January 9 2022
John 2:13-25
One of the things that fascinates me is that even though we have entered into a new year it still feels like the old year. Yes, we have left 2021 behind yet it is hard to convince ourselves that this is indeed a new year. I mean, how many of us when we go to write out what year it is have to consciously keep telling ourselves that this is indeed 2022 otherwise we will write 2021 and have to scratch that out and start all over. Maybe its that it is just hard for us to see any thing new about a new year but whatever the reason most of us will not really embrace the idea that it is 2022 until probably March.
Well, if it is any comfort, people have always have trouble accepting that the old has gone and that the new has indeed arrived. It could be that people simply like the old things, the old ways, because over time these markers of an old life are for us a source of comfort. We enjoy the old chair that has become conformed to our shape, the old shoe that no longer binds our foot or that old pair of socks which has become soft and fuzzy from many cycles through the wash.This comfort that we get through all of our old stuff only lasts though until the springs break in the chair, the shoe loses its heel at the worst possible time and the pair of socks is found to have a hole big enough for our toes to poke through.We know it all to well that old always leads to obsolete; this truth is just the way it is no matter if we’re talking toothbrushes or Temples. This is the truth, the truth that the old had become obsolete now that the new had come, this is the truth that Jesus was attempting to get across when he entered the Temple as part of his celebration of the Passover with his new found friends.
These friends of Jesus, as we may recall from our study of the first chapter of the gospel of John belonged to the nation of Israel, the people who thought of themselves as being God’s people. Yet, in spite of being known as the people of God, John in his gospel account makes it clear that they did not know God. The whole world was filled with people, God’s people as well as those who had no history with God, still, none of them knew God. So, we find that in John’s gospel, knowing God is the whole reason why Jesus came as one of us. The readers of John’s gospel begin to know something about Jesus and his Heavenly Father when they hear how Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. At that moment when the water was poured over the head of Jesus, we are told that the heavens opened and the voice of the Heavenly Father spoke saying, “This is my Beloved with whom I am well pleased”. Then the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. So, here the knowing of God begins because in these words heard from out of the blue there were echos of verses from Isaiah where God revealed to Isaiah that one day there would come one called the Servant, God’s beloved with whom he is delighted. John the Baptist understood that Jesus was the Servant Isaiah had hoped for and he also knew that this Servant was also the one who would willingly go like a lamb to slaughter as he took upon himself the sins of his people in order that through the knowledge of what the Servant had done that many would be declared righteous. This is why John the Baptist repeatedly calls Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
So, we first know that Jesus is the long awaited Servant figure promised in Isaiah but John the Baptist also witnessed the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and he understands through this anointing of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is not only the Servant but he is also the one God promised David would be a king in his lineage, the one known as the Son of God. This Son of God is the long awaited anointed one, the Hebrew name for anointed is Messiah and the Greek name is Christ. So, knowing that Jesus is the Messiah also means that the long awaited king had come who would usher in an age of justice and righteousness.
Yet, there is still more that we come to know about Jesus in this first chapter of the gospel of John. In a conversation with one of his followers, Nathaniel, Jesus tells him that because of his belief, Nathaniel was going to see angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Here, Jesus is referencing a vision that had been given to the ancestor of their people, their namesake in fact, Jacob also known as Israel. Jacob one night had a dream where he saw angels ascending and descending on the very stone where he laid his head. In this dream, Jacob heard God speak to him promising Jacob that he would bless him and multiply him and through his descendants all of the families of the earth would be blessed. When Jacob awoke from this dream he was in awe of God and he knew that where he had slept was none other than the house of God, that here was in fact the very gate of heaven. So when Jesus tells Nathaniel that he was going to see angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man it isn’t hard to figure out that what he is in fact saying is that he is the Son of Man and that he himself is the house of God, the very gate of heaven. This idea of Jesus being the gate of heaven goes along with who the Son of Man is as he is the one who will preside over the court which will sit in judgment, the one who will decide who will enter in and receive the kingdom of heaven.
