A Good Cleaning

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. (Luke 19:45-48 ESV). Today is the second day of Garage Sale. This means we are doing some significant cleaning! Remember, I’m more of the “hit it with a lick and a promise” kind of guy. Mary deep cleans. Obviously, her approach is the better one. In our reading today, we find the story of Jesus' cleaning the house of God as He went into the temple and drove out the moneychangers. They were taking advantage of people and keeping them from God, and this angered Jesus. This is the second time in Scripture where Jesus cleansed the temple. In the Gospel of John, we read that He used a whip to drive out the moneychangers. They obviously hadn’t taken His message to heart and it needed cleaning again! I believe there is a parallel to our own lives. When we come to Christ initially, we ask for His forgiveness, and He pardons us of all our iniquities. In fact, we are told, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). What a wonderful thing it is to realize that God has forgiven us of all our sin. But as a little time passes, sometimes some of those old sins can find their way back into our lives. And that so-called "little" sin begins to grow and becomes a problem. On a road not far from my home are some trees that are slowly being destroyed by huge growths of kudzu. The vines wind themselves around the trunk. At this point it is impossible to untwist these runners because they are so firmly embedded into the trees. They are literally strangling the life out of those helpless giants. But there was a day when the kudzu was a small plant just seeking a little support in climbing. Had the trees resisted these tiny tendrils, they would not be in the state they are today. Habits are like that. Those that are destructive can be rooted out much easier before they have the chance to establish themselves. Does your temple need cleansing? Are there some things in your life that shouldn't be there right now? Are there some vices, some bad habits that have found their way back into your life? If so, deal with them now. Get your deep cleaning done. Maybe you ought to get rid of some stuff too! Have a garage sale of the soul.