"Jesus, The Replacement For The Temple”

In Jesus Holy Name Lent III March 7, 2021

Text: John 2:19-20 Redeemer

“Jesus, The Replacement for the Temple”

Sometimes we need to read the words of the Bible more closely than we do. I noticed something new as I was reading John chapter 2 this week. . “After the wedding in Cana”, John tells us an interesting bit if information. Jesus returned to “Capernaum with his mother and brothers where they stayed a few days.” Maybe in the home of Peter. We do not know for sure… but I found it interesting that Jesus is with His mother and brothers. Did the family of Jesus move to Capernaum? We do not know. John then writes: “Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover.” Did His mother and brothers also go to Jerusalem? I’m sure they did.

These are questions my curiosity would like answered. John isn’t concerned with my questions. He is only concerned with one question: “Is Jesus going to replace the temple, and the temple sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins with Himself? The answer is “yes”. Jesus is the replacement.

Some theologians have tried to understand, and then explain why the Gospel of John is different. Matthew, Mark and Luke all seem to follow a logical progression from the birth of Jesus to His baptism. His temptation. His miracles and parables. Followed by His arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.

John is different. The first miracle John records is the Wedding at Cana. It is not in the other gospels. In Chapter 3 John records this nice interview with Nicodemus. Again, only in John. After the wedding at Cana, and the family’s return to Capernaum, John tells of this event in Jerusalem when Jesus “clears the temple of money changers”. With a whip he drives out the animals, turns over the tables. Coins clatter on the stone floor. Jesus makes two bold statements:

“How dare you turn my Father’s hours into a market!” “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John places this historical moment in the life of Jesus not during Holy Week, as in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Why? Why does John have this event at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus? I suggest that John is making a theological point that Jesus has come to fulfill all the O.T. laws. He has come to replace, “the place”, where forgiveness of sins is offered, with a new place, a cross on Calvary’s hill.

The point? Jesus is boldly proclaiming that He Himself is God’s touchstone on earth, no longer the stones of the temple, nor the stone altar of sacrifice. Jesus is replacing the “holy of holies”. He is replacing the Jerusalem temple. The stone altar in the temple, a place for the sacrifice of lambs for the forgiveness of sins is being replaced by God’s perfect sacrifice, the holy Lamb of God, on the cross. The author to the book of Hebrews reflects correctly on this replacement idea.

“Sacrifices, offerings, sin offerings” were required in the Old Testament, but now God Himself has come in Christ to offer his perfect body on the cross. “So Jesus was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people and He will appear a 2nd time not to bear sin…(which happened at the cross) but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for His return. _ (Heb. 10:5; 9:27)

When Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ became a megahit movie in 2004, the question: “Why did Jesus die?” hit the headlines. For a brief moment in time, Jesus became fashionable again. Reporters discussed the movie and then talked about what the death of Christ meant. In response to the movie, John Piper wrote a short book called 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. In his book he stated that the most important question of the 21st century is: Why did Jesus Christ come to die? (p. 11)

Not many people would, I suppose, pick “Why Did Jesus Die?” as the most important question of the 21st century. “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” or “Will there ever be world peace?” or even “How can I know God?” as the central questions of our age. But if you dig deeper, you can see what John Piper is getting at. All the other “great questions” of our time lead us back to ultimate questions about God and his purposes in the world.

We will never understand God until we understand the cross on which Jesus died.

Thoughtful people have pondered that question “Why did Jesus die?” for 2000 years. When we read the gospels, the record looks something like this:

Jesus was a good man, a very good man who went about doing good.

Even his enemies testified to his integrity.