Holy Week Devotional Day 2: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Read Matthew 21: 12-14

Let’s keep it 100: just because something is called “church” doesn’t mean it’s aligned with Christ. We’re living in a time where the line between ministry and marketing, worship and business, calling and clout has gotten blurry. Jesus turning over tables reminds us that Jesus wasn’t afraid to walk into sacred spaces and flip some things over—not to destroy them, but to make room for what really matters.

Jesus didn’t clear the temple just because He was angry. He cleared it because the system had gotten in the way of the Savior. Prayer got pushed out. People got pushed aside. And profit took center stage.

And if we’re honest, the same thing happens today. Some of those tables that Jesus turned over were shipped to America and set up again.

We create spaces that cater to the powerful while silencing the broken.

We trade transformation for trendiness.

We love the performance, but leave out the presence.

This isn’t just about temples in Jerusalem.It’s about the temples we’ve built in our culture, our churches—and our hearts.

So before you call something "God's work," check who it's really serving. Before you dismiss the critiques, ask what Jesus would flip if He walked into your church…or your life.

Here are 10 reflections to help you think, pray, and flip the tables that might be standing in the way:

1. Not every church is really church. You’ve got to prayerfully discern the difference between a church and a hustle. They might look the same on the outside… but one is the body of Christ. The other? Just an extension of empire.

2. They made room for vendors and pushed out the outcasts. God’s House was meant to make room for the outcast, not cater to the powerful. When the biggest voices in the room drown out the broken ones, we’ve lost the point.

3. The Church was never meant to reflect you, your preferences, your politics, or your personality. The Church is called to reflect Jesus. Not your image. His.

4. It’s evil when God’s people make it hard for hurting people to get to God. The blind and the broken didn’t stay outside because they wanted to—the church left no room inside.

5. Sometimes the real work of God can’t happen because our stuff is in the way. Jesus cleared the space to make space for healing, worship, and witness, and we must do the same.

6. Profit over prayer. Business over brokenness. Let’s keep it 100: some churches stand on business, but don’t stand on ministry. A lot of business. Very little church.

7. The resistance to God’s work doesn’t always come from the outside. More often, it’s insiders who’ve traded God’s agenda for their own.

8. There are tables in our lives that need flipping. What thoughts, traditions, or habits have been shaped more by empire than by Jesus? Repent. Unlearn. Relearn.

9. Jesus has not turned over any tables since then, so it is up to us to now discern the difference between a house of prayer and a den of robbers. Check the teaching. Check the fruit.

10. You might miss how God is moving because you’ve made no room for Him to move. Sometimes the tables blocking your vision are the ones you refuse to flip. Crowded hearts lead to clouded discernment. Make space. Make room. Experience the Move of God.