Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon December 14, 2008
10 am, May 26, 1997, little over a decade ago, this was a defining moment in my life. If you are thinking of my wedding day, you are right. Although Lyn and I have attended many weddings and I have officiated even some, we agree that hands down our wedding was the best. Wedding ceremony, photography, reception, and honeymoon, everything cost us less than eight thousand dollars. So, when I say it was the best wedding I ever attended, I don’t mean it in the sense of elaborate décor for the ceremony and banquet with the coolest honeymoon destination. No, it was the best wedding for me and my wife because it was our wedding; it was our beginning as husband and wife and people were there to celebrate with us, pray for us. And, I am sure every married couple feels that way about their beginnings.
I do remember though a moment that was quite distressing to me during the ceremony. During the sermon, Lyn and I, we were sitting on chairs in the front and there it was cell phone ringtone right behind us; it was the most annoying ringtone I’ve ever heard. Then, it happened again just few minutes later, the same annoying ringtone; it was for my dad. And, the sad thing is he actually answered the call second time around. The whole moment was captured on video tape. I was angry; I was in pain. I looked like I just swallowed a glass full of vinegar or something. Not a stranger, but my own dad answered his cell phone at my wedding, during the message. I was in pain guys. Well, I forgave him longtime ago for what happened. But, I tell you whenever I play the video tape and come to the moments when the cell phone rang once and my dad answering it the second time, I still recoil in pain and shake my head.
Can you think of moments when you felt so strongly about something being so wrong that it still pains you just to think about it? Jesus had a moment like this when he walked into the temple just before the Passover.
1. Context
Prior to our text, John wrote how Jesus revealed his glory when he performed a miracle of turning water into wine at Cana in Galilee. Only select few people knew what actually happened at the time. John called this miracle as a miraculous sign. It was sign because the miracle itself pointed to something about Jesus. By this miraculous sign, you recognize something about Jesus; the wedding banquet that ran out of wine represented Judaism that was a broken religious system; and by using the purification stone jars to turn their water into wine, Jesus rendered the stone jars useless for purification.[1] And, it was he who brought about the change.
So, the glory that Jesus revealed about himself is that he is the person who makes purity possible, not the waters in the purification jars.
It also reveals that Jesus does care about what might be considered trivial and insignificant. In the grand scheme of thing, what would have happened if Jesus didn’t do what he did? It would have embarrassed the banquet host. Although what Jesus did was loaded with sign, it also shows Jesus cares about small things in our lives as well.
2. What made Jesus angry?
Now, to the main story for today… Can’t tell from verse 12 how much time has passed from the scene at Cana to the scene at the temple except that the temple scene came after the wedding scene.
If you are familiar with the synaptic gospels, you remember that Jesus also went into the temple and cleansed it of the merchants and declared, “My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’( Luke 19:45-46) during the latter days of his ministry. The story in John chapter 2 about Jesus cleansing the temple is a separate incident that happened early on in Jesus’ ministry.
The Passover was a major feast that drew Jewish people from all over the world. Many travel great distances to be at the temple by the Passover. There, they participated in sacrifice and a symbolic meal that commemorated how God delivered the Jews from Egypt. God passed over the Jewish households that had their doorposts stained with the blood of lambs.
God told the Jews, “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plaque will touch you when I strike Egypt” Exodus 12:13. And, to celebrate the Passover, and to participate in the temple sacrifice, the Jews needed animals as it did back in the days in Egypt before the Passover.
Instead of trying to journey back to Jerusalem with their animals, they simply brought enough money or other goods to buy what they needed in Jerusalem. And, since they came from all different places, they also brought in different foreign currencies. And, it was the moneychangers who exchange their foreign currencies to what was acceptable in Jerusalem. Apparently, Jewish men over twenty were required to pay a half-shekel annual tax at the temple. And the temple required Tyrian coinage because of its exceptional purity of silver content.[2]
It was a rather convenient system that worked well for the Jews who journeyed long distance to participate in the Passover feast. It wasn’t this particular convenient set up that angered Jesus. The problem was not that there were money changers or there were people who sold animals for sacrifice. The problem was that this convenient trade was taking place inside the temple, inside the confines of the Court of the Gentile. The only place where the Gentiles were allowed inside the temple, where they could worship, pray, listen to teachings and give their sacrifices, this place of worship was turned into a trading floor, a marketplace, preventing the Gentiles from experiencing God.
There in the temple were cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices along with the dealers at tables. With a whip made on the spot, he chased out, drove out the sheep and cattle. He scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables effectively stopping the busy trading in the Court of the Gentiles. You can imagine these money changers bending down and frantically gathering the scattered coins while cursing Jesus. You can hear the sounds of bleating sheep, cows lowing, calves bawling, and bulls bellowing. And, when Jesus came to the guys who were selling doves, he told them, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
And, it was the Jewish religious leaders who allowed this to take place inside the temple. And, Jesus having this direct confrontation with the whole trading setup in the temple was making a statement against the religious establishment that allowed the temple to be defined, robbing its intended purpose to provide a place of worship.
