Introduction
At the end of the world, where the Narnian sky meets the earth, Edmund and Lucy climb out of the Dawn Treader and begin to wade southward along the beach.
But between them and the foot of the sky there was something so white on the green grass…they could hardly look at it. They came on and saw that is was a Lamb. "Come and have breakfast," said the Lamb in it’s sweet milky voice.
Then they noticed for the first time that there was a fire lit on the grass and fish roasting on it. They sat down and ate the fish, hungry now for the first time for many days. And it was the most delicious food they have ever tasted.
"Please, Lamb," said Lucy, "is this the way to Aslan’s country?"
"Not for you," said the Lamb. "For you the door into Aslan’s country is from your own world."
"What!" said Edmund. "Is there a way to Aslan’s country from our world too?"
"There is a way into MY country from all the worlds," said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.
C. S. Lewis uses the two Bible images for God’s Messiah – a lamb and a lion. The lamb is easier to love. The lamb takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb is gentle, meek and mild. The Lamb is without blemish and soft and cuddly. The lamb hosts the marriage supper at the last day. And the Lamb lights the city of God, eliminating the need for the sun and moon.
The Lion, on the other hand, is ferocious. Of the 150 times that the Bible uses “lion” or “lioness,” none refer to a gentle or friendly relationship. There are neutral verses – as when Samson found honey in the carcass of a dead lion. But otherwise, the purpose of lions in the Bible seems to be eating people and other animals.
The stark contrast between lamb and lion is evident when we compare the first part of John chapter two with the latter. Last week we were with Jesus at a wedding. Everything was happy and fun because Jesus’ miracle was a visible demonstration of his being the answer to sin and sorrow.
Weddings are riots of joy because marriage offers the potential and promise of happiness that can be found in no other relationship. Wine, too, makes the heart glad – and so wine came to symbolize the happiness of marriage. But at the wedding which Jesus attended, they ran out of wine. So Jesus creates, out of wash-water, about 150 gallons of the finest ever fermented. It is a living parable – every human relationship (even the best marriage) has empty days and dry hearts – only God can create overflowing and eternal joy. Jesus is telling the world that he is it – he is God in human flesh, come to remove sin’s sorrow and restore the world to perfect and full happiness.
Surely Jesus and his family and friends left laughing and celebrating. But the smiles soon fade as Jesus confronts the religious hucksters of his day. The Lamb becomes the Lion and his zeal is evident in his anger and his actions. And we are confronted too – confronted with a “Jesus” different than expected. “What is in God” may not be the tame lion we thought.
Jesus is zealous to redeem a people – to take hearts and souls distracted from the glory of God and to restore them to that for which we were made. So that the work of God might be carried on in our lives today, please consider three effects of Jesus’ zeal for his Father’s glory.
1. Because of Jesus’ Undivided Zeal for the Glory of God, We Must Not Domesticate Him (John 2.12-17)
During my years of ministry, I have found a booktable or bookstore a very beneficial service to those seeking to know more about God. Occasionally, someone will suggest that we not sell those books on Sunday. This text seems to say that we should not exchange money in the Lord’s house. While I appreciate the desire to honor God in all we do, that is not a correct application. Let us carefully consider the scene.
During the Passover, as many as two million people journeyed to Jerusalem. The result was a carnival atmosphere with trinkets and food and imported finery. It was a wild middle-eastern bazaar and it meant big business. And each worshipper needed 1) money for the temple tax and 2) animals to sacrifice. So in the midst of the teeming excitement, inside the Old Testament church, two groups of businessmen draw our attention: sellers of animals and money-changers.
Thousands of animals were needed, but each had to be “without blemish.” 55 times that phrase is used in the Bible – the sacrifice must be “without blemish.” We know the reason – the sacrificial system pointed to and prepared us for the man without sin whose death with save the world.
