Temple Turmoil

The third sunday in lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

John 2:13-22

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."  ¹⁸Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"  ¹⁹Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."  ²⁰The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" ²¹But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (NIV)

Please permit a few housekeeping items before we get going this morning.  I know some feel that the padding on the pews isn’t all that comfortable, so I want to make sure everyone was aware of the opportunity to rent a pew cushion for the service.  They’re only five dollars, and trust me, your backside will thank you.  Also, if you find it tedious to have to turn the pages of your worship folders and find the hymns and the psalm in your hymnals, for five dollars more, we’re happy to have one of the ushers assist you with that in order to enhance your worship experience.  Please also keep in mind that, starting this morning, coffee will be sold for $1.50 a cup, with free refills.  Refreshments are $.75 each, or two for a dollar.  Oh, and another new change being implemented pertains to your offerings.  We are slowly transitioning to electronic offerings only.  We won’t be taking cash or checks any longer, but will be accepting automatic withdrawals from an account of your choice, or you will be able to simply swipe your card in one of the card readers that will be installed in all of the pews.  While the automatic withdrawals will be free, there will be a slight fee each time you swipe your card.  I assure you, the main purpose behind all of these changes is to make worshipping as easy and convenient as possible.  We want you to be able to focus on what’s important when you’re here, and not have to concern yourself with all those other things that can be such distractions.

I. Jesus’ Frustration

We certainly don’t know this for sure, but do you think it is possibile that everything that Jesus saw that day at the temple, which made his blood boil, was actually initially begun with good intentions?  Maybe it had become a frustration for out-of-town guests to show up at the temple only to find out they didn’t have the correct currency that was required to pay the temple tax.  So they’d have to make an extra trip to the marketplace and exchange currency and then come back to the temple to pay the tax.  “Why don’t we just provide that service right here at the temple, so that people don’t have to make an extra trip to the marketplace just to exchange currency?” the priests may have wondered.  “And what of those poor folks who were told in their own hometowns that a particular animal was acceptable for sacrifice, only to arrive here and find out, upon further inspection, their animal isn’t up to the temple standards after all?  Why not just make the pre-inspected animals for sacrifice available right here for purchase?”  In many ways, what had been going on at the temple seemed very pragmatic.

Maybe the initial intentions were good, maybe they weren’t, but either way, what they had become over time was an aberration. These services that were provided had become the very distraction they may originally have been intended to avoid!  Once money came into the picture, the sinful nature quickly sprang into action and greed was on the lookout to get its foot in the door and get a piece of the pie.  History tells us that the business being conducted at the temple – all the buying and the selling – had a reputation for being mired in corruption and greed.  There was price gauging, there were exorbitant fees, and worst of all, it was all being done under the guise of religion, at the very temple of the Lord, no less.  The preeminent place of worship had become a money-making emporium.  The worshipper had been replaced by the consumer.

And it was all too much for Jesus.  It was enough for the Prince of Peace to demonstrate his uncharacteristically indignant anger.  We’re so used to seeing Jesus calm, cool, and collected in every situation.  He didn’t panic when others rushed to him with news of a friend or family member in need of urgent care.  He didn’t lose it when the wind and waves threatened to capsize his boat.  He didn’t flinch when betrayed, or when standing trial, face-to-face with his wretched accusers; he didn’t even snap when, on the cross in excruciating pain, people still derided and mocked him.

But he lost it at the temple, no doubt about it.  He was absolutely furious with what he saw.  Unsettling as it might be, Jesus had every right to be furious, for what he was seeing was inexcusable; it was a gross and sinful abuse of God’s house.  And God has never tolerated sin, of any kind.  You think it’s such a shock to see Jesus act this way as a result of sin?  Review the many examples in the Old Testament where God made it very clear how much he hates sin. If you want to see an even more shocking image of God’s fury unleashed as a result of sin, look at no further than the cross.  God won’t tolerate sin.  Jesus gave us a visible reminder of that on this day in the temple.

