PASSION WEEK DEVOTIONAL #1-JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE

Clearly when we scan the Bible, there are many areas we can go to demonstrate God has passions.  Scripture never presents a God who has a careless attitude; Who yawns a lot; Who is uninterested in the daily events of our lives; who just winds the clock of time and takes a cosmic nap only to be woke up when it all ends.  That is not the God of Scripture.  Scripture tells us in Psalm 11:7 tells us that the Lord is righteous and He loves those who do righteous deeds.  Hebrews tells us that without faith you cannot please the Lord.  The Lord is pleased with faith.  Equally we are told what the Lord hates.  We are told that the Lord hates worship to pagan gods.  Proverbs 6 catalogs items that the Lord hates.  So there is enough in the Bible to tell us what will warm God’s heart and stir His affections.
One often and repeated theme about God’s passions are His passion for worship, specifically worshipping Him.  If there is a matter that the church is neglecting and has neglected it is not a matter that God ever neglects.  From the very beginning to the end of the Bible the issue is the glory of God.  Genesis 1 and notice how the glory of God ends with eternity in Revelation.  The first half of the Ten Commandments is very much passionate pleas for worship.  The first Commandment is a passionate plea for worship.
During Passion Week Jesus desire for worship is at a fever pitch.  In a way we could say that Jesus is picking a fight.  He knows the time of His death is near, so now He goes public with things He knows will provoke a response-namely worship.  
We are taught in John’s gospel that after Jesus cleanses the temple, His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."  When it comes to worship in God’s house, Jesus is passionate.  His passion devours Him.  It is safe to say Jesus has a strong opinion when it comes to worship in His house.  If Jesus does so we should.
“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, "'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?" 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.” (Matthew 21:12-17)