I really hoped you decided to read this because you saw the word 'Christmas' in the title. It's an added bonus if that is your reason...
One of the things my mom and I did this past week while we were in Europe was attend the amazing Christmas markets. In Europe, these Christmas markets are all over the place in most cities. We were fortunate enough to go to four different Christmas markets in four different cities and three different countries.
I don't know if you are familiar with these Christmas markets or not, but they are the most wonderful things. All of the booths are decorated with beautiful Christmas lights in decorations. There are hand made Christmas gifts at every booth. There is amazing food all over the place as well, and you can just feel the spirit of Christmas with all five senses.
You see the beautiful decorations.
You hear the Christmas music.
You smell all of the smells of Christmas.
You get to feel all sorts of awesome Christmas gifts and decorations.
You taste the awesome food.
They're so much fun. All of these markets particularly have one thing in common and that was part of the markets were always close to the massive cathedrals. In every city and country this was the same thing.
It seemed weird to me that all of these booths were right outside these massive cathedrals. But it also made sense to me. The cathedrals could be seen from miles away and that is what drew the people there. Plus there were courtyard areas around these cathedrals so there was always room for all of the booths and lots of people.
Let me ask you this...do you feel like this might be a little deceitful? To use the Cathedral's beauty to attract all of the people?
Well...I just read a story in Mark chapter 11 this morning that was very smilier to this.
Jesus was trying to clear the temple courts but was unable because there were vendors and merchants that were selling and making money in the temple courts...
"On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temples courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "It is not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers.' (Mark 11:15-17)
Before I go further, I don't want to make it sound like I am super against the Christmas markets, or that it was super wrong where they were set up. These beautiful cathedrals aren't used anymore, other than for people to go marvel at their beauty. The Christmas markets just fit perfectly to the topic of the post.
In the temple courts, the money chargers and merchants did big business during Passover. Just like how the Christmas markets do well during the holidays. So the bad thing about the merchants being in the temple courts was that their set up made it nearly impossible for non-Jews to spend any time in worship. This made Jesus angry because God's house of worship had become a place of exhortation and a barrier to Gentiles woh wanted to worship.
I get this 100%! These beautiful Cathedrals were right there for us to go see and marvel but I didn't really want to go in because I was distracted and all I wanted to do was shop and eat good food.
What is distracting you from worshipping God? Are there things in your life that you put in-between you and Christ?
Probably! We all struggle with this. My encouragement to you is to rid yourself of those distractions. Eliminate those things in your life that take away your time from God.
My challenge to you is to think of your relationship with Christ and imagine what it would be like if there weren't so many things distracting you from always worshiping him.
No comments:
Post a Comment