Season 4 - Episode 31

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

As we move through Holy Week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how Jesus reveals what is important to God. Most sermons I’ve heard related to the cross and Easter are focused on personal salvation and God’s invitation to each of us to receive eternal life - a life that is bigger and will last beyond our current reality. While individual participation in the life of God is essential for us to consider, even a cursory reading of the Bible, and in particular the events of Holy Week, make it obvious that God isn’t only concerned with you and me (in the language of evangelicalism) “getting to heaven when we die.” The words and actions of Jesus suggest that God isn’t primarily concerned about you and me being devoted to pious Christianity. There are many more present and practical concerns close to the heart of God. We’re going to briefly consider them in this Covenant Weekly for April 15, 2025.

First, listen to how Matthew describes what Jesus did immediately after he came into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday.

12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.”

But the leaders were indignant.

Jesus does two things here. First, he disrupts and condemns the religious system that, in the name of faithfulness, takes advantage of people and sets up a barrier to them coming to God. These wealthy religious entrepreneurs are shown to be working against the heart and desires of God even though they were actually being faithful to the letter of the Old Testament law.

The second thing he does is invite the blind and the lame - the unclean and outcast - into the Temple where he embodies God’s concern by healing them. Something in the heart of the people who saw this knew that this was right. The way Jesus acted, the work he was doing was obviously aligned with God’s will. There is no conquering of Rome. There is no Jewish independence - what they thought the Messiah would bring. But there is something good, beautiful, and true about what Jesus is doing. Everyone can see it!

Or could they? The religious leaders are watching all of this and rather than seeing goodness, they saw disruption. Rather than seeing beauty, they see rebellion. Rather than bursting into songs of praise, we read, “The leaders were indignant.”

Those who, on the surface, were most concerned with godliness missed out on the heart of God. They prayed. They memorized scripture. They sacrificed. They tithed. They did all the religious duty but missed out on God in their midst.

This is an embodiment of the situation in Isaiah’s day when the prophet wrote:

Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2     Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
    and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
    that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
    pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
    ‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
    and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.
    “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
    lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
    and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
    and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
    and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.

As we gather this coming weekend we will rehearse the story of God on the cross. We will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and victory over death. But if all that religious ritual does is give us a sense of comfort and security, if we enjoy warm and fuzzy gatherings of people with shared convictions but aren’t moved to live the Jesus way in our world, we’re missing the boat.

I’m in no way demeaning our times together this weekend. I am eagerly anticipating our joint Good Friday service at 10:30 am at First Presbyterian. I am so excited to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday morning at Covenant.

And I’m in no way suggesting that Covenant is filled with people who prioritize religion over sharing the life and love of God. In fact, quite the opposite. I’m filled with joy when I think of all the different ways you embody what the prophets call us to and what Jesus demonstrated.

I guess I’m just saying, let’s not forget it in the busyness of our worship this weekend. Let’s keep leaning into living out the heart of God that looks forward to the life to come and works with God to see his kingdom come, his will be done here on earth - today - as it is in heaven.