior with the appearance of fruit to eat… even out of season… when Jesus found it without fruit… He declared its death…

The activity in the temple looked as if it were serving the people… providing sacrifices… but in reality… the money changers were simply lining their own pockets… no heart of prayerful worship found among the lot… so Jesus tossed the tables… called them what they were… Thieves…!

Jesus will not stand by and let the fruitless continue in their empty ways… deceiving… stealing from those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…

He’d spent the last three years teaching truth… preparing hearts for this moment… when He would make the way for salvation…

Tossing tables… the only right response… to His Father’s house being misused to deceive His people… when the temple was to be a house of prayer…

Believers are now His temple… the Holy Spirit living in our hearts… we should be fruitful houses of prayer… but we too have the capacity to deceive ourselves… justify our actions… serve self… rather than the Father…

Jesus will not let us stay in that place… He will come in to the lives of the unfruitful… toss tables… shake things up to get our attention… to repent… and be fruitful…

Who are you in this story…? the fully leafed out fig tree without fruit…? or one selling self-serving worship…? or maybe your one of the disciples watching it all go down…? wondering what He is doing cursing trees… and tossing tables…?

Let Him examine your heart… repent where necessary… become a house of prayer… before He comes to turn over your life… to get your attention…

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. …” –Jesus

John 15:1-2 NKJV