Jesus Clears the Temple: Matthew 21:12

Don’t stop with the cheat at the table
or the liar standing in the way;

Just like You upset the advantaged few
or the in-on-it many;

Come and clear out the orgy in me,
Your house of prayer.

“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” 1

Extricate the tentacles of false delights,
Extract the poison of false passions,
Extinguish the heat of false fires.

No. Don’t stop now.

Just like You hovered over the chaos
in primordial times;

Make this moment an eternal one
and make it holy unto Yourself.

“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Inspire life into those dormant reaches,
Impute rightness to the wrong turns,
Inject the joy of restored relationships.

Or, is it too late to ask forgiveness,
yet again and again?

To sonar Your fathomless mercy,
To sound out in a terrible wilderness,
To echo deep canyons of mystery?

You, its You, Beauty ever ancient, ever new. 2

I thought I was the stain in Your Art Gallery,
but even so, You will not deny me
for You cannot deny Yourself.

Therefore, as You displace the bags of loose change,
the furniture of self advantage,
and the whores of my own fantasy,

I worship You in Your house of prayer;
My heart, as it is:

The foul rag-and-bone shop, 3
My out-house of horrors,
The table of unfair exchange.

So don’t stop at the door way;
Come all the way in and all the way through
Until You clear the temple – Your house of prayer in me.

“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

 

1. Known as the “Jesus Prayer” based on the prayer of the Tax Collector in the parable in Luke 18:13.

2. From Augustine’s Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 27, note December 10, 2014: Late Have I Loved You.

3. From W.B. Yeats, The Circus Animals’ Desertion.