Clay in the Hands

Today, I was reading this in John 2.  So now, I am thinking about worship.  What is true worship?  Why did Jesus make such a scene in the temple courts?  Was it the mess that the animals were making of God’s house?  Was it the profiteering of the merchants?

I think it was something deeper – something more fundamental.  I think Jesus’ actions cut more to the heart of the problem.

Worship is a matter of the heart.  It must be authentic and real.  At the very core of worship is a realization of who we are in comparison to God.  This realization should produce in us a desire to give ourselves to our Creator – to submit our desires to God’s – in a word:  sacrifice.

In the early days of the Israelite worship system, God instructed the people to offer something of worth and value as a symbol of their love and devotion.  But it was never really about sacrificing animals – it was about submission.  Psalm 51 teaches that the pure heart is what God desires – not the sacrificing of animals.

But what Jesus encountered in the temple courts was a lucrative business that enabled people to purchase submission and sacrifice.  As is typical with human nature, what God intended as worship had become something else – something twisted.  No longer did a person have to feel submission and devotion to God.  One could simply pay the system and feel his duty had been done.

Now, I realize that there were authentic worshippers in Jesus’ day.  But this particular instance in scripture shows us that Jesus was concerned about the system that had been established and how it had the potential to remove people from true worship.

So what about us – what about today?  Are we any different?  When we set aside time to worship, are we truly seeking to submit and see ourselves in relation to God?  Or has worship become more about us – more about a sense of going through the motions because people are watching and it is what “good” people do?

God is looking for a pure heart – one that loves and submits.  That is the heart of worship.

Is that your heart today?