As we go through the gospel of John, we need to hold on to these three different ways that we know Jesus. We can’t just say, well, we came to know Jesus in three different and unique ways in chapter one and now we can move on to other matters concerning Jesus. No, the rest of the gospel of John is the working out of all of the ramifications of these three understandings of who Jesus is, that he is the Suffering Servant, that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, and that Jesus is the Son of Man. Nowhere does what we know about Jesus become so evident than in our scripture for today, what is commonly known as the cleansing of the Temple. This story comes after Jesus takes his followers to a wedding at Cana but because of what happened at the Temple, that so much becomes clear in what Jesus did there, I felt that we would understand what happened at the wedding at Cana in the light of what we learn from what Jesus did at the Temple.
Last week we also stated that John’s gospel is very different than the rest of the gospel accounts and nowhere is this seen than here in what is known to us as the cleansing of the Temple. The rest of the gospel accounts record that what happened at the Temple occurred at the end of the ministry of Jesus yet here in the gospel of John we find that it is found at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. There is much speculation as to why John has placed this incident of Jesus at the Temple where he did but understanding the John is concerned with our knowing Jesus then what better place to know who Jesus is then here in the Temple, the place Jesus referred to as his Father’s house.
The story begins with us being told that the season of Passover was at hand. We are told that Jesus went by himself to Jerusalem. As Jesus came to Jerusalem and entered into the Temple he saw there the hustle and bustle of the activities going on there. There was mooing of cattle, and bleating of sheep, doves beating their wings against the bars of their cages. Bartering and bickering could be heard, a price demanded, coins placed in hands, priests moving about, the chatter of many voices and languages. This was nothing out of the ordinary but rather it was just business as usual, sacrifices being sought, and bought; currency from distant lands being exchanged into suitable coins for giving to the Temple treasury. This is just the way it had been for hundreds of years. That was until that day Jesus came to the Temple. There he sat with three cords and taking them in hand he braided them together methodically as the machinery of the Temple whirred about him. Then when the whip was at last finished he set to work. You see, the detail of the making of the whip lets us know that this act of Jesus was no spur of the moment, tempers raging event but a calculated action, thought out ahead of time. Everything had to be chased out, the mooing cows, the bleating sheep, the sellers with their wares, the buyers and their needs, out of the Temple they ran, the crack of the whip close behind. Then Jesus turned to the wide eyed money changers and grabbing their bags of coins he dumped their contents out on the floor, the crashing and banging of scattered coins filling the air. He upended their tables so they too had no choice but to follow the others out of the Temple. Then he turned to those who kept the pigeons cooped in their cages, the sacrifices of the poor, and shouted for them to take their cooing, fluttering mess out of the Temple because, after all, this was his Father’s house. So, there went all of the sacrifices, the cattle and the sheep out into the streets of Jerusalem, their owners struggling to corral their frightened beasts. There went the angry money-changers whose tables lay scattered, whose coins needed gathered, out they too went into the street. Behind them came those with cages of pigeons in their hands, muttering under their breath, the Father’s house, indeed! And then their were the casual observers, the priests who ran for cover and for help, the people on the street hearing the ruckus and the shouts and the bellowing cattle charging down the streets. All of them had but one thought, Jesus what have you done and why have you done it?
