Matthew 21:12-17
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers!” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonders he performed and heard the children calling out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant. They said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” “Yes,” Jesus told them, “Have you never read, From the lips of little children and nursing babies, you have prepared praise?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
Dear Heavenly Father,
The time had come for your plan of salvation to happen, and it went perfectly according to your plan. After Jesus cleared out the temple of the merchants, animals, and money changers on the Monday of Holy Week. Matthew records how the religious leaders—who should have known exactly who Jesus was grew indignant because of Jesus healing the blind and lame and the children’s songs. They were still echoing the refrain they heard their parents singing the day prior as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. They were still crying out to Jesus to “please save us.”
Monday would have been the tenth day of the first month—when the perfect sacrificial lamb was to be picked. There would be no need for all the other sacrifices because the perfect Lamb of God—you had sent—was standing before them, and he had just zealously cleaned your temple. But the religious leaders were indignant toward him and rejected Jesus, the one you sent to redeem and restore us to you. Yet, in the end, they still sacrificed him, as Caiaphas said, “You do not even consider that it is better for us that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
Forgive us when we become indignant towards you and change our hearts to know Jesus—that perfect sacrifice—as our Savior. Even the lips of children and nursing babies sing the praise of Jesus because he was the one who went to the cross to suffer for all our sins. Jesus answered their prayers to save us.
We pray Hosannah Lord most high—please save us, Jesus! Let us know the joy of peace that only comes from your salvational plan. Grant us the opportunity to share your love and mercy with those who do not know about the one who was our perfect sacrifice, that they, too, will have a changed heart. Amen
Written through Pastor Roger Emmons
“Create in me a pure heart, O God. Renew an unwavering spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” (Psalm 51: 10-13)