March 3, 2024
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
John 2:13-22
Zeal for God’s House
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Jesus created a one-man riot at the Jerusalem temple that day. What if this were the first encounter you had with Jesus? You know what they say about first impressions! If this experience were all you knew about Jesus, you’d have a very harsh impression of him.
His behaviors at the temple are radically different than the Jesus we’ve come to know. His actions in such a very public place would have seemed downright scary. Who is this mad man? Nowadays, we’d recommend anger management training, for sure.
Jesus’ actions at the Jerusalem temple are very, very different from his usual demeanor. We all have many facets to our personalities. None of us fit into one, neat little box all the time. Jesus was no different. So what happened that triggered him to go berserk?
Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover observation. The population of Jerusalem about tripled during the holiday. Huge numbers of pilgrims descended on the city and the temple area. They were there for temple worship, which included animal sacrifice. That’s something very foreign to us, but typical in that era.
You couldn’t just offer any animal for your offering. It had to be an animal without blemish. How could pilgrims traveling from far away manage that? It would be difficult at best and impossible at worst.
And so animal dealers were brought in to help these people who needed an appropriate and acceptable animal: cattle and sheep, and also doves for the poorer worshippers.
It was all conducted for good purposes, to help people in their worship of the God of Israel. And yet, imagine the sounds and smells – cattle mooing, sheep bleating, the fresh manure, the dust and dirt.
And on top of it, not just any money could be used to make a monetary offering to the treasury. The coinage of Rome and much of the ancient world were not acceptable because they were marked with a human image. The only acceptable currency for an offering had to be without the graven images of people. So all money had to be changed into shekels. The shekel didn’t have a human image.
So people needed to change their money. In order to make this task easier for them, money changers were also located around the temple area.
Of course, the animal traders and the money changers stood to earn a healthy profit for providing these goods! The balance of supply and demand stood in their favor.
So a lot was going on in the temple area that day before the Passover. The rattle of coins, the voices of the animal vendors, the stench. Pilgrims wondering where they could get the best deal, who was trying to rip them off. Overall, just a general sense of mayhem and confusion.
And that’s when something inside of Jesus snapped. It wasn’t supposed to be this way! People had come here for the simple reason to worship God. And all these layers upon layers of complexity really weren’t helping, not at all.
Jesus wanted to clear it all away, all the mayhem, all the price gouging. He set about to do just that when he cleared the temple.
Nowadays, Jesus’ actions at the temple are sometimes quoted as a protest when one church group or another sells something: a youth bake sale; the women’s circle selling a cookbook. We’re told, “The church is not a marketplace.” I remember this protest came up at my first parish.
I think there are lessons to be learned in Jesus’ purging of the temple, but I don’t think it means that our youth shouldn’t have a bake sale. But let’s ask ourselves: What actions do we partake in that may have started as an enhancement of our worship, but have devolved into a detraction? Are there any aspects to our worship that need to be swept away and overturned?
I can think of one thing that has been swept away in my lifetime. When I was growing up, we had little cards in our church pews, next to the stubby pencils. It was a communion card. If you were planning to receive communion, you first had to fill out one of these cards.
Now, the purpose behind the card was benevolent. After worship, all the cards were collected. And then on Monday, the church secretary got out the big book of church membership and put a check mark next to the date of everyone who received communion. The purpose was two-fold. Number one, it helped the pastor who needed to fill out the year-end parochial report for the national church. How many members communed this year? You just had to tally up all the people with a mark by their name. And that attendance record also revealed trends. With a glance, you could see who was missing from worship. Did they need a caring house call from the pastor?
So the intent was well and good. But what did this practice feel like in real-action worship? How did it affect our experience of worship? Receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ resembled going to a movie or a play. As the usher came to your pew, you handed them your “ticket.” No ticket, no go up to communion. The card made communion feel like some kind of transactional event, rather than a means of grace. I think we’ve benefitted that the days of the communion card are passed.
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple calls us to take inventory of our own actions as his church. Jesus still possesses zeal for his house. Are we faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
It’s possible for us to sound religious but to proclaim a gospel that’s contrary to the message Jesus announced. One particularly alluring message is a gospel of prosperity. God is ready to bless, if we will only listen and obey. And when we do, when we follow in God’s covenant, then the floodgates of blessing will open up, both now and in the life to come.
Prosperity Gospel sounds very promising. But it psychologizes faith: “Five Faith Lessons to a Happier Life;” “How to Find Fulfillment through a Holier Faith Walk.”
This gospel teaches that God is faithful; we just need to keep up our end of the bargain in order to receive the abundant life promised to us. This sounds good! We want to believe it!
The first impression of this alternate gospel is appealing. It uses all the right words: blessing, faithfulness, covenant, faith. It’s filled with promise. But what’s conspicuously missing is a cross. Jesus’ destiny leads to his cross. He fulfills his highest calling not by a pathway of prosperity and success, but through one of utter failure in every measure. It’s through his complete submission that he will become the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus’ clearing of the temple area created quite a stir. The religious officials jumped all over him. They demanded to know why he had done this outrageous thing. “Give us a sign! Show us your authority.”
They asked for a sign. Just prior to this, the gospel writer John had relayed Jesus’ miraculous changing of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana. He concludes his telling of this event by saying that this was the first of Jesus’ signs. Jesus will demonstrate many more signs revealed throughout John’s gospel: feeding the multitudes, miraculous healings.
But the greatest sign of Jesus’ authority is the fulfillment of his declaration: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was referring to the events at the end of his life. That day on the temple mount, he pointed to his cross, to his death and burial.
But this greatest of all signs didn’t end with his death; it was completed in his victory over death. After three days in the grave, Jesus demonstrated his power over all our chief enemies: sin, death, and the power of evil. In this act, in his rising from the dead, he will achieve his ultimate cleansing of all things. He’ll drive out death; he’ll upend the powers of hell. And this sign pointed to the unending, divine love that fully embraces and welcomes us.
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
It was his zeal that filled Jesus on that day at the temple. But it was also zeal that led to his greatest achievement, his greatest sign: His victory over sin and death.