It was fairly obvious what Jesus had done because in chasing out of the sacrifices, the cattle and the sheep along with the sacrifices of the poor, what Jesus had done was throw a monkey wrench in the workings of the Temple machinery. With a loud crash, what had been continually running for some five hundred years had suddenly come to a screeching halt. For a brief time, in this outer court, there was an unusual silence. There was no mooing, bleating, cooing, bantering or bickering, no coins clanging, no chitter chatter of any kind nothing to be heard but silence. And that silence was perhaps the whole point of what Jesus did and the why he did what he did. If we look throughout the Bible we can see quickly that this act of Jesus was a prophetic act. A prophetic act was something that the prophets would do to dramatically get the attention of God’s people in order to wake them up from their forgetfulness that the old always becomes the obsolete. God is never satisfied with the same old, same old, business as usual attitude because God is all about making all things, the big things and the little things, the Temples and the times, to make them all new. Jesus, here in the Temple, stood in the long line of the prophets, the ones Moses spoke about in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, that God would raise up from among his brothers. This is the one, God says, that God will put his words in their mouth. This prophet would speak all that God would command them to do. In doing such an over the top act, it wouldn’t be hard to understand that this Jesus stood in the long line of those called up by God to be his mouthpiece. Though Jesus spoke very little he communicated much. Jesus was telling God’s people that the old had indeed become obsolete, the Temple with all of its grandeur and beauty was on its way out. A new age was coming and this act that Jesus did in the Temple was the final warning. The people may not have been able to see that there was much different from the old and the new, much like we are at the beginning of a new year. To be honest, there is only one difference that divided the old age from the new age and that difference was Jesus.
Here is where knowing Jesus becomes oh, so important. You see, when Jesus took and formed his whip and then chased those bellowing cattle and bleating sheep out into the street, he did so knowing that, as John the Baptist was so aware, he was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If the sins of the world are taken away through this Lamb of God then what need does anyone have for a sheep or a cow or even a pigeon for that matter? The old Temple had found itself obsolete when Jesus came and ushered in a new age.
It is the writer of the book of Hebrews who has captured so well, how the coming of Jesus has made everything new but he has made everything better as well. Listen what is written in the tenth chapter of the book of Hebrews: “The law is but a shadow of the good things to come instead of of the true form of these realities. This is why it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are according to the law. Then Christ says, “Behold, I have come to do your will.”Christ does away with the first, the old, the sacrifices in the Temple in order to establish the second, the new, which is a people who will do the will of God. Jesus, who did the will of his Father by offering himself up for the sins of the world has set us free from sin so that we now are able, like Jesus, to do the will of God.
The old way of sacrifices could only re-establish the peoples relationship with God year after year which meant that they were in fact enslaved to sin. This was the very purpose of the Temple, to serve as a reminder of the peoples need of a Savior, one who in his freedom from sin would at last be the one who could set them free from their sin. This is what Jesus meant when he told the authorities that when the Temple is destroyed, three days later he would raise it up. Here again, Jesus is the prophet speaking the words of God the Father, speaking of his death, foretelling of the destruction of the true house of God. Yet death would not have the last word because three days later God the Father would raise Jesus to life, the glory of the New Temple visible for all to see. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we now have confidence to enter into the holy places through the blood of Jesus, a new and living way into the house of God. Now, we can enter into our Father’s house and the presence of the Father can reside in us. All of us then are Temples who together are united together into the Holy Temple of God.
Isn’t it interesting that what the disciples remember about that day when Jesus shut down the Temple were two things, the first is how fitting the sixty ninth Psalm was to the life of Jesus. This was a song of David and to get the full affect we must read more than what is recorded in the gospel of John. We have to read how David wrote “it is for your sake, O God, that I bear reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. For zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” You see, telling people that the old is on the way out because the new has come is not always seen as good news to everybody. The old way is comfortable, even if that old way is a way of slavery. To shake things up, even if it is about being set free from the shackles of sin, doesn’t always sit well with some. You see, if this new age has come and we are indeed free from the power of sin then what excuse do I have when I remain in sin? So, it is better to kill the messenger than to embrace the message.
Yet, the zeal of Jesus for his Father’s house, zeal that put him in the crosshairs of the old guard clinging to the past, this is not all that the disciples remembered. They would remember that in three days Jesus promised to build his Temple. Three days, and the world would see a new life in the power of resurrection. Three days and all people would be declared holy, perfect, at last able to do the will of the Father, to be the place where the Father and the Son might dwell through the Holy Spirit. This is what we remember that Jesus has done for us. This is what it means to know Jesus as being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world but not just the sins of the world but the Lamb of God who takes away my sin and your sin as well. I hope that you know Jesus as the Lamb who has set you free from sin, free at last so you and I might be indeed the Temple of God! Amen!
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