March 27, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson's famous valley campaign. Jackson's army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before day light General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where are the engineers and what are they doing? The wagon master's only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge. Though it is true that the engineers got right to the work of planning for the bridge, as a man of action the wagon master accomplished the job as quickly as he possibly could. Well when Jesus was on the earth, he too, was a man of action. As it was, Jesus always made the most of every opportunity to preach the Word of God. He was always traveling from town to town and village to village so that he could proclaim the message of the kingdom of heaven to as many people as possible in his three short years. He was always ready with a word of comfort. He was always ready to heal the sick. He was a man of action who revealed his authority as the Savior in everything he said and did. In fact, this is the very thing that we will discover as we take a look at the lesson before us from John 2:12-22.
Now, if you haven’t done so already, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson for today, from John 2:12-22 and we’ll see how Jesus took action in this lesson. Now, as you are turning to John 2, let me give you a little bit of background. It was early in Jesus’ ministry. He had recently gone head to head with satan in the wilderness. He had traveled up to the wedding in Cana, where he performed his first miracle and his disciples put their faith in him. Now, Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, as John tells us, beginning with verse 12: “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 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. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”(John 2:12-17, NIV 84)
Now, imagine with me for a moment what it would have been like if you found a livestock sale going on when you arrived at Church this morning. Even though you might have been expecting to take your regular parking spot, you would have found yourselves parking quite a ways away because of all the other vehicles. After you parked and came closer you would have seen the pens and corrals set up on every side of the church to hold and display the animals that were going to be auctioned off. You would have encountered crowds of people milling around trying to get a good look at the cattle, and the auctioneer practicing his trade. Then, once you finally forced your way in, you wouldn’t have found any room to hang your coat because of all the people in the entryway taking care of all the money that was changing hands. Though you had come for worship, by the time you finally made it into the sanctuary, worship would be the last thing on your mind. Though you would normally be able to sit down and concentrate on the service, even with all the doors and windows closed, you’d still be continuously distracted by all of the racket outside.
This is what Jesus found when he came to the temple on this day! Gathered in the outer court of the temple, the court of the Gentiles, were all sorts of merchants selling all sorts of different animals. There were cows and bulls, sheep and goats, pigeons and doves all crowded together and doubtless making one huge racket. But on top of that, it wasn’t that these merchants were doing business right outside the temple, rather, they had all their livestock in the outer courts of the temple complex. The gentiles who had come to the temple to worship would have found that their worship space was completely taken up by all the animals and the merchants. The Jews who were going in to worship would have had to pass by this confusion on their way to the inner court, and even though they would be separated from the noise by a wall they would still be disturbed by all the commotion on the other side. That is why Jesus took the action he did, take a look again at verse 15: “[Jesus] 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. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’” (John 2:15-16, NIV 84).
Now, there are some that say that in doing this, Jesus sinned. There are some that say that Jesus was wrong for what he did. But let me ask you, how would you react if you came to church this morning and there were a livestock sale going on right outside these walls? Would you have come in, sat down and try to ignore it? Would you have come in, sat down, and complained about it? Or would you have done everything you could to drive them away before you even came into church today? Well if it were me, I would have done everything I could to get rid of them before I even came into church. I would yell and scream and holler until I had finally gotten rid of them all. But would I be wrong? Absolutely not! For this place is a place of worship. It is a place of prayer and meditation. It is not a place for the buying and selling of cattle. The same was true in Jesus’ day. He didn’t sin in driving people out of the temple; rather, he was returning the temple to the purpose God had intended it for. In fact, when Jesus cleared the temple, there wasn’t anyone who said he had done wrong. Everyone who was present knew that Jesus had done what was right. Even the Jews who opposed Jesus never once said that he shouldn’t have done this. Rather, they came to him asking for a sign to prove that he had the authority to do this. They knew that Jesus had done what was right, however, they wanted to justify themselves. They wanted to put themselves back on top and expose Jesus as a false prophet, that is why John tells us in verse 18: “Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’” (John 2:18)
That’s how it was when Jesus took action to cleanse the temple, the Jewish leaders refused to believe him even though he had already demonstrated his authority to do such a thing by all that he said and did. For when the dust finally settled and the Jews came running to Jesus demanding that he perform a sign to prove his authority, what they saw should have stopped them in their tracks. For there, standing before them was not some ordinary man, but the righteous Son of God. There, standing before them was the man who had just forced them to remove their merchandise from his Father’s house. There, before them, was the Son of God standing in the outer courts of his own temple, and the Jews still had the gall to demand that he prove his authority to do what he had just done.
