Richard Davenport
March 3, 2024 – Third Sunday in Lent
John 2:13-22
There was the little statement that circulated a few years ago in response to the prevailing attitude of our day that Jesus is really all about love and accepted. The statement was, “If anyone asks, ‘what would Jesus do?’ Remind him that flipping over tables and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.” It’s not often that we see Jesus upset. You might almost call him violent here, though there’s no indication anyone actually gets hurt and we don’t get the impression Jesus was interested in inflicting physical harm. He is certainly passionate about his Father’s house and appears to be angered by what’s going on there.
Many of the things Jesus was dealing with here had, at least originally, good intentions. Back when Israel was run by Israelites, you didn’t need money changers. God required certain contributions to be made and the directive was that they were “according to the temple shekel.” That’s easy to do when shekels are your normal way of doing things, but it’s more difficult when the Roman denarius is what’s in your pocket.
In that sense, having a moneychanger isn’t necessarily bad. The same is true of the animal vendors. If you lived a long way from the temple and needed to make a sin offering, you had a bit of a hike ahead of you. Driving your goat or ram across the many miles to the temple could be a bit of an undertaking. You had already raised your animal, but now you had to get it where it needed to go. It meant leaving your land and your business and taking that trip yourself. It’s your sin offering, after all, you kind of needed to be there for it.
To that end, the religious leaders came up with a solution to make everything more convenient. Rather than having to haul your animals all the way to the temple, they would simply have animals for sale there at the temple. They’d be checked beforehand to ensure they were fit for use as sacrifices to God. You’d save yourself some grief by just buying the animal right outside.
I like to think that these ideas were brought up with good intentions. The history behind them is a little fuzzy and it’s hard to say exactly when these things became established and it’s not as if we have a record of the meeting minutes where they were discussed and implemented.
Still, on the list of things God is looking for in his people and of the blessings that he gives us, convenience barely makes the list. That’s especially true of things like sacrifices. Even in the church today, many discussions turn to simply what’s most convenient, without digging a little deeper into the theology that might be affected. A convenient sacrifice is something of an oxymoron. It isn’t something meant to be convenient.
Sadly, as with anything we do, even those done with good intentions, if we don’t keep in mind what they were for, then we start drifting further and further away from those ideals. That’s even worse in the case of things like convenience, which God just isn’t all that interested in anyway. It shouldn’t be a surprise that here, after so many years and after the religious authorities have drifted so far away from what God actually intended, that what might have started as something good has definitely created problems.
Jesus comes to the temple, which is something he likes to do anyway. He reminded his parents all those years ago that his Father’s house was the most natural place for him to be. Today is even more special though, because the people are preparing for the Passover. Whatever the original intentions were, all of these other things going on aren’t actually a part of worship. At best they’ve become a distraction. At worst they’ve become a barrier between God and his people. The priests, Levites, and others who served the temple should be acting as mediators and facilitating their worship are instead prevent those who are repentant from hearing that they are forgiven.
This is unacceptable in God’s eyes. The people of Israel had already gotten into big trouble with God for refusing to be the mediators, working on behalf of the world around them to bring them to God. They had turned inward and cared nothing for those around them. Now here are the religious authorities actively undermining the work of God’s house and making it all about the transactions and finances, rather than about sinners receiving forgiveness.
The Jews there, standing on the sidelines, ask a pretty reasonable question, at least from their perspective. “What sign do you show for doing these things?” What right do you have to be making such radical changes? This has been the way things have been done for generations. If you are making these kinds of bold claims, you better be able to demonstrate what gives you the authority to make them. If you’re a prophet of some sort, then perhaps you can do some miraculous thing to prove God sent you.
Jesus could have done a miracle. Some prophets were known for doing a number of different miracles, but not all did. The miracles themselves weren’t really what made someone a prophet. If a prophet did miracles it was always to reinforce the message that he had been sent to give.
No, Jesus doesn’t need to do a miracle to prove himself here. He speaks with the Word of God. He speaks AS the Word of God. God has dictated what his temple is for. It is the place where he promises to be. It is the place where people may come and receive mercy. It is the place where sin is wiped away. It is the place where people are able to be with their loving God and know they are truly his. It is the place where God establishes a foothold in this sinful world, pushing back the encroaching darkness of sin and death. This is a safe place. This is a holy place, set apart for God’s special and gracious work. This is the most important place in the world.
