Power, Profit, and Prayer
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Power, Profit, and Prayer
Power, Profit, and Prayer
The section we are in today may not seem related to what is happening in the world in March 2022, but it hits at the core of the problem we as humans have.
We are going to move through quite a bit of text today, because it is all related to the same subject.
Our key question this morning is this...
What is the purpose of a temple?
This is a relevant question for you and me, and we will get to that in a moment.
Temples locate a god and are the source of power than humans can control.
For instance, we have a faith in our neighborhood, in our region that is the majority. Their central temple is in SLC.
A prophet can arise from that city and make a declaration that “God told me...” and that prophet now has the power over the people.
What is the purpose of a temple?
To empower the ‘leader’?
There is an authority structure, a hierarchy of power.
Some temples have leaders appointed
Some have leaders because of DNA
Some elect their leaders (USA)
Some are just popular with the people
So, when Jesus comes into Jerusalem and...
Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
He steps into their world to literally turn it upside down.
He calls them thieves (not the first time)
The temple had been turned into the bank of God and was working for profit.
Instead of becoming a house of prayer (more on that later)
How do they respond?
*******After that, he taught daily...
They want to kill him. But they are afraid of the people.
You think I might overstate the power of governments, and calling our government building temples. But think about how things work today and how it is working here.
The leaders are afraid of the people.
So, the leaders think about how to deal with Jesus.
They decide to try and trick him.
One day as Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?”
“Let me ask you a question first,” he replied. “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human?”
In other words, who made you the chief of our temple?
Jesus, again, turns the tables on them.
Now, it does not say it here, but these leaders want to kill him. They cannot trap him,.
They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us because they are convinced John was a prophet.” So they finally replied that they didn’t know.
And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Do you see what they are thinking?
If we can cause the PEOPLE, the MASSES, to be against him, they will stone him.
But we have to be careful, otherwise they will stone and kill us.
CONTROL the PEOPLE with the MESSAGING.
They cannot cause him to be hated by the people.
Jesus decides to tell a parable. If they are going to try and trap him, then he will respond and call them out.
Now Jesus turned to the people again and told them this story: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years. At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. So the owner sent another servant, but they also insulted him, beat him up, and sent him away empty-handed. A third man was sent, and they wounded him and chased him away.
“ ‘What will I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.’
“But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they said to each other, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they dragged him out of the vineyard and murdered him.
“What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do to them?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.”
“How terrible that such a thing should ever happen,” his listeners protested.
Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’
This is a fairly straight forward teaching.
It ends with a verse from Psalms 118:21-22 “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
What does that mean?
Have they rejected the Temple? No.
The temples GIVES THEM POWER over PEOPLE.
What have they rejected?
The teaching, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
First, Jesus went after their money
Next, Jesus goes after their authority
Now, Jesus goes after their morality
Everyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
When you read Psalm 118:1-2 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.””
We have a song that has those lines in it!
The entire Psalm is about how marvelous the LORD is, how he is loving, merciful, and kind, and gives blessings.
When you fight (stumble) against that, you will be broken. In other words, when you are for the opposite. Power, wealth, oppression, war.
It is a HARSH accusation against the evil farmers. Who are the evil farmers?
The teachers of religious law and the leading priests wanted to arrest Jesus immediately because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the people’s reaction.
Notice again, it is about controlling the people. They don’t deny they are the wicked farmers, they just don’t want to be found out.
And Jesus is exposing them for who they are.
They are not having any luck.
Where does a religious person go when they don’t get their way?
Where do Christians go when we want to get something done?
To the house of prayer?
Yep, but not the one you THINK!
Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.
Yep, that’s right. We don’t go to the temple to pray to ask God to help us with this scoundrel Jesus, we go to the government!
Let the Feds deal with him!
“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
They did not think through this question.
Who has Jesus welcomed into his group of disciples?
Tax collectors.
One of the twelve was a Tax Collector!
Remember, this section opened with Jesus clearing out the temple because they were selling sacrifices and exchanging money to profit themselves.
They were choosing PROFIT over PRAYER.
Now, we are talking about Caesar’s profits.
Funny how they can see the dishonesty of Caesar and NOT THEMSELVES.
Jesus’ answer...
He saw through their trickery and said, “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent.
QUESTION: For all the internet, TV, and hometown preachers who teach that God wants you to be RICH, with MONEY, are they SAYING that God wants you to have what is Caesar’s?
Riches in Heaven are about giving up what belongs to Caesar, giving up the systems that Caesar uses, and live by Kingdom rules.
This is why he drove out the profit traders in the Temple.
The currency of the Temple is prayer, and prayer that is available to anyone from any nation that calls upon the name of the LORD.
Give to God what belongs to God.
What belongs to God?
What has God given to us that is His?
Life
Time
Creation
Purpose
Love
Kindness
Peace
Joy
Suggest you read Psalm 118 and understand what Jesus is saying to them.
We think we can get these things from Caesar’s coin. But, we are fooled.
Caesar’s coin represents Power and Profit, and we worship it, we pray to it. We trust in it. But we are fooled.
That is why we see what we see in the wars today.
They are all conflicts for power and profit.
Don’t be fooled.
Why do we fight?
To take what we want
To keep what we have