Statement: The Reclaimed Temple (05/12/'24)

Statement: The Reclaimed Temple Today, we reflect on the powerful moment when Jesus entered the sacred courts with eyes ablaze, declaring, "Don't make it a den of robbers!" His voice thundered through the hallowed halls, resonating against the stones laid by our ancestors. This temple, built with forty-six years of effort, brick by brick, and sweat mingled with the dust of the earth, had become tarnished by greed. Jesus's words spoke not of stone and mortar but of His body—the true temple, pure and unyielding. He promised that in three days, it would rise again, transcending the physical and testifying to divine power. Walking among the merchants and money changers, their coins clinking in the stillness, He overturned their tables with righteous indignation, scattering their ill-gotten gains. In that transformative moment, the air thickened with the scent of sacrifice and the echo of prophecies fulfilled. The temple of God, a place meant for prayer, had become a marketplace—a den of thieves. Yet, in Jesus's eyes, there was a glimmer of the resurrection to come, a promise of a new dawn. His body, broken yet unbroken, would rise as a beacon of hope for all who believe. Amid the chaos, we hear a whisper of redemption, a call to return to the sacred, the pure, and the holy. The temple is not just stone but spirit; not merely a structure but a soul. Jesus, the cornerstone, will raise it up, eternal and everlasting. Pastor Steven G. Lee (May 12, 2024)