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Sermon – "No More Business as Usual" – John 2:13-25
January 17, 2021
Chris Coon, PBPC
Introduction
I used to attend a huge youth ministry convention every year. It was a great time, a gathering of men and women who shared a passion for Jesus and for reaching out to young people with the gospel. One of the best elements of the conference was the large group time, when over a thousand of us would be gathered together to hear some great speakers and to have a time of incredible musical worship together. We would usually then move out from this time, on kind of a spiritual high, into the convention hall, which was filled with hundreds of tables of vendors for all kinds of youth ministry organizations, publishers, and mission groups. We would be given free samples of all kinds of new youth programming ideas, books, curriculum, games, and of course t-shirts (I never had to buy any t-shirts during those years!) By the end of the conference, I would return home with bags of exciting products and ideas for the next year of ministry. But in the excitement and shuffle, I often lost the focus and connection with God that I experienced in the times of worship; I didn't return home with the refreshment that I needed, because my worship had been overwhelmed by the distraction of business.
Today we will see that Jesus was passionate about maintaining this sacred space of worship and focus on God, in the place of worship but also in our own lives.
John 2:13-25
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After 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.
23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.
What's Happening in the Temple?
The Temple was the center of Jewish worship, the place where every Jew went periodically to worship and to offer sacrifices to God. The city of Jerusalem was the center of Jewish national life, and the Temple was the center of Jewish religious life; because the Jews understood themselves to be God's chosen people, the Temple represented their very identity in a way no other building could, such as a palace or fortress. The Jerusalem Temple was everything to them.
There were several Jewish holy days, during which Jews from all over Palestine and other places would travel to Jerusalem to worship and offer sacrifices. Passover was the most important of these holy days, so thousands of people would have been in Jerusalem. And there would have been a lot of sacrificing going on. Every family or group was expected to sacrifice a lamb as a memorial to the Passover at the time of Moses, when the blood of a lamb was placed on the doorposts and lintels of each Hebrew home to protect them from the angel of death. Thousands of sheep would need to be provided, along with moneychangers since Roman money had to be exchanged for coins that had no graven images on them.
So imagine the bustle and noise of the Temple, with all of the animals and the buying and the selling, all happening inside of the Temple grounds. It was this scene that Jesus entered into when traveled to Jerusalem to observe the Passover holy day, and it was this scene that he reacted to by driving the animals out with a whip and turning over the tables of the money changers, saying, "stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"
The Peaceful Jesus?
This is an unusual and surprising image of Jesus, apparently angry and even somewhat violent. This is surprising to us because it is exceptional – Jesus consistently presents us with an example of peace. He does not typically resort to violence nor does he encourage others to do so. Those who wanted to appoint him a military messiah and use him to overthrow the Roman occupiers were disappointed. Jesus does not attempt to defend himself when he is finally arrested, but rather submits to his captors. His kingdom is a peaceful kingdom.
So what is going on here in the Temple? It is worth noting that throughout his ministry, Jesus reserves his harshest words for the religious authorities, those who supposedly represent God. These people – the priests, the scribes, the pharisees – were the spiritual leaders, the ones who were supposed to be shepherds of Israel, guiding them in their relationship with God. Jesus was passionate that people should have the opportunity to know the God of love and grace, the God who desires to forgive, to meet us where we are at and to draw us into His presence.
Jesus had no patience for the things that would distract us from dwelling in God's presence and worshiping Him. He saw that the business of the Temple had taken over the actual worship. Certainly the business had a place – Jesus does not indicate here that anything necessarily dishonest is going on; animals had to be provided for sacrifice, money had to be exchanged for offering and for purchase. But the problem here is that the business is happening inside the Temple courts, making it difficult if not impossible for people to focus their attention on God. The noises of the animals, the rattle of coins, the voices of people – all of this would have been overwhelming, making the actual sacrifices transactional and prayers rote. This was not worship as it was intended, and the people were not being led into God's presence. Worship was overwhelmed by business.
The Fulfillment of the Temple
When the Temple officials confront Jesus for his outburst, they demand a sign to demonstrate by what authority he is acting. His cryptic response is for them to "destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." With this reference to being raised after three days, we know that Jesus is speaking about his own death and resurrection; which means that by "this temple", he is referring to himself.
It's important here to understand what the Jerusalem Temple represented to the Jews: it was not only the central place of worship and sacrifice – it was considered very presence of God on earth, the dwelling place of the Almighty among His people. This was why Jesus was so upset by the cavalier way in which the Temple was being treated; it meant that this was how God was being treated by the people. But now Jesus is saying something new, something about himself – he is somehow the Temple of God.
If the physical Temple in Jerusalem was the dwelling place of God on earth, we are now to understand that God has come to dwell among his people in a different way. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." God was fully present in the person of Jesus, and the Temple was fulfilled.
You Are the Temple
There is one more point that needs to be made here, and this is the most personal. Scripture tells us that God's presence in the world is no longer in a Temple, and it's no longer here in the human person of Jesus (because he ascended to heaven). But Jesus promised us that he would always be with us, and he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within all of his followers. So you and I, if we have given our lives to Jesus, have the Holy Spirit within us. We are now the dwelling place of God in this world! This is what it means when the Bible says that we are "the Body of Christ," and even that we are "the temple of the Holy Spirit."
So if you are the dwelling place of God and the temple of the Spirit, then we can look at this passage from a different angle. If Jesus is so concerned that the dwelling place of God should remain sacred and dedicated to God alone, what might Jesus say if he visited your "temple." If Jesus could take a metaphorical tour of your heart, what would he find? What are the noisy and distracting creatures that he might chase out? What are the tables and what is the currency that he might overturn and pour out? These might be corrupt or even sinful activities and attitudes; they might be goals and desires that lead us away from God; or they might just be the everyday business (or busyness) that we fill our lives with that distract us from our worship and service of God.
Of course, you don't have to let Jesus into the temple. You can lock the door and keep him on the outside, and you can go about business as usual. But you were created to be in relationship with God, and your heart will never be content until it has been given fully to God. Jesus offers us true life with God when we become his disciples and follow him. But when we choose to follow Jesus, we are inviting him into our lives, into our hearts, and we shouldn't assume that he will always be nice and safe. He may actually be very disruptive – as long as we follow him, there will be no more business as usual.
Conclusion
Jesus is zealous in wanting all people to have a true understanding of God – that God loves you, that God forgives you, and that God is available to you. You are the temple of God's Spirit – God wants to dwell in you. When we receive Jesus, we receive the presence of God in our lives. But just as Jesus proved dangerous in the Jerusalem Temple, so we should be prepared that Jesus will be force of godly disruption in our own lives. Because God loves us, He will challenge and even disrupt anything that might lead us away from our love for Him.