Week 7- Jesus Cleaned the Temple: How Do We Clean Up? (John 2:13-22)
Sorry! I couldn't resist. I saw this on Pinterest ages ago and now every time I think of this story in John 2 I can't help but picture Jesus doing this...
Anyway, this week's lesson is following the theme of Jesus showing us how to love. Sometimes He does this by loving us sweetly, and sometimes he uses a tough-love approach.
For this lesson, I have a small spritzer bottle (courtesy of oriental trading) for each of my kiddos. I'll start off by telling them this story:
Jesus and his friends went to the big city of Jerusalem for Passover. While He was walking around the temple, He saw some things He didn't like! In the temple area there were merchants selling the cattle, sheep, and doves for people to buy for their sacrifices. He also saw them exchanging foreign money. Jesus was very upset! The temple was supposed to be a holy place, like our church is today. With all of those people acting like it was a marketplace, they certainly weren't treating it holy.
The rules back then were a bit different in the temple than they are in our churches today. Remember how in the Old Testament people sacrificed animals? Well, until Jesus was crucified and resurrected that was still one way we communicated with God. People were coming from all over to the temple for Passover and had to purchase animals to sacrificed.
The problem was that the merchants- those set up in the temple area- were selling the animals for much more money than they should have, because they were greedy. Jesus thought they were basically stealing, since they were taking more money than they should. They also took more money than they should when they were exchanging the visitors' money for what was allowed in the temple.
What does 'holy' mean? Why was the Temple holy?
What part of our church do you think is most holy? (The sanctuary)
How can we keep our sanctuary holy? (By not bringing in food or drink, don't spill things or leave papers or other messes, don't run around, don't jump on the altar/stage area, etc.)
Jesus is really upset. What do you think He might do?
Let's see, Verse 15. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased the merchants out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.
Wow! I did not see that coming! Did you?
Then, He went over to the people who sold the doves. He said, "Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!"
Why do you think it made Jesus so upset to see people treat the Temple in an unholy way?
Do you think it was a good thing for Jesus to do?
Did it work?
Usually, we can ask our friends nicely to not bring snacks into the sanctuary, and we can remind our family members to pick up everything off the benches before they leave, but Jesus didn't ask nicely. Jesus told them to leave. Why do you think He did that?
While Jesus was clearing the temple, his disciples remembered in the Old Testament, in the book of Psalms, 69:9 it says something like, "Passion for God's house will consume me." Jesus' friends realized that this was a really big deal. Jesus went on to prove that it wasn't the building itself that was important, though, He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!" Jesus was no longer talking about the temple He was clearing, He meant His own body.
We need to make sure we clean up not just our church, but our lives, too. That can be kind of confusing. I mean that on one hand, it is very important to keep our church well-maintained. We try to dress nice and not leave messes because we are in God's house and it is a holy place. We are being respectful by keeping it clean. On the other hand, Jesus is also saying we need to make sure our lives are clean.
If Jesus is in your heart, do you want Him to have a clean, holy place in there, or a dirty, stinky one? We can keep our hearts clean by studying our Bible to learn more, praying and talking to Jesus often, being nice to others, and many other things. Or we can keep our hearts dirty by not thinking about God except during church time, by being mean to others and being disrespectful.
To end this lesson, I will write each student's name on a spritzer bottle and let them decorate it with Jesus-themed stickers. Each bottle will have a 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar mixture so that each student can help clean our church tables. I will have lots of rags (cut into fourths) provided, as well as a few bottles of just water for the smaller children.
The kids had a GREAT time decorating their bottles and helping clean God's house! (They cleaned their spot at the tables before eating snack.)
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