Anything that detracts from God’s purpose in the temple also detracts from the mercy God offers. The Jews of Jesus’ day were so focused on following the rules and regulations, so concerned about things like convenience that they missed who Jesus was entirely. The sacrifice had come. The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world would soon be giving his life as payment, to satisfy the demands of the curse which made clear, “the wages of sin is death.”
It’s easy to see the progression. Sometimes it takes centuries. Sometimes it can happen overnight. Here we are, in God’s house. The consequences of sin haven’t changed. God’s mercy hasn’t changed. Generations have passed, but here we are, people still trapped in the world of sin and death. We need God’s grace as much as anyone else does. Is that what we think about as we come to church?
Some of you have been coming to this church all your lives. Others, like us, are more recent. If you come from other backgrounds, you may see churches that have different priorities. Often those priorities are expressed visually. What is there to look at? What is central to the service? An altar? A cross? An empty stage that can be filled with whatever I need for the moment? A band? A movie screen?
Responses to these sorts of questions are far from universal. We can’t always agree even in the Lutheran church, much less across other church bodies. I have my own thoughts on the subject, but having been in other Lutheran churches, I know others do things differently. Lutheran artist, Edward Riojas, states that everything in the sanctuary should be leading your eyes to the cross at the front. Anything that doesn’t is a distraction.
I think it’s a safe bet that most of you agree with those points. After all, in all of the years this church has been here, the cross and the altar are still firmly fixed at the front. All of the pews face forward to the place where God is present, where he speaks and where he offers his mercy.
What the church does outwardly, in terms of how it looks, isn’t always how the church operates inwardly. What is the purpose of the church to you? Do you come here because you need a social outlet, a place to visit with some people you’ve gotten to know over the years? Do you come here so that you can tell people you go to church? Maybe you don’t want to get left out of your Christian social circles and so you make the effort just so you can tell them with a straight face that you were in church on Sunday. Do you come here and do stuff and contribute so you’ll be thanked for what you do? Is gratitude and praise what you’re after? Do you come here to gossip, so you’ll feel like you have some control over what goes on in your life as you nudge peoples’ perceptions of others? Do you come here on Sunday, because if you don’t you’ll just get grief from mom or dad?
Whatever brought you here, I’m glad you’re here. But, make no mistake, this place is God’s house and he alone determines what it should be for. Whether you’re talking about God’s house as a place, the temple or the church, or whether you’re talking about the person of Jesus himself, God dwelling on earth in a body of flesh, God’s purpose has always been the same. He wants to be with his people and that means dealing with sin. God’s primary means of dealing with sin is to forgive it, to wipe it away, to clear out all debts and start fresh and new. There are many other good things that come as a result of that, but God and his mercy are all that stands between us and eternal darkness. Without God’s grace, without the Lamb of God to take our sins away, we are lost forever.
As much as we say we want that to be the case, there are many times we are here for our own reasons. We want the attention not up at the front, but on ourselves. But it is God’s house and he is not so easily thrown out. He comes here to drive out all of the sinful notions that crop up among his people. He comes to speak with authority, speaking the words of law and condemnation, but also the words of grace and mercy, the words God has spoken since the very beginning. Sin means death and an eternity in darkness. Christ offers the sacrifice that sin demands. He brings light and life. He brings mercy and grace and offers it to you fresh and new. He comes here to speak to you again, to drive out all of the things that distract us from his mercy. He comes here to offer his resurrected life to you in his body and blood, risen from the dead.
Whatever reasons brought you here to begin with, know that what you will find here is God. God is here in his house. He is present and offers mercy. He is here to take your sins away and bring you life. Our attention constantly drifts away from God and toward ourselves. But it is his house and he calls it back to his purpose. He calls our attention again to what he has done for us. He calls our attention to the cross and the sacrifice he gave to save us from our sins. He calls our attention to the altar where he brings you life. He calls your attention to where his mercy is proclaimed and he wants you to hear it. He loves you. He came here to save you. He will not be turned away so easily.