Furthermore, we can especially understand Jesus’ reaction in light of the personal connection he had with the temple.  As he was overturning the money changers’ tables he said, “Get these out of here! Howe dare you turn my Father’s house into a market! (v.16).  Whose temple was this?  Not man’s, but God’s.  Jesus referred to it as his Father’s house.  Indeed, the temple was God’s dwelling on earth with man.  The whole thing infuriated Jesus because it was his Father’s house.

Suppose you are watching the news at night and you see a home that is damaged extensively by vandalism.  Seeing a place trashed like that, you might feel for those who live there.  But, as the story features several more close ups of the damage done, you quickly recognize the house is familiar to you: it is your parents’ home.  How do you feel at that point?  After initial concern about their safety, you’d likely find yourself increasingly irritated and that irritation would eventually give way to sheer rage.  How could anyone do that to your parents’ house?  So it was with Jesus and his Father’s house.

You’ve also felt the same way about your Father’s house, haven’t you?  When we see pictures of the inside of churches these days that seem to be lacking any Christian identity – no symbols, no cross, no ties to the Christian church whatsoever – we wonder if that reflects an emphasis in that church other than Christ crucified.  Then we hear messages that replace Christ with Christian living as the emphasis, and our fears are confirmed: Christ is taking a back seat in his Father’s house.  So in that respect we can relate somewhat to what Jesus was experiencing as he saw the abuses going on at his Father’s house.

But we can also just as easily be the source of the same frustration Jesus was feeling that day.  We come into God’s house unprepared for worship, with extra baggage and concerns filling our cares and thoughts instead of giving our undivided attention to the Word as it comes to us.  It’s as if we’re here in body only, and our hearts and minds are busy somewhere else.  We let other distractions – a hymn I don’t care for, a particular individual who rubs me the wrong way, or whatever else it might be – deflect from the one thing that is important.  Is it really all that different than if we’d just set up tables and conduct business?

Did you happen to catch the two completely different responses to Jesus’ actions that day in the temple?  On the one hand, you had the disciples, who saw Jesus’ fervor as fulfillment of the Psalmist’s words, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (v.17).  Faith allowed them to see Jesus’ passion for his Father’s house at work.  But the Jews were agitated, wanting to know just who Jesus was and what power he had to come in and make such a scene at the temple, of all places.  “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” (v.18) they asked.  And then Jesus gave them one, but the blindness of their unbelief wouldn’t allow them to see it as a sign.

 

II. Jesus’ Foretelling

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days’” (v.19).  Jesus could have really laid into the Jews for daring to ask him about authority, but instead he gave them a promise, a predication as the sign for which they had asked.  Only, contrary to what they were thinking, Jesus’ statement had nothing to do with bricks and mortar, and everything to do with flesh and blood.  And though the flesh and blood of Jesus would be destroyed through scourging, punching, slapping, beating, and finally through crucifixion, it would all be restored again beautifully three days later at his resurrection.  If only they could grasp the beauty and wonder and life-changing reality of what Jesus was telling them!  If only they could fathom the implications Jesus’ words had on their eternal welfare!  But as they often do, signs have a way of hardening the hearts of unbelievers even further.

They do, however, strengthen the faith of believers.  Even if it wasn’t immediate, these words of Jesus were faith-building for the disciples, who only understood them after Jesus’ tomb had been deserted at his resurrection.  “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.  Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (v.22). 

What an encouragement for us to continue in Jesus’ words.  No, we may not always initially grab on to the meaning of a particular passage or section of Scripture.  But, over time, as we continue in the Word, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, as if helping us with a connect-the-dots picture.  Gradually a few random dots start to take shape and become a splendid picture of salvation.  The more we start to see the picture, the more eager we are to find the next dot, and the next one, and so on, until what was once nothing but a bunch of jumbled dots becomes the work of art that is our salvation.  We see how the intricacies of the Old Testament so wonderfully tie into the realities of the New, and how all along, throughout history, God was preparing his people and the world for his greatest gift of life eternal through Jesus.  At the temple that day, people saw Jesus’ zeal, but they zeal most fully showed itself on Good Friday, when our gracious Lord willingly became the perfect sacrifice for sin, and again on Sunday three days later, when that zeal overcame the tight grip of death itself, forever releasing us from sin’s condemnation and our bondage to the devil.  What zeal our Savior has! – and it’s all for you. Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)