Flipping The Tables Of Your Heart
Scripture: Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-47
This week is Holy Week – the week leading up to Easter. Daily, the Branchline staff is going to share a small devotional that highlights a moment in Jesus’ last week before His death and resurrection. Yesterday was Palm Sunday – the day when all of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus by waving palm branches in the air fulfilling the words of Zephaniah (9:9). “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you..”
It is evident that every conversation, story, word, or action said or done by Jesus has purpose in His final moments. There is a lot that you and I can learn about Jesus and ourselves when we intently look at Jesus’ final week leading up to His resurrection.
Today is Monday. The day that Jesus walks into the temple area and flips out. Matthew 21:12-13, “12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.” (Psalm 118:26)
And so, Sunday is about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Zion and Jerusalem, and now on Monday He walks into the temple area (Mk. 11:15-19). Both Zion and Jerusalem refer to the same location. The original audience would have known that Zion referred to a person’s inner self; whereas, Jerusalem refers to what God does through a person. The temple area represents the place where people encounter the presence of God.
Now, let’s translate to you and I. When we said YES to Jesus, He triumphantly enters into our hearts. Through faith in Jesus we become God’s temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19, “19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…” Jesus has entered into our heart – we are God’s temple.
What does Jesus do when He enters into our heart? He starts flipping tables. He overturns our pride, our greed, anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. He does this by introducing us to who He is and what He’s done, and the more that we know who Jesus is we know who we are. When we know who we are, our pride is flipped to humility, our greed is replaced with selflessness, our anger is overturned with joy, our bitterness is flipped into contentment, and we’re able to forgive.
When Jesus walked into the temple that day, He was letting us know what He was about to do in our hearts. After Jesus’ resurrection, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in us. Jesus is at work in us (Zion) to do a work through us (Jerusalem). Fulfilling the promise that “He who began a good work in us will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6).
Here’s me challenge for you. Give Jesus space. Give Him time. Talk and listen to Him. Listen to music that intentionally points you to Jesus. This will open your heart and your mind to Him. This effort will give Him every opportunity to flip the tables in your heart. He wants nothing more than for you to be set free. Freedom is when “Jesus’ house (you are His house) is called a house of prayer” – a house that is constantly communing with Him.
Prayer: Father, change me. Transform me. Do whatever it takes for me to fall deeper in love with you. Show me who you are, and the significance of what you’ve done for me. I need you Jesus.
Song: Highlands (Song Of Ascent) [Live] Hillsong UNITED