Do you remember “Let’s Make A Deal” with Monty Hall? People would dress up in goofy costumes and carry signs to get his attention so he would come to them to make a deal. They would barter and trade. Unknowingly contestants would trade away a new car for 5 baby pigs. Or, they would trade away a new olive green refrigerator for an old jalopy. Then, at the end of the show, Monty Hall would offer people the opportunity to those who won good prizes the chance for the “Big Deal of the Day.” Why was it a big deal? It was big because it was something out of the ordinary. It was a chance to win a bigger prize. There were great vacations, cars and more. It was big because it was big. People wanted the opportunity to get something big.
Big deals are big, because they are out of the ordinary. We don’t make a big deal something routine. It’s not a big deal that I drove my car here today. It would have been a big deal, at least to me, if I had walked here today. Things are big when they are out of the ordinary.
Things are also a big deal when they rock our boat. The Monday after we moved here, we were out driving around getting things set up and situated. In my infinite wisdom I saw that it would be very easy to make a u-turn. Well, I ran up on the curb, no big deal, until I came off the curb and realized that the front right tire was flat. I had managed to hit a storm drain. I pulled into a parking lot. Of course it was raining heavily that day. In my automotive expertise, I deduced that the tire was flat. I saw about a ½” gash in the tire. Our van has a spare tire that hangs on the bottom of the car. I’d like to tell the guy who thought of hanging the spare on the bottom of the car a thing or two. I finally managed to get the spare tire off. I then realized that it was flat. Fortunately, I was able to call Mike Eason and he swiftly came to the rescue. That episode was a big deal, because my boat was rocked. I don’t deal well with broken cars, especially when there is a lot to do. Big deals are out of the ordinary, and they rock our boat.
Turn with me to John 2.
Read John 2:13-22.
There are two questions that I asked myself in looking at this passage. Why was Jesus so angry? And, what did Jesus accomplish? This is obviously a big deal. It was something out of the ordinary, and the boat was rocked big time.
Why was Jesus so angry?
The obvious question here is, “Why was Jesus so angry? What is it that caused him to go and do this?”
It was not the fact that people were selling things in the temple. This was a common practice in the temple. It served a useful purpose. It is estimated that annually 2.5 million people flooded the streets of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. That’s in addition to those already living in Jerusalem. Many of these people wanted to offer a sacrifice to God out of thankfulness for a safe trip. Many of the travelers could not bring along their own sacrifice due to the length of the journey. So out of necessity, people began to sell animals for sacrifice in the temple. They were also required to pay the annual temple tax. The temple tax had to be paid in local currency. Since travelers came for other jurisdictions, they had to covert their money so they could pay the tax. So out of necessity, people began to set up exchange booths so the tax could be paid in the proper currency. Jesus was not reacting to the principle that these people were there.
He was angry because a practice had arisen of taking advantage of the travelers. They had a captive audience, and they sought to make money off of it. It’s kind of like going to an amusement park. A few years ago we went to Disney World. As if they don’t charge enough to get in the gates, they proceed to charge an outrageous amount for food and souvenirs. Where else can you get a little hot dog for $4? Or, a cup of ice with a dribble of Coke for $3? How about a $25 t-shirt? There is a practice of charging as much as you possibly can because there is no other choice. Captive audiences are prisoners to the mercy of those controlling the things they need. Why else would a can of pop at a hotel $1 when it’s 40 cents at Wal-Mart?
What these merchants had done was take a legitimate practice of providing a necessary service and turned it into a method of lining their pockets. The travelers were at the mercy of these people. They had no choice but to pay outrageous prices for sacrifices and monetary exchange.
There is something else that made Jesus angry. It is the fact that these people had set up shop in what was known as the Court of the Gentiles. The way the temple was set up was to not allow the Gentiles beyond a certain point. For whatever reason, the merchants set up their little business in the place where a Gentile could come and worship.
Imagine how difficult it would be to worship God, while right next to you people were squabbling over the price of a lamb. Imagine the odor of all those animals. It proved to make the worship of God incredibly difficult. Think about sitting there trying to pray, while two guys argue about the exchange rate between a drachma and a shekel.
People were trying to genuinely worship God and pray to him, but they were hindered by the greedy trade practices of opportunistic folks who were only concerned about making a buck. I have heard some of you complain about one place where you worshipped and someone was setting up for a garage sale while the service was going on. That was the basic problem here. A Jewish person could proceed into another part of the temple and pray and worship without distraction. Jesus is here defending the right of the Gentile to worship God. He is protecting the sanctity of worship. There is something sacred about being able to worship God without distraction and confusion.
