SPRING CLEANING


As I am writing this article, it is just a few days before Easter, one day after our 
Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, some two thousand years 
ago.  While we may not know the day of our Lord's birth, we know the day of his 
death, the week of Passover on the Jewish Calendar which the week before Easter 
on our calendar.

This day is significant in the Gospels because it is the day the Lord cleansed the 
Temple in Jerusalem.  According to Mark, after Jesus entered Jerusalem on that 
glorious Sunday as the people welcomed him as the Son of David, Jesus entered the 
Temple and looked around.  Mark 11:11 informs us, "but since it was already late, 
he went out to Bethany with the Twelve."  

The next day, which was Monday morning, Jesus left Bethany and returned to 
Jerusalem.  Entering the Temple, Jesus began to drive out those who were buying 
and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches 
of those who sold doves.  He cried out against those in the Temple, "'My house will 
be called a house of prayer for all nations' but you have made it a den of robbers'" 
(Mark 11:17).  Jesus performed a "spring cleaning" on the House of God in 
Jerusalem.

As we remember the last week of our Lord's life and ministry upon this earth, 
perhaps it is appropriate for us to do a spiritual "spring cleaning."  Perhaps there are 
things in your life that are more akin to Satan than to our Lord Jesus, more 
appropriate in a den of robbers than in the house of prayer.  If so, why not follow the 
example of our Lord and cleanse His Temple—your body—of those things that need 
to be thrown out!