King in the Temple of our Hearts

Over the past year I’ve been on a journey with our youth group through the life of Jesus, this past sunday night was another step in that journey.  We looked at two different encounters with Jesus and tried to figure out how they might apply to our lives today. In the first encounter we found Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem, up through the desert road from Jericho, a climatic 3,000 ft climb up the mountain to where men, women, and children celebrated his coming, celebrating as if he were king, they threw down their cloaks, waved palm branches and sang Hosannah. We learned that throwing down your cloak wasn’t something you did unless you were showing loyalty to them like a king. Even then very few would have considered throwing their cloak down on a dusty dirt road but in that moment those people saw Jesus as their king. They sang Hosannah which means “God will save us, right now!” They were soon to find out that Jesus wasn’t going to be the earthly king that they had planned on, he wasn’t going to overthrow the Romans, he was going to be a greater king than that. He came to be King in man’s hearts, King in our hearts.

From there we find Jesus comes to the Temple the next day. The Temple would have been an exciting place, crowded with people, a buzz of business as people prepared for the passover sacrifices. People packing in to buy their unblemished lamb or dove. Jews from all over came. The priest would have been busy from sun up to sundown offering sacrifices for the people. There would have been a constant line of those waiting their turn for their sins to be forgiven by the blood of a lamb or calf or dove. But that was all interrupted when Jesus came in and started flipping over the tables and driving out the sheep and cattle. He let the birds from their cages and disrupted the flow of exchange and sacrifices. He was angry at what he saw and burned with a jealous passion for his fathers house. 

Jesus had a right to be angry in that moment, the venders had taken up nearly all of the court of the Gentiles and the court of Women which were places meant for prayer not for selling of animals. They had turned that area of the temple court into a den of robbers and not into a place of worship. Somewhere over the years the religious leaders had stopped carrying about the court of the Gentiles and Women. They thought it was more important that people have easy access to animals for sacrifices then it was for people to be allowed to worship God in those places. We know Jesus cared for all people, and he cared about everyone’s relationship with the Father. He would die so that we might be in relationship with him so it’s no wonder that we would fight for the Gentiles and Women to have a place to worship. Jesus had to clear that space and stop everything for that to happen. 

That brings it back to us. There are times in our lives where we need Jesus to be jealously angry for us, for our time, and we need him to flips some tables over in the temple of our hearts. We need him to remind us it’s not about going to church or doing the right things or sacrifices its about a relationship with Him and his Father. Sometimes we need him to clear room so that HE can be King of our hearts again. When he is King of our hearts and our lives it’s much easier for us to throw down our cloaks and worship him with everything we got.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Where is Our Joy?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… but honestly, it doesn’t feel like it. The air is turning cold, the presents are under the tree, the refrigerator is full of Christmas cookies, the parties are planned but my heart is heavy. Usually around Christmas, spirits are high and I feel like a snow flake falling joyfully from the sky. But right now I am not sure where my joy is?

 I know it’s there some where deep inside my heart. I know happiness is fleeting but joy lasts forever. So is that joy just misplaced or hidden deep in the worries of my heart. As I was reading the Christmas story this morning trying to find joy in the beginning of it all, I realized a lot of times we do misplace our Christmas joy in things that really have nothing to do with Christmas at all. We have the tree, the cookies, the presents and the Children’s Christmas program, but thats not Christmas. In Matthew chapter 1 verses 22-23 it reads “All this took place to fufill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with Child and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel”, which means, “God with us.”

God with us. Immanuel, Immanuel, Immanuel. That is it, that is where my Joy is hidden. It’s been with God the whole time for He is my joy. When Jesus came into the world many of the jews had given up hope. They were in a place where God seemed distant and they thought they could not have joy under the Roman rule. Recently, I have had my moments where I felt just like those jews, God has felt distant and I’ve honestly been disconnected. Living here in the South a lot of times I feel like an alien, an outcast, or completely unwelcome, at times even in the church I serve at. Like those jews living under Roman rule they had freedom, they had rights, jobs, and some place in society, but they were not Roman citizens, they had no voice and had to do what was expected of them without question.

It’s no wonder by the time that Jesus showed up that many of the jews were simply looking for someone to over throw the Romans. They were tired, weary and had very little to be joyful about. I think thats why many of them missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. They missed that he was God with us. They thought their joy as a nation and a people would be restored when the Roman’s were gone, but Jesus was not here for that. He came to bring Joy to the world, to set the captives free, to bind up the broken hearted and to simply be God with us in the fullest of senses.

I think one of the things that has been stealing my joy is our Children’s Christmas program. Last year was my first year ever writing the Christmas program and it went really well. But this year, my heart has not been in it. When I read the script it lacks joy. There are these expectations that every year the children have to preform a Christmas program, and there is this feeling each year that this really isn’t for the kids at all, it’s for the parents and grandparents which is okay, however, at the same time it is one of the saddest things I have ever experienced.

Where is our joy? In a silly Christmas program (I can call it that cause I wrote it). Is it in our children half singing a song or two, in knowing that we are carrying on some tradition thats losing its meaning. I honestly want to scrap the whole play even though it’s happening this sunday and simply read the Christmas Story to the children, reminding them that God is with us. That Joy doesn’t come from presents, or trees, or cookies or santa. Our joy should be found in knowing God is with us. We should wake up each morning reminded that God is with us, that he is not distant, that we are not alone, that no matter what the world says or no matter how much someone doesn’t really like you, God loves you.

I think we have lost where our hope and joy should be. We have misplaced it…But we have to wake up, we can’t give up hope, we have to dig deep, look upon the face of God and ask him to restore our joy. A joy in him, a joy that flows over from a heart that knows love, a joy that understands God is with us, a joy that sings loud for all to hear because everyone should know and experience this joy.

May any who read this have a Merry Christmas full of God’s Joy!

God is with us

-Caleb Ross Hunter