Third Sunday in Lent [b] March 7, 2021
John 2:13-25
13The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
In the Name of Jesus.
There is the old “Far Side” cartoon showing a dog riding in the back seat of a car pulling out of the driveway. As he happily wags his tail, the dog sticks his head out the window to tell his friend where he’s going. His friend is the dog next door named “Biff,” and Biff is looking across the fence at his buddy in the back of the car wagging his tail because he’s going on a car trip. The dog in the car gleefully says to his buddy in the adjoining yard,
“Ha, ha, ha, Biff. Guess what? After we go to the drugstore and the post office, I’m going to the vet’s to get tutored.”
If you going to some place, you want to know what supposed to go on in that place. If you’re going to the veterinarian’s office, it might be good to know the distinction between being tutored and being neutered.
What’s supposed to be going on in the Temple in Jerusalem? If you are going into the Temple, it might be good to know.
Clearly, Jesus, and on the other hand, the priests and Sadducees and the king, have different ideas about what is to be going on in the Temple. Kind of like the difference between being tutored or being neutered—the two things just don’t quite meet up. The priests and Sadducees and the king have one agenda, Jesus has another.
Jesus is in the Temple driving out sellers of livestock and money-changers with a whip, spilling coins to the floor and flipping over tables.
So first, we want to get clear what the Temple is for. What is supposed to be going on in the Temple. Obviously, not what they have going on—Jesus makes that clear. But what is supposed to be going on in the Temple.
We start with when it was put up. The Temple was built by King Solomon 960 years before Jesus. Solomon built the Temple as he was instructed by the prophet Nathan.
Then, in 587 BC, the Babylonians burned that Temple to the ground, tearing down all the pillars and stones. The Lord had the Babylonian army sweep in and destroy the Temple because the Israelites were worshipping false gods.
Then the Lord had Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the Temple in 516 BC.
Then the Temple fell into disrepair.
Then, around 20 BC, Herod the Great restored and expanded the Temple. And that brings us up to this account we have before us, where Jesus walks through the Temple with a whip driving out livestock sellers and money changers, throwing money to the floor and flipping over tables.
But what was supposed to be going on in the Temple?
For that, we hear Solomon, who first built the Temple at the Lord’s direction in 960 BC. When the Temple was built, King Solomon gathered Israel—Scripture says, “all the congregation of Israel”—to the dedication, and he gave a great prayer of consecration for the new Temple. It’s a long prayer Solomon prays. But this is part of it. 1 Kings 8:22:
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward Heaven, and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in Heaven above or on Earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart …
Then, as Solomon continued, we are given to see what is supposed to go on in the Temple:
[Then Solomon prayed,] “But will God indeed dwell on the Earth? Behold, Heaven and the highest Heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in Heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive …
[When your people, O Lord,] pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, … then hear in Heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel.”
[1 Kings 8:34]
What was supposed to be going on in the Temple? “O Lord, [says Solomon] listen in Heaven … and when you hear, forgive.”
Everything in the Temple is ordered toward the forgiveness of sins.
Not toward the fine clothing and fancy rules of the Sadducees. Not toward a showy ritual of sacrificing enacted by the priests. Not toward the impressive building and architecture put up by the king. But toward the forgiveness of sins.
Everything in the Temple is ordered toward the forgiveness of sins, toward the justification of the sinner, toward the cleansing of the conscience before God. Anything else is false; it’s not of the Temple.
So when Jesus, entering the Temple, walks past the guards belonging to King Herod, and looks at the flowing gowns of the Sadducees, and sees the priests demanding more and more sacrifices from the people, and hears preaching which says nothing about the forgiveness of sins, nothing to cleanse consciences of shame, nothing to proclaim the gift of eternal life to those living in the midst of a culture of death, Jesus starts driving the money changers and the sellers of sacrifice out with a whip, and he overturns their tables, for their tables have nothing to give to the sinner.
“Zeal for your house will consume me,”
the Psalmist had written. It was a prayer of Jesus to his Father. (Psalm 69)
The zeal of the Sadducees is to be successful, dress in the finest clothing, have the highest seats at the table. The zeal of the priests is to have ever more sacrifices and to make incessant prayers of repetition. The zeal of King Herod is to have everyone consider him legitimate because of his government’s building program of which the Temple is the pinnacle.
The zeal of Jesus, though, is to forgive sins, to justify the sinner, to cleanse the conscience.
By chasing the pretenders out of the Temple, by restoring it to its purpose of forgiving sins, Jesus consigns himself over to death. The Sadducees and priests and the king will make sure of that. He is now on his way to the cross, they can’t let him live.
“But tear down this Temple,”
says Jesus,
“and in three days I will raise it up.”
Jesus spoke of the cross, of his own death. And of his resurrection. John 2:21:
[Jesus] was speaking about the temple of his body. When, therefore, [Jesus] was raised up from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
[John 2:22]
Everything in the Temple is ordered toward the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus stands as the Temple. Torn down on the cross, raised up in the resurrection, Jesus is the Temple for you and me.
Now, Jesus gathers us into his Church. When you walk into a place, you want to know what goes on there—you don’t want to be the dog being taken to the vet’s and thinking he’s going in order to be tutored.
Now, as Jesus, resurrected, comes to us in his Word, as he gathers his people each week to receive his Body and Blood, we may know why he gathers us into the Church. If you are not a sinner, you don’t belong here. For everything in the Church is ordered toward the forgiveness of sins.
In the Name of Jesus.