I love that John shows us at the very beginning of his gospel, his need to lift Jesus as Lord. “So that you would believe in Him as such therefore having life in His name.” 20:31
Written in Ephesus the letter was to confront the false teachings of paganism, Judaism and a heretical form of Christianity called Gnosticism.
As usual there was conflict in the church about just exactly who Jesus was.
The Gnostics were a group/sect of “Christianity” that prescribed themselves to be of higher knowledge. There view of Jesus was a mystical one, that those enlightened could actually transcend into a higher awareness than everyone else. While a small part of that has some truth to it, they proposed that Jesus was an appearance, like a hologram and that His actual body was not flesh and blood. Therefore, Jesus was a sign not 100% man and 100% God. That was their claim, which was proven heretical.
After the wedding at Cana, Jesus goes to Capernaum and then on to the Jewish Passover in Jerusalem. It is here in the 13th verse of the 2nd chapter of John we join.
Gospel
How long does the zing of a new car remain a zing?
How long does a budding relationship stay budding?
For today’s message, how long does a new creation in Jesus, stay new?
John pairs the wedding at Cana with turning tables at the temple and I don't mean waiting on them as if Jesus is a waiter. With that there are a couple things to consider.
As Jesus arrives, there’s nothing new going on here. 1st remember that Jesus has been coming to the temple for the Passover feast since the time he was at least 12, as the law dictated. It was your obligation as an Israelite.
We know that since Luke reported that M & J were on the way home a day before they realized Jesus wasn’t with any of the family. He stayed back to speak with the religious court. When questioned, His honest response was, “why do you seek me, don’t you know I had to be about my father’s business?”
That phrase may clue us as to what Jesus thought about the temple. And it used to be what everybody else thought about the temple. The place where God dwelled.
He’s seen the same spectacle for at least 18 years.
John, reports the incident at the beginning of his gospel, whereas the synoptics record one at the end of theirs. I don't believe there’s only one event, there’s plenty of evidence supporting two. I just believe the audience they were writing to were better served as this being Jesus final act of defiance “reason”. It fit for them.
I believe John records his at the beginning because that's exactly what happened whenever Jesus came as God in the flesh. From that moment the temple was being cleansed.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stay clean and we're well familiar with that in our own lives.
Getting back to the fact that Jesus had been seeing this scene most of his life makes me wonder just how badly this weighed on his heart. It evidently weighed on John.
The ark of the covenant, God’s very presence was kept there. We know the glory of God appeared there in shekinah glory, the dense cloud with rumblings and flashes of light. Israel has this as their history. Solomon was a witness as were his subjects.
All this took place in the outer court, in the Gentile court where the non-Israelites could go and possibly seek peace and maybe put some trust in the one true God of Israel. It was a place that was solely identified with God. If the temple stood, so did God.
But the court was only as far as foreigners could go. They were forbidden to go into the inner courts and sanctuary because they would defile it. Just so we're aware, what Jesus saw was in full keeping with Old Testament law demanding animal sacrifice and offerings being made. Thankful priority put on the holiness of God to whom all things came.
Coupled with holy coinage, Tyrian shekels that were made of the purest of silver, that could only be used for the temple tax. The money changers also charged a percentage for that particular service as John subtly comments they’re “sitting” shop’s open!
The animal keepers charged a percentage for animals without blemish. From doves on up to cattle. That exchange was allowable for tithe & animals to be obtained close to the temple because of distance and danger (Dt. 14:24-25).
Partly racket, partly worship and if you can imagine, quite the zoo. Early historian, Josephus, noted that at any given festival there would be 250,000 lambs sacrificed.
You heard the account, even the doves were paid honor by being taken out of the court in their cages, they weren't made to fly away. What Jesus saw was the glory of the temple mocked. Turned into a marketplace for the greed of society to prosper. If you can imagine the Gentile court was quite large. 1 lap was ¾ of a mile and the area it covered was 20 acres!
