“And the Lord [the Messiah], Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; … But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” Malachi 3:1-3
I’ve never made this connection before, but this hit me so deep Sunday night at the end of The Chosen (Season 5, episode 1) as Jesus made the whip… It seems like the makers of the Chosen are rightly setting the stage for the seismic impact Jesus’ radical clearing of the temple would have played in His final week leading to the crucifixion. It’s no mystery that it would have served to further incite the religious leaders’ determination to kill Him. And we’ve probably also all imagined how it would have offended those whose tables were overturned and businesses were disrupted and driven out. But the realization that was hitting me so hard Sunday night, and what I’m wondering whether they’re going to portray in episode 3 and beyond, was the impact it might also have had in turning many of the previously adoring crowds against Jesus. We’ve heard references through the years to the fickleness of the crowd – how they welcomed Him with open arms in the Triumphal Entry in ways that indicated they’d rightly identified Him as their long-awaited Messiah – yet within days were so easily incited to reverse course and instead call for His crucifixion. I’ve often been perplexed by how this drastic shift could have occurred, but have never heard anyone connect it to potential offense that might have resulted from Jesus clearing the temple with a whip. But now, seeing this dramatic portrayal of this shocking event placed in the final week before Jesus’ death feels like it could be the possible missing link and plausible motive to “make it make sense.”
I was already amazed. But the Lord didn’t stop there; He took my amazement to a much deeper level.
As Jesus began making the whip at the end of episode 1, what came to my remembrance was something He’d showed us many years ago that I posted about October 31, 2012 – the parallel between Jesus clearing the Old Covenant Temple with a whip, and the New Covenant revelation that WE are now His Temple (both the collective church and each individual believer) – and how Scripture reveals He still uses “a whip” (His chastisement) to cleanse His temple (individual believers and the church) of what is not of Him. (I Cor 10:21-22; 11:31-32; Heb 12:4-12, etc)
Sunday night, the Lord added to this previous revelation from years ago by helping me properly place this event as a pivotal moment that potentially turned the adoring crowds who welcomed Him as Messiah, into the angry mob who demanded His crucifixion – and by making this connection, then highlighted the pivotal role His judgment and chastisement often still plays in turning those who were once unashamedly for Him into those who are vehemently against Him.
We love Jesus the Deliverer. We welcome Jesus the Healer. We’re inspired and challenged by Jesus the Teacher and Prophet. We cling to Jesus the Merciful and Gracious Savior. But Jesus with a Whip? Jesus the Judge? Jesus the Disciplinarian and Chastiser? …Not too many want Him. Yet all this is part of the Real Jesus. And if we try to reject these aspects of Him, we’ll end up with “another Jesus” – a counterfeit.
Like the Israelites of that day, we want Jesus to be all these less-than-pleasant things for our enemies (especially fighting our enemies in the spiritual realm) – just as they expected the Messiah to do for them against Rome. So imagine their offense when instead of swiftly using His whip against their oppressors and enemies as they expected – He first used it against them? Is it possible that Jesus’ whip, His rebuke, His chastisement, and His refusal to tolerate their desecration of His temple (now symbolizing our lives and the church), caused so much offense that it turned them from believers to opponents?
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Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever – and as many have been seeing in the past several years, judgment still begins at His House. (I Pt 4:17, Heb 13:8) The way we respond will reveal whether we’ve truly received the Real Jesus as our Lord, as well as our Savior, and will determine whether our faith will endure.
How often could offense with God be determined as a “primary cause of death” in an autopsy of faith? An interaction last week with an aggressively proselytizing atheist made me once again realize that for some (many?), if you dig deep enough you may discover that it’s not so much that they don’t believe in God as it is that they’re actually offended and angry with Him.
The propensity of offense that comes from tests, trials, tribulations, …even difficult teachings, to uproot our faith is a serious enough threat that the Lord warned us about it multiple times in His Word (Mt 13:20-21, Mt 24:9-10, Lk 7:18-23, John 6:60-66, John 16:1-3, II Tim 4:1-5, etc). Often such troubles are the result of afflictions and attacks from the enemy, for which God is then wrongfully blamed (Jn 10:10). Other times they could be the natural consequences of our own unwise decisions, which again, some may then hold God accountable for rather than themselves (Prov 19:3). But then there are also times when trouble could be the result of divine discipline. This is a vital reason we should never rely on faith formulas, but instead on intimate relationship with the Lord. We need to seek His wisdom about what’s happening in a situation and how we should respond. It would have done no good for the people Jesus issued severe warnings to in Revelation 2 and 3 to try to rely on faith declarations and principles to overcome the impending judgment He prophesied. They needed an accurate diagnosis of their sin and the accurate prescription and remedy of repentance.
How appropriate that these 2 episodes aired on Father’s Day. Again, we rejoice in God as Father – as long as we’re focused on the enjoyable aspects of a loving Father’s care. But how many still make room in their theology for the Father’s love to be revealed through discipline? (Prov 13:24, Heb 12, Rev 3:19)
I imagine the portrayal of Jesus angrily clearing the temple in episode 2 could regretfully be triggering for those who’ve experienced unloving, abusive fathers, if they try to envision this as a parallel to His discipline in our lives/the church. But in our worthy efforts to prevent God from being misunderstood as an abusive tyrant, many have lost the plot and deny His discipline altogether – or claim it only occurs through His Word. But this belief doesn’t pass the test of Scripture.
If we truly want the fear of the Lord restored, as many claim to desire – if we truly want the foolishness and abuses rooted out of leadership and the church, as many are now rightly demanding – it’s imperative that we restore a Biblical understanding of the discipline and chastisement, even the judgment of the Lord, to His House. It’s time we remember that WE, individually and collectively, are now His temple, and that He may still be grieved enough to cleanse out all that desecrates. Rather than turning against and rejecting Him when He comes with a whip, may all humbly submit to His discipline that we may live. 
#restoringthefearofthelord #DivineDiscipline #JesusStillCleansesTheTemple
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“And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all].
“Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live? For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.
For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]. So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees, And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.” Hebrews 12:5-12
“Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].” Revelation 3:19