But what we must sense in order to understand this text is the profound temptation to abuse which polluted this system. Suppose you brought an animal from home. You live near enough to Jerusalem that you can drive your own lamb to the sacrifice. But then the sellers make no money – unless your animal is declared to have a defect. For every unscrupulous priest, a dozen “approved” sellers could be found who would certify their sheep as perfect – at a greatly inflated price. And the priest would collect a cut of the profit.
Of course, most families would not even attempt to bring their own animals. Therefore, certified sellers empowered by approved inspectors were in abundance. And so was extortion, payoffs, bribes, and corruption.
Special money was needed also. The annual temple tax, which every male 20 and older had to pay, required the Jewish currency, not dirty and defiled foreign funds! Fortunately for you, moneychangers will convert (at a tidy profit), your filthy money into holy coins.
Religion defrauds God’s people; worship is exploited for crass profit. Jesus condemns crooks for changing God’s temple from a “house of prayer” into “a den of robbers.” He makes a whip, driving the traders from the temple and throwing the coins to the ground. Three things to be sure of.
1.1. Jesus is Angry
The words “angry” and “Jesus” would seem to never belong together according to contemporary ideas of God. One writer even suggested that this story is a gross exaggeration: “Catching up some of the reeds that served as bedding for the cattle, he twisted them into the semblance of a scourge, which could hurt neither man nor beast. He did not use it.” (Quoted in Hughes, 67).
Men and animals driven from the temple, tables overturned, coins flying everywhere – and Jesus has some straw which he has twisted together, like a farm boy would chew while he fishes in the pond! No, that will not suffice.
In Mark 3.5 Jesus stares at the crowd “with anger.” In Matthew, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are like whitewashed tombs, a brood of vipers, snakes who will not escape being sentenced to hell. And in Revelation 6, we read of the effect the final judgment has on those who do not worship and follow Jesus: “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6.15-17).
We domesticate God when we refuse to believe in the anger of his Son. But also notice what causes his anger.
1.2. Jesus is Passionate
Those who read the Bible carefully, looking for a savior from their sins and from themselves, find a Jesus who is warm and accepting, forgiving and gracious, merciful and kind. But here he is different. Why?
Because his anger is directed at those who would keep people from finding his kindness and compassion.
Jesus is not angry at those who confess their need, who call out for help, who cry aloud for mercy. He is angry at the Pharisees who say they have no need, and he is angry at the priests who prevent people from finding true grace. It is critical to look at Psalm 69 when interpreting this event. The disciples remember the part of verse directly related to Jesus’ zeal. But the Psalm is a song about Messiah suffering for God’s glory, about the passion of the Christ!
Psalm 69.7-9: For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”
1) Jesus is angry when religion distracts from God’s glory. 2) Jesus is passionate about God’s glory to the point of his own passion. Now, third…
1.3. Jesus is Powerful
Some of the early “church fathers” (pastors who wrote in the first centuries of the church), called this Jesus’ greatest miracle. We might not agree, but we must be struck by his ability to walk amongst the crowd and insist on getting his way.
NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed John Mayer. His anti-war song has spent 33 weeks on the music charts. But instead of telling us that the war is wrong and that we must get out he sings about why his generation seems so apathetic.
It’s not that we don’t care,
We just know that the fight ain’t fair
So we keep on waiting,
Waiting on the world to change
In the interview, Mayer said: “Look, demanding somebody do anything in this day and age is not going to fly. Kids don’t even like being talked to like kids anymore, you know. ‘Just give me the option and I’ll think about it.’ That’s why we do not sing: ‘You gotta change it, change it, you know we gotta change the world.’ It’s more like: ‘Hey dude, on your own time, on your own dime, look up some stuff, but don’t think its ’cause I told you to.’ All I want a song to do is just to kind of present an idea.”
It may not fly, but Jesus demands a response. He does not “kind of present an idea,” he expects change. He has the power to effect the change necessary to bring God glory. Do not domesticate Jesus – his zeal leaves no place for that response.
2. Because of Jesus’ Undivided Zeal for the Glory of God, We Must Believe the Scripture and Worship Him (John 2.18-22)
Jesus’ answer to the Jews seems elusive at best. Why does he not simply turn a few into frogs or make them vanish or rain down fire from heaven? Five truths about miracles answer that question.
