Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 2nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 13 – 25:
3 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.
I have to confess, that my choice of TV programmes are BBC crime dramas. I watch all the series of Shetland, Hinterland, Vera, Line of Duty and a few more just like them. I like the way the British are very organised in a more conservative manner in their investigations of the crimes. There is usually always a body, and quite a number of people with connections to the victim and even motives to commit the crime. There are people in ‘insider positions’ like police officers or retired police officers who come up looking very dodgy. Usually, it’s not very far into the episode when I am saying to Carol, I reckon he or she did it. Carol usually has a different opinion about who the ‘bad guy’ is. And so, throughout the programme, although we may both shift on our opinion, we’re both working on who or who isn’t the ‘bad guy’. We’re quite often both wrong as the episode climaxes to a surprise finish, but it’s always engrossing being the ‘lounge room detective’.
My wife and I might have trouble determining who the “bad guys” are in a TV program, but in the Gospel before us, we see that Jesus would have no problem doing that — none at all! -- As we heard, (v-v 24 - 25) “Jesus knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone”.
Of course, these words of St. John refer to something far more important than a television program. John’s words have a true “life and death” aspect to them — unlike
the fictitious situations with which the fictitious detectives contend. You see, Jesus knowing all people, leads to our cleansing. So, let’s consider the implications of this.
Today’s text is in the early stages of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It’s time for the annual Passover celebration, so as a faithful Jew, Jesus goes to Jerusalem as required.
But, when he went to the temple, he was disgusted by what he found. The temple courtyard had been turned into a marketplace! Merchants had set up shops selling
pigeons, oxen, and sheep to the faithful who had come to Jerusalem from far-off
lands. Money changers were also there, changing foreign currency into local
money, again, so the faithful could pay the temple tax of one-half shekel.
To have these things available to the foreign worshipers wasn’t bad, because worship of the Lord demanded the people bring sacrifices in proportion to their wealth. (Something
that continues to this very day!) And it was totally impractical—if not impossible—for someone who had come a long distance to bring their own sacrificial animal. There needed to be some way for those things to be acquired in Jerusalem… In the Old Testament, God had even given instructions for this kind of arrangement.
The problem was that the sellers had set up shop right in the temple itself, in what is known as the ‘Court of the Gentiles’. A ‘Gentile’ is fundamentally a ‘non Jewish person’. Now, whilst there were many places in the temple that were off limits to the gentile, one large area of the temple was set aside specifically for the gentiles. Anyone who loved God, regardless of their origin, could come to the Court of the Gentiles and worship God. At the dedication of the first temple in 957 BCE, (which was later destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt), Solomon prayed these words: [2 Chronicles 6:32-33] "When a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, 33 hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name”. – You see, all of this temple was part of God’s gracious heritage to Jews, but with provision for outreach to Gentiles alike, and here, our scripture reading tells us, the people had made the house of God into a stinking spectacle.
Think of it! Even the Jewish worshipers, as they passed through the Court of Gentiles
on their way into the temple, were probably more focused on bargaining over the cost of the animals or bickering about the exchange rate for their foreign money than they were on singing the traditional entrance psalms and preparing their hearts for worship of the Lord Most High! As for the God worshipping Gentiles, they were disregarded altogether. - What a disgrace! …. No problem recognising the guilt of everyone involved in all this trading. As Jesus came into the temple, the “bad guys” were right out in the open for all to see. The merchants and stall holders were certainly culpable parties, but the brunt of guilt lay with the Jewish priests who were responsible for good order in the temple. The very ones who questioned Jesus’ motives in clearing the place out.
Jesus, who was incorrectly thought by some to be weak and soft, goes on to show himself to be a man of strength and action. He personally—and by himself—took on the whole lot of them—putting even our TV heroes to shame! He took cords and, using them
as a whip, drove the animals and merchants out of the temple, thus fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy in Psalm 69 that the Messiah would have “zeal” for the house of God.
Such zeal in fact that, according to the account before us, not one of the merchants even dared to stand up to him!
