Sustained Under Pressure

As Lord of the temple (Malachi 3) Jesus is now teaching with great authority in His Father's house. He is now 'calling the shots' and none of the leaders can rival His wisdom. He is turning up the heat. All the trash– all that was impure and fake, came to the surface in the fire of His truth so that the crowds could see the perversion of Israel's worship– the false word and false action that had taken hold of God's temple.

By publicly showing on the 'home ground' that the religious leaders have not grasped the truth of the Old Testament scriptures, Jesus was signing His own death warrant. But in doing so He was exposing their lifeless faith, loveless worship, false hope and fake religion. At the same time He was hinting at the earth shattering claim that the Messiah they were hoping for was far bigger than anything they could manage or imagine– not merely the Son of David but the Son of the living God!