The Passage

Lent Three (Revised Common Lectionary) | 03.07.21 | John 2.13-22 | by Carl A. Voges |

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.  And 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.  And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”  His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “it has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  When 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.                                                 [English Standard Version]

“For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.“                                                  [1 Corinthians 1.18]

 In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

Looking around our lives, it is clear that there are always things which need cleansing and replacing.  As our yards hover between winter and spring, it may be obvious there are shrubs and plants that need replacing.  As the realities of this culture move in and around our lives with its entertainers, journalists, sports figures, political leaders and significant others, we may conclude there are needs for replacing and cleansing.  As we look at the wood trim on our homes, it may be obvious that there is a need for pressure cleaning to remove the mildew.  And, as we look at our understandings and practices of the life given at birth along with the Life given at Baptism, it is more than that cleansing and replacing has to get underway.

It is this last reality that is addressed by today’s Gospel.  As the passage opens, John states that the Passover is near.  This was the annual observance recalling the Exodus of Lord’s Old Testament people from slavery in Egypt, a bondage that stretched out more than four hundred years.  Jesus is going up to Jerusalem (note that the city is situated on a mountain and is understood as holy.  In the outer court of the temple he finds people selling oxen, sheep and pigeons, and exchanging their money.

There are three comments about these practices:

First, the faithful Jewish people traveled from all over the world to be in Jerusalem for the Passover – clearly it was not practical for them to bring sacrificial animals and birds with them!

Second, the payment of the temple tax (a designated contribution to support the worship and work there) required Hebrew money – imperial or pagan portraits on the money of foreign countries were not allowed; this requirement forced the exchange of the pilgrim worshiper’s currency!

Third, the people handling such transactions were allowed to make a small profit on them.

Making a whip of cords (no sticks or weapons were permitted in the temple areas – most likely it was a tying together of rushes from the bedding for the animals), Jesus drives everyone and everything out of the temple area, beginning with the sheep and oxen!  He pours out the coins of the money changers and overturns their tables!  He tells the people who are selling pigeons (these are the birds used for the sacrifices purchased by lower income people),

Take these things out of here!  Stop making my Father’s House a house of trade (in the Old Testament, the temple is described as the House of God; here, in the Greek, John, most likely, is playing on the two words for “house”)!

John notes later that Jesus’ disciples remembered the passage from Psalm 69.9 – “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The Jewish leaders then say to Jesus, What sign can you show us for doing this action?  (biblically, a sign is a miraculous demonstration offering a signal to unbelievers; in the four Gospels Jesus never obliges such a request).

Jesus answers them, Destroy this temple (a reference to the building itself) and in three days I will raise it up.  Literally this means, go ahead and do this and see what happens! The Jewish priests and authorities are destroying the temple and, as they do, Jesus will replace it with his resurrected body!

Jesus’ zeal for the temple, his Father’s House, will destroy him, triggering his death!  The

Jewish authorities respond, This temple has been under construction for forty-six years and you will raise it up in three days? Yes, Jesus will raise it in three days!

Jesus is speaking of temple of his Body (such a temple, after its re-building, is to be understood on three biblical levels: First, there is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church; Second, there is each person baptized into the Holy Trinity; Third, there is the completion of the Lord God’s Life in eternity.  After Jesus is raised from the dead and is ascended, his disciples remembered he said these words

The disciples believed the Scripture and the Word that Jesus had spoken.  The Jewish authorities, on the other hand, reacted with incomprehension and hostility, a reaction that is shown in the verses following this passage.

As we pull away from this passage and see its impact on our lives, it is important to notice its Old Testament background.  The cleansing of the temple is two things:

First, it is a protest like that of the prophets against the profaning of the Lord’s House;

Second, it is a sign that the purification of the temple by the promised Messiah is approaching (such purification is accomplished in Jesus’ dying and rising).

Concerning the first (that is, the prophets), there was Jeremiah, anticipating our Lord in many ways, who warned that the temple had become a den of thieves and that the Lord God would destroy it.  There was Zechariah who promised on the Lord’s Day (the arrival of Jesus at the end of this world’s life) that all would be holy in Jerusalem and no merchant would be found in the temple.  There was Malachi who had the Lord God intervening after the worship abuses in the temple.  There was Isaiah who had the temple becoming perfect; it would be a house of prayer on a holy mountain in the Lord’s presence, attracting all the world’s people.

Concerning the second (that is, purification), Jesus’ approaching death and resurrection is the Ultimate in the purification of his presence on this earth.  Today’s Gospel vividly demonstrates that the Father’s House is not to be turned into a house of trade.  About thirty-five years after Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, this passage’s demonstration became vivid again when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed for the last time, never to be re-built!

In Jesus’ day, the temple was a sign of the Father’s presence.  For baptized people today, what is the sign of such presence?  The Lord’s four holy places – his Scriptures and Baptism, his Forgiveness and the Eucharist!  If the Father’s House needed cleansing in Jesus’ day, how do we determine if cleansing is needed today?

We may not have animals, birds and money-changers in the narthexes and fellowship halls of our parish communities, but what do we have?  We have people imbedded in their desires to be like the Lord God, we have people drenched with an over-riding concern for themselves.  Consequently, we have people yawning at or putting up with the Lord’s Scriptures (there are plenty of churches, you know, where authentic biblical preaching and teaching is markedly absent!).  We have people continually returning to the life into which they were born (there are plenty of baptized persons, you know, where the Life of Baptism is ignored and they wrongly assume that the Lord understands their shrugging off of his Life!).  We have people skipping over the Lord’s Forgiveness (there are plenty of baptized people, you know, who think they can deal with their sin by consulting with the therapists on the internet, thus restoring the relationships that have wreaked havoc in their lives!).  We have people distancing themselves from the Lord’s Supper (there are plenty of churches, you know, where the Lord’s Body and Blood are diluted into symbols, and where it is not available on a weekly basis!).

These illustrations clearly suggest that cleansing and replacing is needed as badly today as when Jesus stormed into the temple at that Passover Festival.  How does today’s Church turn the Father’s House into a house of trade today?  By attempting to look good in the eyes of the world’s people and by doing things according to the world’s standards.

By picking up the current trends in the culture and by showing the world’s people how much we can meet their needs and desires.  By letting the Life of the Holy Trinity become a façade and by letting the life of the world determine how a parish functions.

Since the Church is in strong need of cleansing today, how does the Lord God do it?

Sometimes he storms into our lives from the four holy places, turning them upside down or standing them on edge.  Sometimes he quietly makes his way into our lives from the four holy places, exposing the falseness of the gods we have made and revealing how soaked-in-sin we honestly are.

The Lord does this cleansing and replacing so we can once again be drawn into his crucifixion and resurrection, THE place from where all real Life flows.  Thus, whether the Lord storms into our lives or quietly makes his way into them, let him do the cleansing and replacing of our understandings and practices of both the world’s life and the Life of Baptism!  It is his way of freeing us from our natural desires to be like the Lord God and from the over-riding concerns for ourselves!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com