Day 19: Destroying the bad
4 March, Day 19: John 2: 13-25
One of the things I hate most about religion, second to fundamentalism, is its commercialization or people making money off God or religion.
I've had a personal experience of this at a church in Kerala, India where you could pay a priest to pray for you. People stood in long queues to buy his prayers, right outside the church, within its grounds.
There are other examples of world-famous preachers and so-called religious leaders (across religions) who amass a huge following doing the same, pushing "religion" onto a mass of believers, performing miracles and healings and selling a brand name - providing opium to the people. One such religious "leader" in India, now had a multi-million FMCG consumer brand.
I've always found this repulsive and disgusting, yet people lap it up - for their good or not- I don't know! On one hand you can argue, if people are taking something good away from it to apply to their lives, than what is the problem? But very often, you see people being cheated and deceived and made to believe all sorts of lies that could make the gullible idiots and potentially destroy their lives. If you're actively killing the ability of an individual to think for himself and form his own conclusions, then that's completely unacceptable!!
Anyway, on to better things. Today's verse is from John 2:13-25
“Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!"
Thoughts: In this verse, Jesus is mad at the "marketplace" that has grown in the temple grounds and drives the lot of there. Then then Jews question him and ask who gave him the right to do that, and what sign do you have to show your authority? To which Jesus replies to tear the temple down, and that he will raise it in 3 days. The Jews didn't get it but Jesus was actually referring to his death and resurrection after 3 days.
I remember that when I was younger I found this verse quite intriguing as it was a rare instance of Jesus's humanity, expressed in his anger. I remember thinking Jesus was finally standing up for something instead of taking crap from people all the time. He was taking a stand and getting mad at people who did wrong. In my child-mind, that's who God was - prone to anger, a punishing sort, do good and he will be good to you, do bad and you're doomed. Similar to the God of the Old Testament - kinda scary!
Luckily, for me (a lots of others), Jesus came to change that "old and punishing" view of God to proclaim a message of love and charity in its wake.
By tearing the temple down, he communicates that he came to change the system and restore it to new life. And like any person who tries to change the system (from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr) he was faced with major backlash and was ultimately tortured and assassinated.
Takeaway: God is angered at sin in our lives and wants to drive it out of us. We should similarly hate sin and want to drive it out of our lives
One of the things I hate most about religion, second to fundamentalism, is its commercialization or people making money off God or religion.
I've had a personal experience of this at a church in Kerala, India where you could pay a priest to pray for you. People stood in long queues to buy his prayers, right outside the church, within its grounds.
There are other examples of world-famous preachers and so-called religious leaders (across religions) who amass a huge following doing the same, pushing "religion" onto a mass of believers, performing miracles and healings and selling a brand name - providing opium to the people. One such religious "leader" in India, now had a multi-million FMCG consumer brand.
I've always found this repulsive and disgusting, yet people lap it up - for their good or not- I don't know! On one hand you can argue, if people are taking something good away from it to apply to their lives, than what is the problem? But very often, you see people being cheated and deceived and made to believe all sorts of lies that could make the gullible idiots and potentially destroy their lives. If you're actively killing the ability of an individual to think for himself and form his own conclusions, then that's completely unacceptable!!
Anyway, on to better things. Today's verse is from John 2:13-25
“Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!"
Thoughts: In this verse, Jesus is mad at the "marketplace" that has grown in the temple grounds and drives the lot of there. Then then Jews question him and ask who gave him the right to do that, and what sign do you have to show your authority? To which Jesus replies to tear the temple down, and that he will raise it in 3 days. The Jews didn't get it but Jesus was actually referring to his death and resurrection after 3 days.
I remember that when I was younger I found this verse quite intriguing as it was a rare instance of Jesus's humanity, expressed in his anger. I remember thinking Jesus was finally standing up for something instead of taking crap from people all the time. He was taking a stand and getting mad at people who did wrong. In my child-mind, that's who God was - prone to anger, a punishing sort, do good and he will be good to you, do bad and you're doomed. Similar to the God of the Old Testament - kinda scary!
Luckily, for me (a lots of others), Jesus came to change that "old and punishing" view of God to proclaim a message of love and charity in its wake.
By tearing the temple down, he communicates that he came to change the system and restore it to new life. And like any person who tries to change the system (from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr) he was faced with major backlash and was ultimately tortured and assassinated.
Takeaway: God is angered at sin in our lives and wants to drive it out of us. We should similarly hate sin and want to drive it out of our lives
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