Can you imagine the look of righteous indignation that must have crossed Jesus’ face? Can you imagine Jesus turning to look at them and spreading his arms out as if to say, “Look around! Here is your sign!” For the truth is, the simple fact that Jesus, the Son of God, was standing in his own temple was demonstration enough to show he had the authority to do this. But if that were not enough for those Jews, by his actions, Jesus powerfully brought to fulfillment two different prophecies form the Scriptures. The one, which the disciples remembered, was spoken by the Psalmist David who said in Psalm 69, “I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” (Psalm 69:8-9). The other was recorded by the Prophet Malachi, who wrote: “‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 3:1)
But this wasn’t enough for the religious leadership! They wanted to see a miraculous sign done by Jesus in which he would thus prove his authority to them. However, because he knew the unbelief in their hearts, Jesus gave them a sign they would have to wait for. He said in verse 19: “‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” (John 2:19-21)
When Jesus gave this sign to the Jews, they did not understand what he was talking about. Because of their unbelief, and their absolute refusal to believe that Jesus was the Messiah who came into the world, they missed out on the salvation the Lord had planned for them. But even though the Jews didn’t understand what Jesus was saying, we do, and it is through these words that Jesus brings us comfort and assurance as his believers. For just as Jesus’ disciples recalled these words and believed after Jesus was raised from the dead, we also believe. Even though we never witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, his death or even his resurrection, we believe from the Scriptures that these things did indeed take place. Even though we have never seen Jesus our Savior in the way the disciples did, we believe that he came to earth as the Son of God just as the Bible tells us he did. Even though we have never heard Jesus speak, we have his words before us today, and these are the words that assure us that we too have the forgiveness of sins. For with these words that Jesus spoke, he was indicating already the kind of death he was going to die. He was, in effect, telling the Jews that when they destroyed his body by nailing it to the cross, three days later he would take back his life. Three days later he would rise from the dead as the Savior of the world.
This is the action Jesus preformed, which gives us comfort and assurance as believers. For we know the sins we have committed. We know how we have failed the Lord. We know how we have allowed ourselves to be distracted form God’s Word on a regular basis. We all know how easily we can convince ourselves that we are too busy or too tired to come to church. We know how easy it is to pick up the Bible and start reading one day, and then leave it unread for the next two or three weeks. We know how easy it is to start the day intent on following the Lord’s will and living in a way that is pleasing to him, but at the end of the day we can’t even count how many different ways we failed him. This is why Jesus’ actions today are so assuring to us. For through his actions of clearing out the temple and demonstrating his authority to the Jews, we are assured that Jesus is the one who has done everything right. We are assured that Jesus is the one who fulfilled all of God’s law. We are assured that when Jesus went to the cross to die and rise again, he took away our sins. This is our comfort and assurance as believers that Jesus through his actions has freed us from our sins and given us his salvation.
What a comfort to know that Jesus was a man of action. He was always moving, always preaching, always proclaiming, always comforting. Jesus was always ready to act in whatever way was necessary to bring the Word of God to his people so that they might come to faith in him as their Savior. Though his actions weren’t always popular among the religious leaders, Jesus did what needed to be done to call sinners to repentance. He was a man of action who demonstrated his authority as the Son of God, our Savior, as he cleared the Temple on that day before the Passover.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