We hear this story, and we say, “Good! - Good on you Jesus! You saw that those insiders from the temple hierarchy were ‘bad guys,’ and you busted their racket and kicked ’em out, quick smart”.
There’s no doubt this smelly spectacle of sweaty people and droves of animals being sold right within the house of the Lord was bad, but Jesus was seeing even more. He looked into people’s hearts. He saw through their duplicity, their hiding behind God’s instructions in order to make a fast buck. As bad as the scene and the smell had to be,
the spiritual stench of the place—lust for money at God’s expense—was worse!
And how could Jesus know that? John tells us: (v 24) “because he knew all people”. Jesus knew their hearts and saw them for what they were—sinners through and through, more interested in making a few shekels than in honouring the Lord’s house.
But before you join me on the couch, self-righteously pointing out the “bad guys,” consider again the words before us: “[Jesus] knew all people . . . for he himself knew what was in everyone.” The Lord Jesus knows all and sees all. And, if he knows the hearts of the money changers and animal sellers, he knows our heart as well!
He sees our real attitude toward those Ten Commandments we heard as our Old Testament Reading this morning! Although we might not be caught bowing down to a “carved image,” he sees our attitude toward the myriad of other things we allow to be foremost in our lives—such as our work, our money, our family, our holidays, our unfulfilled dreams! He sees our attitude toward sins of the flesh, toward other people’s property, toward speaking well of our neighbour.
There’s no doubt, he sees it all! And we have to admit, that we — just like the temple priests and the merchants — are one of the “bad guys”, rightly deserving to have Jesus take a whip and drive us out of his presence forever!
A prominent Bible commentator, Dr John Ylvisaker, describes why Jesus had to rid the temple of those “bad guys.” He writes: “The uncleanness in the temple portrayed the corruption of the people and was an image of the impurity in their hearts. The conditions existing in the temple are therefore a testimony against the people. [Jesus’] blows [with the whip] struck at their hearts. And the cleansing is a picture of what must occur with the people to make it a holy nation acceptable to God. And what is more, this must be made to apply to the individual. The house of the heart must be cleansed if it is to be the temple of God”
Dear people of God, we, too, from birth, have inherited a “spiritual stench,” as repugnant as that encountered by Jesus in our reading! The sin of our first parents has continued to manifest itself in our hearts down through the generations, sin that was declared by God Himself as redeemable only by death. Here in this season of lent especially, we reflect on the depth of our sin, and as we travel toward Good Friday, our minds reflect on the guilt of our sins and the one who will pay the price of a horrible death in our place.
During this holy season of Lent, our Lord calls us to recognise our utter need for cleansing of our hearts laden with sin. He calls us to allow his right and just Law to show us our sins and then in repentance and faith to receive him as he reaches out to us—to you—with his love and mercy.
He urgently desires to cleanse “the house of our heart,” to wash it pure with the only cleaning agent that will get the “stench” out — His holy, precious blood shed for us and the whole world on the cross of suffering and shame!
This he did on the blessed cross of Calvary, about three years to the day after he cleansed the temple. “Zeal” for his Father’s house drove him to cleanse the temple that fateful day, and “zeal” for us — zeal motivated by his eternal love—drove him to the cross to cleanse us, so that we could be (1 Cor 6:19) “a temple of the Holy Spirit”, having our body and soul washed clean and pure. And through His glorious resurrection from the grave, he has overcome death and the Devil, thereby making us to be a righteous one of his forever!
You see, we’re no longer “bad guys” in God’s sight. No! Through faith given to us in the washing of renewal in our baptismal waters, we’re now one of his very own, a forgiven child of his.
Rather than chasing us out of his eternal presence with a whip, he eagerly walks toward us, always seeking to embrace us, inviting us to dine at his Table, regularly here on earth at the Alter of grace, and eternally with him in heaven!
Dear friends, continue to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. On this day, led by the Spirit of Christ, vow that you’ll allow the house of your heart to be—and remain—cleansed, that it will forever be a temple of God! Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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