Cleansing Temples

March 4, 2018 Lent 3B


John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." 20 The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

The sermon outline today is very simple: four temples, the problem, the action, and the reaction.

A temple is the place where God dwells, the house where God lives. There is the Temple in Jerusalem. Because Jesus is God, he himself is a temple. The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, so each of us is a temple of God. And God is in this church where there is the Word and Sacraments , and so today we are in a temple of God.

The problem with the Temple in Jerusalem was that the courtyard was so busy and noisy that people could not pray and worship. Jesus’ actions were a prophetic sign. Since Jesus died and rose from the grave to forgive our sin, the sheep and cattle and doves were no longer necessary for sacrifice. And Jesus paid our ransom price, not with silver or gold, but with his precious blood, so the money changers would no longer be necessary. Jesus made a whip and drove them out. The reaction by the Jews was swift. First they challenged the authority of Jesus. Jesus said that the miraculous sign that they wanted would be his death and resurrection. Later the disciples would see it and believe. But the Jews did not want to believe Jesus so they made plans to cleanse the Temple by destroying Jesus.

The next temple was Jesus. St. Paul says that the fullness of God dwelt in him (Col. 1:19 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”). The problem was that this temple also needed to be cleansed. That is because Jesus took upon himself all the sin of the world. This cleansing was the suffering of Jesus. He was whipped. He was beaten. He was hung on the cross. The Jews mocked him, his disciples mourned him, and we adore him. We see his great love that died for us. But in that death, as the Lamb of God, he took away the sin of the world. And on the third day he rose again cleansed and pure. Therefore we adore him.

The next temple is our hearts. (1Peter 2:5 “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.) [At first I was going to say that Jesus dwells in our hearts because we believe in him, but it is more the case that we believe in him because he first dwells in our hearts. Otherwise, I do not think we could ever believe in Jesus.] The problem is that we sin. A cleansing is needed in our hearts and souls and minds and in our daily life. And along come Jesus and the Holy Spirit with the whip of the Ten Commandments and the Law of God. And our reaction is to resist the cleansing. We like our sin. Hide the broom! Hide the soap! It is hard to change by ourselves. That is why we must live daily by the cleansing water of our baptism. That is why we feel so refreshed by the forgiveness given in the Lord’s Supper when the Body and Blood of Jesus enter into us. We really are temples of God!

The fourth temple is our church. The Triune God is alive here with His Word and Sacraments. We are not like the Temple in Jerusalem. Sometimes there are crying babies or restless kids that disturb our worship, but we are careful to have flea markets and Oktoberfests on Saturday. We try to make this a peaceful place of worship, with stained glass windows, candles on the altar, and nice music. Probably the biggest disturbances are caused by us. Like Jesus, we who come here have a “zeal for the house of the Lord.” And that is why I love this church, because I love the zealous people in it. The people who cause us problems might be swinging the whip of Jesus, and so we pray in humility for the cleansing of confession and forgiveness. We need both the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of each other. And that is why there is hope for this congregation. And so today we have our Congregational Meeting to plan our work for Jesus. May the Holy Spirit give us guidance and strength.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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