Engaging Our Culture: April 14-Exposing Corruption

Video of the Day: Clip from the 1997 movie “Cop Land”

Bible Verse of the Day:

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers, Matthew 21:12-13.

Biblical Connection:

Sylvester Stallone plays the Sheriff of a suburban New Jersey town named Garrison. However, the locals refer to this community as Cop Land, a place where New York City police officers reside. Today’s scene has an Internal Affairs investigator played by Robert De Niro who discovers the town is a front for mob connections. De Niro asks Stallone, Freddy Heflin, to use his power as Sheriff to look into these allegations.

Jesus didn’t need anyone from Internal Affairs to see what was going on in the Jewish temple. One day after being exalted on Palm Sunday upon his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus speaks out about the secularization of God’s holy temple. Whenever political or spiritual corruption is exposed, the people in power deflect responsibility. Just as the Department of Government Efficiency has uncovered financial abuse and fraud, the people behind this are trying to cover their tracks.

Closing Song:

Confronting the corruption of Jewish leaders on the Monday of Passion Week triggered a chain of events that resulted in His crucifixion. While the findings of the Department of Government Efficiency are still playing itself out, the biblical response to any exposure of sin is to lay this at the altar in prayer. May a spirit of conviction lead readers to lay their burdens at the feet of Christ.

by Jay Mankus

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