Matthew 20-22 - Wrong Priorities Hinder Miracles and True Worship

 Matthew 21:12-16 (ESV)

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

The Wrong Priorities Hinder Miracles and Worship

As we read the above story we can’t help but see a parallel with today’s church.   The Temple, in Jesus’ day, was the center of worship.   Like the Pharisees in the above story, our churches today tend to focus on a lot of good things, without focusing always on the main thing: The death and resurrection of Christ.  Jesus is the center of all worship. Or, at least Jesus should be the center of all worship.   In the above story the Pharisees and other religious leaders had turned the center of worship into a business venture.   The entire point was to make a profit for man, not praise for God.   

When Christ cleared the Temple of the money, He opened the Temple back up for what it was there for: Healing and Worship.  Note the first thing that happened with the Temple was cleared:

Matthew 21:14 (ESV)

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

Then, after He healed them, note what happened next:

Matthew 21:15 (ESV)

15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,

The children begin to cry out and sing praise to Jesus.   That, of course, ignited a fire storm that would put Jesus on the cross (God would use the Pharisees envy to accomplish His greater plan).   When we move our places of worship closer toward what they are intended by God to be, we will open up the possibility of miracles and create an atmosphere of worship and praise.