Pot Stirrer

We jokingly call others in my household pot stirrers when they bring up points of contention, throw out new ideas, or decide to address the elephant in the room. They are bringing to the forefront something which had settled to the bottom of the pot or tossing a new ingredient.
Think of a rich stew. Ingredients are held throughout, but if I just gaze at the pot from the top, I only see a few things. I don’t see what is actually all throughout the stew unless I grab my stirring spoon and stir away.
Remember, Jesus entered the city and it was stirred. The hearts of the people were rejoicing and yet, there was also stirring occurring – stirring of the elephant in the room, stirring in the new ingredients.
One of these new ingredients was in the temple. The temple, intended to be the house of God! Imagine if you were going to design and keep a house for God. How exquisite would you want it to be? How clean? How perfect? Yet, the stew pot had set there long enough that some of that newness, the excitement that carried the devotion had drifted to the bottom. While there, some of the ingredients got a bit burned.
“Jesus entered the temple area 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. ‘It is written,’ he said to them. ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it at ‘den or robbers,’” (Matthew 21:12-23).
The house of prayer and the den of robbers – both have their roots in different verses. Jesus was calling back the words of Isaiah, “these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,” (Isaiah 56:7). A house of prayer, what a wonderful title for a house! To pray, to communicate, to talk with God – to be in the very presence of God, a vastly amazing and precious thing was being subverted into the market place. He goes on to pull from Jeremiah, “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord,” (Jeremiah 7:11). What a transition from a house of prayer to a den of robbers.
Jesus acted as a pot stirrer that day. Not only did he see an issue, he acted. Sometimes the elephant in the room is overwhelming, a very difficult thing to address. Sometimes adding a new element to the stew is also very hard, what if it doesn’t take? Perhaps there are some burned bits at the bottom. Before the whole pot is ruined, can they be stirred up to the top and removed?
I feel as if I’m kind of in a pot stirring place right now. It’s not always terribly comfortable; some burned bits are sticking to the bottom; some new ingredients are resisting blending into the flavor. Yet, when I start thinking about me being the pot stirrer I realize that my focus is off. It is Jesus that is stirring the pot, mixing, removing the burned pieces, adding in refreshed parts. If you were stirred, what would come to the top?