Who Are We Looking At?

Mark 11:1-11; 15-19

The first thing that Jesus did after his triumphant entry on Palm Sunday was go to the Temple and look around. On Monday he went back to the Temple and cleansed it. This was very significant to Jerusalem in his day and is also significant to the Church in our day.

We often find ourselves praying for our country to turn back to the Lord and very seldom ever pray that the church turn back to God. I think that this is why we have the look or observation of Christ in the Temple on that memorable Sunday. He wasn’t looking at the political leaders or social groups of the day, he was looking at the religious leaders and how they were taken advantage of the pilgrims and the poor by corrupt exchange rates and selling sacrifices at outlandish prices. His house had become a den of thieves instead of a house of prayer for all nations. But the wonderful thing about Jesus on this first day was he just looked.

What can we learn from Jesus on the Palm Sunday visit that will keep us from having a Monday cleansing? We just need to simply look at ourselves first! Praying for our country is vital and I never want to lessen that point but if we seriously want the If my people scripture of Second Chronicles 7:14 to be answered it’s got to start with us! We must learn from the prophets of old like Isaiah, Daniel, and Jeremiah and accept responsibility for the sins of our nation. Judgement begins at the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17) Repentance starts with the Church. If we keep looking outward all the time then we will not be practicing what James said about looking into the perfect law of liberty. (James 1:23-25) We will read our Bibles and see others in it and not see ourselves. The Bible is a mirror and when we look into a mirror who do we see. Others? No! We see ourselves! But James also warns that we can see ourselves and forget what we looked like as well. If we go so long without looking at ourselves then we will forget and not realize how ugly we have become.

Renowned Artist Makoto Fujimara said in his book Art Plus Faith that “We need only to look at ourselves in a mirror to see that our witness has not produced the fruit of the Spirit in the culture at large…” It is so easy to see the wrongs and blame others for the conditions that are around us. Let’s learn this lesson from our Lord, let’s look at ourselves first and if we repent and began to look like Jesus then who knows, maybe people will look at us and they too will repent and start to look like him as well.

Pastor Robby