There was a boundary railing that ended the commons, along with signs written in koine Greek that read “let no foreigner enter inside of the barrier and the fence around the sanctuary. Whosoever is caught will be responsible for his death which will ensue.”
Now that is an invitation to church! I pray we don't act the same way.
In Romans 4, Paul recounts God's call to Abraham promising to bless all the nations through Abraham’s faith. Faith is the tie that binds, not blood. Isaiah 56:1–8 reports
Let’s remember God’s word there and here: This is what the Lord says:
“Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the one who does this— the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.”
3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. 6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Sovereign Lord declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”
Over and over again God expressed His desire for all to be counted among His people as one nation to worship the Lord. Just as the Israelites, they will pray together, and the temple will be "a house of prayer for all nations."
As Jesus arrives, there is no silence of the sanctuary - instead it's the sounds of the street, cattle mooing and sheep bleating instead of brokenness and contrition or adoration and petition - there is noise beyond compare. (DA Carson on John).
For those who portray Jesus as the meek and mild, mild goes out the window here, he's mild as he's dealing with sinners with whom his mercy and grace rests on knowing that we are inundated with the world.
His meekness, the power to do whatever he needs to do but holds back no longer holds back. The anger in which Jesus shows is the anger in which God gives each and everyone of us. This passage isn’t about anger, it’s about God’s nature. Zeal!
We're allowed to be angry we're not to sin when we're angry. Jesus does no sinning here Jesus rightly judges the temple and those that are blaspheming it.
Imagine that scene for a second. They didn't ask him why he was doing it, they asked for a sign to prove his authority. Yet, no one stepped forward to stop him, they could not!
His answer, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” John lets us know what he was talking about. The Jews as literal and legalistic as they could be, refer to Herod’s rebuilding that started in 18 or 17 BC. (Actually, completed in 63AD destroyed by the Romans in 70AD).
That was Jesus’ fun day at the temple and if you will, as the temple. Jesus does that. He turns things over, cleans them up. As they lost their zeal for worship and God’s house became another place to be watered down by the very people who were to hold it up.
The father’s job the day before the Passover festival was to clean the leaven out of the house and did He ever.
Jesus as well as the father, never stops working. Time and time again we see Jesus cleaning up people’s lives. Changing relationships, viewpoints, removing obstacles, and daring us to live as God created us to live. Not calling us to something or someone different but to who He created us to be in the beginning.
Life in the world today brings truth to the good Samaritan, people without food or homes and I’m not talking about third world countries. The socioeconomic scale has shifted. The children Jesus defended so vehemently, are being marketed, defenseless treated as animals for lust and greed. draped in fear and worry.
The Zacchaeus’ seeking Jesus are still trying to get up that tree, nervous that someone will see them needing help while they gather the courage to say, I’m guilty, have mercy on me.
The lame still need healed, the deaf still need to hear, and the blind need their sight. And the dead still need called to life. Maybe this isn’t about someone you know, maybe it’s about you?
What’s in your temple? Are there are some tables in your life that need turned over? Some wildness run out of your courts? Maybe you feel like you’ve fallen away a bit and need your relationship with the Lord to be intensified?
Or fulfilling our worship “obligation” instead of Going to give God thanks with the church family. Has church stopped being a place to meet Jesus and continue to grow in His likeness.
The Word became flesh so that the temple we run to is Him. As we accept Jesus invitation to be His, He can’t wait to be invited into our lives.
I am not asking about what needs to happen so that you can become holy or become the temple, but so you can see that you already are the temple and claim what is already yours.
As Jesus refers to His body as the temple, so then ours is to Him. When we trust in Him.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies. 1 Cor 6:19-20
Like the wedding at Cana, Jesus was a welcome invitation and filled what was empty.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:21-23
Like the visit at the temple, Jesus was fulfilling His obligation, but rejected participation. He emptied what life in God’s temple had become.
What’s In Your Temple?
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
Your invitation offers your story to be to His glory.
