I am reminded by the NIV Commentary that this is the second time that Jesus cleansed the temple. The first time was early in his ministry and recorded in Jn. 2:13-22. I wonder if the temple officials half-way expected him to do it again. From their point-of-view, one time would be bad enough, two times in little over three years would be totally unacceptable. Unfortunately they no doubt just didn’t get the reason for Jesus’ anger. What they justified as a reasonable means for dealing with the needs of the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, particularly during festival seasons such as Passover, to Jesus, was completely overshadowing the fact that the Temple was meant to be a place of prayer and meditation, a place where one’s mind was meant to be on “meeting” God. But he found that it was becoming a place where a lot of the gathered (those selling goods) had hearts only concerned with turning a healthy profit.

As someone who has done “Christian music” in the past, I wonder about the hearts of the Christian music executives who probably went into the business with a heart for seeing that this music would be heard by as many as possible but are probably now more focused on which artists to support who are going to give them the greatest return for their investment. What started out as a means to “getting the word out” has most likely become a clone of it’s secular cousin, where it’s about promoting celebrity personalities and supporting the business of promoting “Christian” music. Granted, I only had a cursory exposure to the business way back when and never was on the end of the business where there was ever a risk of anyone making money at it. But I have to wonder what Jesus would do (WWJD!) if he happened upon the marketing meeting where the Christian music executives tried to decide what to do about Jessica Simpson and decided not to promote her because they didn’t know what to do about her breasts. My theory is that a number of tables and chairs would have been tossed in that meeting. We have to all beware of not letting the “practical” get in the way of our primary call to worship and love our Heavenly Father. JBB 8/11/2005

music: Your Mac Life – August 10, 2005