Last week I was meditating on 1 Peter 2:2-5 and yesterday I read in Matthew about Jesus cleansing the temple and I see a connection I want to share! So, in the week preceding His sacrifice, Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem surrounded by a crowd that all laid down their cloaks and palm branches on the road for Jesus to enter riding his donkey while they cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Then He went to the temple of God and drove out those who bought and sold and turned over the table of those who converted money to the temple currency and those who sold doves and said to them in Mt 21:13, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves.'” In John 4:23, Jesus, talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
Many of Jewish leaders- the scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the lawyers and priests- at the time missed their Messiah in their corrupt greed and hypocrisy and religion and sought to persecute Him. Their atoning sacrifices had become corrupt and God’s house of prayer that many Jews and Gentiles traveled a far way to make sacrifices had become a “den of thieves,” in which they could not pray in the court of the Gentiles in which they had set up a chaotic, corrupt marketplace- selling a forgiveness and reconciliation with God that couldn’t necessarily be mediated by a righteous priest as it was supposed to be. Indeed, as Dennis helped me see, in the section of scripture right after the cleansing of the temple, Jesus curses a fig tree that had leaves but bore no fruit, symbolizing the fruitless Jewish temple and sacrificial system whose time was about to be judged by God and brought to an end as He approached His own final atoning sacrifice to end all other sacrifices for the atonement of sin.
After cleansing the temple, Jesus proceeded to heal the blind and the lame who came to Him in the temple and they marveled at the wonderful things He was doing and the children cried out (just like His triumphal entry into Jerusalem), “Hosanna to the Son of David!” meaning they believed He was the Messiah and what does this mean? I looked it up and found out Hosanna means “Save us Lord!” or “Hooray for salvation!”- it was a cry of praise for salvation! When the chief priests and scribes become indignant hearing this they perceived as blasphemy, they confronted Jesus, saying, “Do you hear what they are saying?” And quoting the Old Testament, Jesus said to them, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise?'”
So how does this relate to Peter’s letter? In 1 Peter 2:2-3 Peter exhorts the church to long for God’s Word and gospel truth saying, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” With pure, childlike faith in God’s Messiah, just like those children in the temple crying out “Hosanna!”, we are called to cry out for the Truth of God, to long for the simple truths taught by Christ in His ministry on earth in the gospels and to be cleansed and sanctified into saving grace so that we can praise just like those kids after tasting God’s mercy, “Hooray for salvation!”
Continuing in 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5 state, “Come to Him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to become a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” Christ was the rejected cornerstone of the true temple of God. Psalm 118:22 prophesied of his rejection by the Jewish priests on the cross, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the LORD has done this and it is marvelous in our sight.” Rejecting Christ, the time of the Jewish temple and its sacrifices came to an end, and He became the cornerstone of the Church in the new and final way to be saved- through His Cross.
We are to be like Him, being sanctified to bear His image, and to become living stones in the New Temple of the Body of Christ in the Church. As the holy priesthood under our high priest Jesus Christ, we are to offer “spiritual sacrifices” to God through Him. What are our sacrifices? We are called to carry our cross, deny our selfish desires and fleshly lusts and the pride of life and the “world” which is under the rule of the devil and all its ways. We are called to worship God in Spirit and Truth- to seek His Holy Spirit and submit to His will in reverent obedience, since Jesus said this is how we show God we truly love Him. And though even in our best efforts, we will yet sin, we are called to confess our sins and repent and trust in faith that He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us of our sin (1 John 1:9).
For this marvelous salvation, then, let us taste and see that the Lord is Good! Let us cry out with those children in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and say “Hooray for our salvation!” And if you don’t yet know Jesus, come to Him in faith as a child longing for the pure spiritual milk- read the New Testament and His gospels like Matthew and John which I have shared today, read the letter of Peter I shared, consider His truths and call on your life, and bring Him yourself just as you are, with a simple and contrite heart, and ask for His mercy and forgiveness, submit to Him as the Lord that He is, in faith that He will save you! I encourage you to trust in Him and taste for yourself and see that He is indeed Good!
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