Jesus cleans up the temple
Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Lent , year B
Bible reading: John 2:13-22
No matter where he travelled, Jesus was confronted by every form of human nastiness. He came face to face with thieves, prostitutes, liars, hypocrites, cowards, greedy men and women, murderers, victims of neglect, of racial and class prejudice, and the demon-possessed. At times he clearly grew worn out and impatient with the whole miserable way in which people treat each other.
But none of these vices quite provoked the same adrenalized response in Jesus that we find in today’s gospel reading. There, in the central place of Jewish worship, traders were set up to make a quick dollar out of those who had come to Jerusalem. Sacrifices required animals, and so sheep, oxen and pigeons were sold in huge numbers. Foreigners who had flocked to the temple for the Passover attracted moneychangers who were on hand to capitalise. In short, the temple, that place of worship and holy reverence, was being exploited for financial gain.
And that made Jesus angry. He had much to say against those who were breaking the second part of the Decalogue, the section that deals with how people treat each other (Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, and so on). But he went ‘ballistic’ at the sight of this sacrilegious misuse of the temple. The first and foremost commandments about worshipping God were being blatantly broken.
And so we see him thrash out the trash! We see him conduct a spring clean of God’s house of worship – not with a vacuum cleaner, but with a whip of cords. You can just imagine the scene – Jesus driving the animals and people out of the temple and overturning the tables, with coins crashing everywhere and animals defecating in nervous retreat.
I wonder what our Lord would do if he came to our church? What would he do if he came here for our Holy Week and Easter services? How would he respond?
I’m sure he would be blessed by joining us in worship here. Look at the service orders. Listen to our hymns. Our words and deeds and even our furniture are all united in their cause of bringing glory to God, revering his holy house and edifying God’s people. There are still things we could do better, but worship is at least one thing our church does well. There is a great sense here of zeal for God’s house. We’d be pretty upset too if the sacred was tarnished by the secular, and if this place was misused by either congregation members or outsiders. No, I don’t think we’d see our Lord become angry here as he did that day in the temple.
But our text today has a curious exchange between Jesus and the Jews after the drama of the cleansing. What he did was nothing short of violent and disruptive. The Jews challenged these violent actions of Jesus. Then came his enigmatic answer, Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days
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Sounds preposterous, doesn’t it? The temple had taken decades to build. Those of you waiting for a house to be built know how drawn-out things become. How could this man rebuild a grand temple from scratch in three days?
Of course Jesus wasn’t referring to a building made with hands, but to the temple of his own body. Within a week of this event, that same body would put to death and destroyed. In saying he would raise up the temple in three days, Jesus was foretelling his resurrection from the dead.
So while showing great zeal for keeping the temple free from trade, Jesus was at the same time talking about a new place and a new mode of worship. God was doing a new thing. Those were the last dwindling days of the temple worship as it had been known. Since then, Jesus Christ has made God’s presence available through a person: namely himself! He is the new place of worship, the means by which we come to God. No one can come to the Father but through Jesus the Son. And without the gospel of Christ, even the most ornate and sacredly furnished cathedral is nothing more than a lifeless and condemned shell full of poor disillusioned souls.
People usually think of church as a building. Church buildings are great things. We thank God for them. But the church is primarily wherever God’s people are gathered to hear his word and receive grace through the sacraments. The constant bickering between the chief monotheistic religions over who should get what part of Jerusalem is a waste of time. The presence of God isn’t restricted to geographical space! He dwells in the hearts of his people. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, in case you’ve forgotten. God’s presence can be as accessible under a flame tree in Africa as it is in Westminster Abbey. God’s power to save souls can be active as much in Antarctica as it is in Jerusalem.
So what then if our Lord were to enter in to this temple, the temple of our bodies, to see what is going on in our hearts? What would he find going on in his people, in their thoughts, schemes and desires? How then would he respond?
Though our church is aptly furnished, our hearts are sinful. We must confess it. It is not externals that are our primary concern. That was the way of the Scribes and Pharisees. Rather, we ought to again examine our hearts before a holy God. Our Lord made it plain that from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander. These, says Jesus, are what defile a person.
In the book The Hammer of God a man prides himself in having given his heart to Jesus. A wise old friend says to him, ’What good is that? The heart isn’t worthy of Christ. It’s a rusty old can on a pile of junk‘
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An honest look inward to our hearts shows what is amiss in our lives. If we don’t see anything at first glance, then we have the microscope of the Ten Commandments to sober us up. We will never have peace with God until the clutter of sin, which builds up and is more harmful than the plaque that cakes our arteries, is dealt with.
So the first step to thrashing out the trash is to admit that we have a problem and that we have sinned against God and others - and ourselves, for that matter. We have desecrated these temples, and they have been used as nothing more than a house of trade.
If we fail to admit this, the devil will come and go as he pleases, setting up more and more trading stalls and clutter, and leaving little room for the gracious presence of God.
Having admitted this, we turn to Christ again and say, ’Only you can clean this up. Only you have the power and authority to restore my life to holiness‘
. Jesus Christ is zealous for you. He won’t turn away a broken and contrite heart. He knows full well that our lives can be become little more than an unholy marketplace. Just as our Lord defended the temple and exorcised the trash, he enters the hearts of all believers and conducts an exorcism. Yes, that’s what he does to you! This third Sunday in Lent was once also known as the Dominica Exorcismi, the day of exorcism.
Every day for us is an opportunity to once again restate our baptismal vow, renouncing the devil and all his works and all his ways. And we call on a gracious God to make this happen. He plucks us from the garbage heap and rescues us by forgiving us our sins through the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ our Lord!
And what beautiful people he designs us to be as he helps to furnish the temple of our souls with holy living. What we now see are people in constant worship with God, coming to him confidently by the new and living way he opened for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And true worship, worship in Spirit and truth, always brings forth fruit befitting God’s holy people.
To be sure, we will always honour this building. God has richly blessed us with this place and all the holy hardware that goes towards helping his people worship. We love the organ and piano. We love the silverware and carpet. But better still, God our heavenly Father has come in Christ to make his home in our hearts, and scoured out our souls to render us pure and holy in his sight. All this he has done that we might be his own, and live under him in his kingdom to serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.
Amen!