How often do we allow people to worship in an undistracted atmosphere? Distraction is more than noise. It also includes insider talk and thinking. By insider talk I don’t mean gossip or something like that. I mean that we use phrases and terminology that are unfamiliar to some people. “I talked to the D.S. about the NMI convention as it related to the D.A.B. as laid out in the Manual.” What in the world does that mean? Many of us understand things like that, although I’m not sure I understood that sentence, but the fact is we use terminology that is confusing to many people that we try to reach. Think about how difficult it would be for someone to sit in a worship service where they didn’t understand what was going on.
I experienced that in Haiti last summer. We attended a service at a Haitian church. The Spirit of the Lord was present, but it was difficult to worship because I was in unfamiliar surroundings. I didn’t understand the language or customs. The order of worship was pretty much the same, but I wasn’t sure when prayer began or whatever. I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to stand or sit. It was especially difficult, because I was on the platform, and everyone could see me.
Think about this as well. Where do we most often hear the song “Amazing Grace”? At funerals. The song “Amazing Grace” may negatively affect someone who is unfamiliar with church. I love that song. It is one of the most beautiful hymns of all time. I am not at all disparaging it. Imagine that the only time you ever heard “Amazing Grace” was at a funeral of a loved one or friend. Our minds make powerful associations. Things we smell, hear, taste, touch and see can recall vivid memories from our childhood or some catastrophic occurrence. If the only place you ever heard “Amazing Grace” was at your grandma’s funeral, it would surely bring up memories of that pain and sorrow in your life. We must be careful to not have a negative impact on someone’s ability to worship God. Imagine how hard it would be to focus on God, when we are remembering the cookies our grandma used to make, and how sad we felt when she died.
Many people don’t know how to read a hymnal. Think about how we read a book. We read the first line, then the second, then the third and so on. We skip lines in a hymnal. Is it fair to ask someone to use something thy don’t understand.
Jesus was angry at the fact that people were prevented from worshipping God in an uncluttered manner. We cannot allow clutter to enter our worship that would hinder anyone from entering the presence of God.
What did Jesus accomplish?
The other question is, “What did Jesus accomplish? What exactly came of this commotion?”
The other part of Jesus motivation for this action was the fact that he was ushering in a new era in the worship of God.
There is no evidence that this outburst resulted in lasting reform as far as the sale of animals and exchange of money in the temple. Jesus didn’t deputize his disciples to be enforcers of the new policy. The point was not to halt the sale of animals or the exchange of the money. The point was to show that these things were unnecessary to get to God.
The Jewish Law had set up a system where sacrifices of animals were necessary to get to God. It was the way in which sins were forgiven. It was how someone paid for the wrong they had done. It was also a way to show thankfulness.
Jesus was saying that sacrifice was not necessary to get to God. Jesus would become the ultimate sacrifice, surpassing anything that people could offer to God.
This had been coming for along time. The prophet Isaiah wrote in 1:11, 16-17, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. … Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.”
The prophet Jeremiah said in 7:22, 23, “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’”
The prophet Hosea said in 8:13, “As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the LORD does not accept them.”
King David said in Psalm 51:16, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Cutting and burning animals is not what wowed God. God is only interested in the state of our heart toward him.
Jesus came to be the sacrifice that would for once and for all eliminate the need to sacrifice any living thing. What would matter from that point on is, as David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.” That is what matters to God. God wants our hearts to be right with him.
Along with the fact that Jesus showed that sacrifice was no longer necessary, he also shows us here that worship of God is not centralized in one location. The temple he talked about being destroyed is that of his body. He would be killed and three days later rise again from the dead. He would be the temple of God. It would not have to be located any longer in Jerusalem or anywhere else. It was he who would be the temple of God. The fact that he can come and live in our hearts show that it is in our hearts that we worship God.
In chapter four of John Jesus says, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Our worship of God is not limited by the location we are at. We don’t have to come to this building to worship. We worship God in our hearts. If we come here and don’t truly worship God in our hearts, we might as well be anywhere else. The fact that we come to church has no bearing on anything. What matters is that we worship God truly in our hearts.
Challenge
Jesus came to have a relationship with us. It is a relationship built on a surrendered heart. It is a relationship built on love, not fear. I challenge you to examine your heart. What are your motives for worshipping God? Are they out of a heart of love for what he has done, or is it something that you have always done? Our worship should be more than lip service. Our worship should be out of a heart of love.
We sang this morning a song that went, “When the music fades and all is stripped away, and I simply come; longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless Your heart. I’ll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the way things appear. You’re looking into my heart. I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, all about You, Jesus. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about You, all about You, Jesus.”
Is our worship really all about Jesus? In the song are the words, “for a song in itself is not what You have required.” You could substitute just about anything for the word “song.” You could say, “for a sacrifice in itself is not what You have required.” Or you could say, “for an offering in itself is not what You have required.” Plug in whatever you wanted. The next phrase of the song has the answer, “You search much deeper within through the ways things appear; You’re looking into my heart.”
God is looking into our hearts to the true motive behind our worship. Is your motive pure this morning? Is it out of a heart of love that you worship God?
