Clearing out the clutter

By Rob Hurtgen

One reason I am ready for spring is so I can clean out my garage. Every winter my garage becomes a magnet for dirt. The floors get covered with salt residue and road grime. Everything in the garage has a layer of dirt, grit, and sawdust. Cleaning out the garage is one of the first agenda items to tackle when the weather warms up. I just need to get out the clutter.

Clutter can show up anywhere. Once Jesus had come up to Jerusalem and to the Temple to celebrate Passover only to find it filled with clutter. What he saw filled him with a righteous anger.

Within the walls of the Temple, there were money exchangers and sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves. Historians estimate that during Passover the city of Jerusalem would swell to the millions from all the pilgrims who came to the city and to the Temple. When those families finally arrived, they would need to exchange their currency for a purer silver and secure their sacrificial animal. Inside the outer wall of the temple money changers and those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves set up shop offering the convenience to all who secured their offering on site.

The convenience they offered came at a cost. The money changers had a high currency exchange rate. No doubt the ones who sold the animals had a hefty service fee attached to the sale. Millions of families, traveling thousands of miles, each desiring to seek the Lord were being fleeced on their way in.

What began as a good intention to provide a service created a system that created barriers. The temple was supposed to be regarded as a house of prayer. A place to come pray to and hear from God. The day Jesus cleared the temple it had been turned into a bazaar. Well-intentioned ideas can build clutter that becomes barriers.

Many of us have barriers to connecting with God. A poor church experiences. Abuse and deceit by those who were in trusted positions. For any number of reasons clutter in your soul has become a barrier to the work that God desires to do.

Just as Jesus cleaned out the clutter in the Temple he can clear out the clutter in your life that is keeping you from a real relationship with him. When, in faith, you turn to Jesus, he can clear the clutter of your soul.