Daily Devotional (GPS)
Jesus Turned Temple Traditions Upside Down
Daily Scripture
Matthew 21:14-17
14 People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were angry. 16 They said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Haven’t you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself? [Psalm 8:3, Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Old Testament].” 17 Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Isaiah wrote of Israel’s hope that God would send a faithful heir of David’s royal line to rule forever (cf. 1 Kings 9:3-5, Isaiah 9:2-7). Why would the children’s praise of the “Son of David” anger the Temple authorities? “The aristocratic priests belonged to Jerusalem’s wealthy ruling class, which was responsible to keep peace for the Romans…. because those referred to here may belong to the ruling council (cf. Matthew 26:57), they probably also have political objections.” *
- When King David took Jerusalem, he banned the blind and lame from worship because the city’s defenders had mocked him, saying even the blind and lame could defeat him (2 Samuel 5:6-10). Scholar N. T. Wright said, “Jesus did with the Temple’s traditions what he did with the money-changers’ tables: he turned them upside down…. the blind and lame came to Jesus in the Temple, and he healed them. People who had been kept out were now welcomed in.” ** How did that fit what Jesus had been doing all along—welcoming lepers, tax collectors, and women?
- Aramaic was the everyday language of most Judeans in Jesus’ day. Matthew said Jesus quoted the Greek translation of the Old Testament that said “praise” in Psalm 8:3, while the Hebrew original read “strength.” That likely made sense: “The primary language of the Sadducees was probably Greek (the dominant language of their tomb inscriptions).” *** What does it tell you about Jesus that, against his culture’s attitude, he highlighted and valued the “praise” of children?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you were always about bringing in those that “proper” religious leaders thought should be left out. Grow in me a heart with that same passion for including all your children in your kingdom. Amen.
GPS Insights
Ginny Howell
Ginny Howell, who serves as the Worship Experience Director for Resurrection, wrote today's Insights. She leads the church’s efforts to provide radical hospitality and an excellent worship experience across all of our locations. She’s a mom to three, g-momma to one sweet little boy, and shares much of her time with her closest companion, a rescued Pit Bull named Lola.
I served on a Mission Team in Guatemala in 2008. Like any good team of hard-working American Christians, our team was ready to tackle a big construction project and rolled on to the church site with tools in hand ready for our marching orders.
What we encountered when we arrived did not at all match our expectations, in the best possible way. We were under the impression we were there to do construction and were told to bring hammers, levels and work gloves. We brought enough supplies for our team and two others, but the only supplies we ever ended up using in the end were the gloves.
There was no foreman waiting to tell us what to do and there was no visible construction happening at the building when we arrived. Instead, we were ushered through a series of narrow hallways in a small, unfinished cinder block building until we came to the largest room that had chairs all the way about the perimeter where we were instructed to sit. As we walked through the halls, there were small children giggling in the background and pine needles crunching under our feet with every step we took.
First came the dancers. Four young women dressed in indigenous clothing danced in the center of the room leaving corn and grains behind. Then came some children singing in Spanish while enthusiastically doing the motions to their songs with big smiles and wide eyes taking in the spectacle that we all were with our American clothing and abundance of tools and gear.
Next there were clowns. Yes, clowns. Grown men with clown makeup rode in on small minibikes. Somehow, in a very small room, they were able to ride in circles in the middle of the room and chase each other on their bikes while kicking their feet and taking one hand off the handlebars to show off their comedic riding skills. The small children peeking into the room belly laughed as they looked on.
And finally, there was what seemed to be a sort of Master of Ceremonies who came in with games for us to play. The first game, which I was pleased to not be chosen for, involved two-liter bottles of soda. Members of our team were pitted against some of the locals and there was a contest to see who could chug the whole entire bottle the fastest. Our team lost.
The final game involved standard plastic patio chairs and balloons. I tried my best to pop the balloon in the chair I was in, yet it kept flying up out of the chair before I could make significant contact with my backside. By some miracle, our team came out ahead on this game.
About two hours after we arrived, the Pastor came in and made introductions. We arrived ready to go tactical straight away and hadn’t at all factored in the people of this community, I am embarrassed to say.
Jesus got it. The Temple traditions were not his priority. The rules and tasks and regime were of no importance to him. The children, the blind and the lame were, and still are today.
We tied rebar on the roof of this building for several days in the hot sun and we became part of a long bucket brigade taking concrete to the top level one small bucket at a time once the rebar was all tied. But I think our most significant contribution to this trip was the afternoon game time we spent with soccer balls and balloons in a large field next to the church. Every day, more kids came and every day we had more and more of their grownups join us to just have fun and be together. That was our mission, and the church also got a new roof out of the deal.
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