First, Jesus’ miracles reveal God’s glory. Jesus is not putting on a circus; he is not interested in performing for their pleasure. These Jews think nothing of the kingdom of God; they want wealth and power: “If you can work the wonders, Jesus, we can rule the world!” That is the wrong goal – Jesus is not a trained seal!
Second, Jesus’ miracles stir up the crowds. In John 6.14, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain.” Jesus came to die for your sins, not to sit as your king. He must guard his use of miracles to avoid inciting the crowds.
Third, Jesus’ miracles never convert the hard-hearted. It is popular to image that “seeing is believing” and that seeing a good miracle must produce faith. It is simply not so! John 12.37: “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him….” It takes a miracle to make a Christian (as John will show us next week); but not just any miracle makes a Christian. Miracles themselves do not convert.
Fourth, Jesus’ miracles call for faith in him through the word. Signs and wonders are exciting – none would disagree. When I was at seminary, many of us were swept up in the excitement of John Wimber’s promise of a “third wave,” a new outpouring of miraculous healings and multitudes of conversions. I want a piece of that! But the faith produced by such flees as smoke. Real faith is grounded on the word – lest you find yourself needing a new miracle every day.
Fifth, Jesus’ miracle of miracles is promised. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They ask for a miracle and though Jesus does not exactly give them what they want, he does promise the great miracle: “I will raise myself from the dead.” Three days Jonah was in the fish; three days I will be in the earth and then rise again. Jesus performs the great miracle of dying and rising again so that we will believe the Word and worship the Lamb who is the Lion.
3. Because of Jesus’ Undivided Zeal for the Glory of God, We Must Have Him “Put the Whip” to Our Own Divided Hearts (John 2.23-25)
Zeal for his glory and passion for our salvation is what is in God; but what is in our hearts?
The crowd was impressed with the Christ and wanted to raise him on their shoulders and carry him to a confrontation with Herod and the evil rule of Rome. “If you can work the wonders, Jesus, we can rule the world!” They believe in him; but he does not “believe” in them.
He recognizes that their approval is temporary, their motives selfish, their hearts divided. Jesus sees into the heart and knows the truth of Jeremiah 17.9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We cannot understand our own hearts, because our understanding is clouded and confused the deceitfulness of the heart. Only God knows what is really in a man; and only God can repair it.
What shall we do then? We ask Jesus to “put the whip” to our own hearts and drive them from the temple of religious pretense and to the true zeal for the glory of God. We do that by believing what this text teaches about the Lion and about our own hearts, and believe in him for salvation and hope.
4. Conclusion
In The Silver Chair, Jill Pole is whisked away from her boarding school in England by magic to the land of Narnia. The adventure begins poorly as she is frightened by a large lion and ends up face down in the grass, crying.
When she stops, she dreadfully thirsty…and she plucked up her courage to go and look for the running water she hears…. The sound…grew clearer every moment and, sooner than she expected, she came to an open glade and saw the stream, bright as glass, running across the turf a stone’s throw away from her. But although the sight of the water made her feel ten times thirstier than before, she didn’t rush forward and drink. She stood as still as if she had been turned into stone, with her mouth wide open. And she had a very good reason; just on this side of the stream lay the lion….
“If you’re thirsty, you may drink.”
…. For a second she stared here and there, wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again, “If you are thirsty, come and drink”…. [T]he voice was not like a man’s. It was deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way.
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.
“Then drink,” said the Lion.
“May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
“Will you promise not to – do anything to me if I do come?” said Jill.
“I make no promise,” said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
“Do you eat girls?” she said.
“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion.
“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.
“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.
“Oh, dear,” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”
“There is no other stream,” said the Lion.
It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion – no one who had seen his stern face could do that – and her mind suddenly made itself up. It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted….
The Lamb is a Lion – but for those who come to him for mercy find him as meek as a lamb. You think about that. Amen.