3. Why did Jesus take it so personally?
Jesus took the offense personally because he considered the temple as his Father’s house as you can see from what he says in verse 16, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” How the Jews defiled the intended purpose of the temple was personal offense to Jesus because his relationship with the Father. What offends the Father offends the Son.
Jesus was conscious was this of when he was young already. He told his parents in Luke 2:49 when they thought they lost Jesus, "Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?"
And, when the disciples later understood what was going on, they remembered what the Old Testament scripture, Psalm 69:9 said about this. As known as the psalm of the Righteous Sufferer,[3] Psalm 69:9 prophesized sinless and righteous Christ’s suffering and his death. It says, “for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” It is this same psalm that also prophesized what would happen when Jesus hung on the cross. 69:21 reads “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Jesus’ zeal for the temple, the house of God, his Father angered him when it was being defiled.
And, the ultimate consummation of his zeal for God’s house would be his sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus knew that cleaning the temple with the whip and rebuke would not last. He did it again shortly before he went to the cross. The only lasting way to ensure the purity of the Father’s house, to ensure its intended purpose is by going to the cross himself and purifying it with his blood.
In this way the temple signified a greater reality about Jesus himself, namely his death and resurrection. When confronted by Jesus’ rebuke over their practice that defiled God’s purpose of his house, they questioned Jesus’ authority to rebuke them and demanded miraculous sign. To this Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” in 2:19. The temple had been underway for forty six years and it still remained unfinished until A. D. 64. How could this temple be destroyed and rebuilt in just three days? Ludicrous ideas, I am sure the Jews thought. But, as readers, we know that Jesus was not talking about the physical temple, but himself, his body; he himself would replace this physical temple and restore true worship in spirit and in truth. And, that through his death and resurrection!
4. How did people respond?
The most of the Jewish leaders as you know responded to Jesus with skepticism and even hatred that led them to devise plans to rid of Jesus.
But, then there were people who saw the miraculous sings he was doing and believed in his name as stated in John 2:23. But, their believing was in suspect by Jesus. 2:24, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.” The people liked what they saw the sensational display of power by Jesus. They were fascinated by what he could do. And, I am sure they wanted to see more of it. They were spectators, audiences who were wowed by the display of power of Jesus; they were like great fans of a sports hero who loved to have their hats signed by him.
There is nothing hidden before Jesus. Jesus sees right through the veneer of niceness and perceives human ugliness, deception, pretension. Jesus knew right then their believing would be as reliable as a solid rock floating in water.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says this about God. “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
5. How do we apply?
We must understand the picture here. Jesus is claiming the temple as his Father’s house. And, in the logic of the book of John, what belongs to God belongs to the Son. As such, you see Jesus’ fierce attitude to claim what belongs to him, to his Father.
Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Do you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” He was referring to the commitment that Christians must make to flee from sexual immorality. Why? By the virtue of Jesus paying with his blood, his death, he bought us at great cost. And, there is this transaction that takes place, namely we cannot any more claim our own bodies as our own, but belong to the Lord. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” So, the commitment to keep ourselves pure rises from this fundamental truth in Christ that we belong to him; Jesus bought us with his precious blood, by his death. Going back to Paul he says in 1 Corinthians 7:22-23, “…he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price…”
To our Lord who fiercely claims what belongs to him, we can either miserably fight against him or yield to his ownership.
We must also be very careful at being sucked into worries about money. Worries about future or money have way of obscuring our vision from seeing God at work; not only does it blind you from God, it blinds you from yourself as well. Case in point, consider the governor of our State who would gladly give up governorship to get a job that pays better, who would abuse his authority to appoint a senate seat to earn money and power. Here is a man whose zeal is to make more money, gain more power and status. He is sensual man who desires lust for money and power. Instead, we need to realign our prayer according to Proverbs 30:8, “give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”
We need to be different. Jesus was consumed by his zeal for the Father’s house. He didn’t come into our world and pitch tent to dwell with us in order to be happy. If Jesus sought happiness in the way people today understands happiness, he should have cashed in on his ability to change water into wine. But, again his zeal was for the Father’s house.
Let’s ask God to mold us, shape us into the framework of our Lord Jesus. Let’s ask God to transform our zeal.
And, next time when some greets you, “Happy Holiday!” don’t you dare reply in the same fashion. When the public demands pc and seeks to erase the memory of Christmas or adulterate it as though it is about Santa Claus, you give them Jesus correctness. You make sure with clear voice you greet that person back, “Merry Christmas!” Let the people know you are about Jesus, you belong to Jesus, you are zealous for the Father’s house!
Something is not quite right if there aren’t too many things that get you angry these days. When you yield to Jesus who purchased you with his life, when you let his zeal for the Father’s house infects you and let it also consumes you, you begin to look at sins in your life foremost an become really angry because you realize that your let the Father’s house be defiled.
[1] Burge, Gary M. “Contemporary Significance” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: John. By Gary M. Burge, 103. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000.
[2] F. F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John, Eerdmans, p. 74.
[3]Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1998). Vol. 36: Word Biblical Commentary : John (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Word Biblical Commentary (39). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
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