"a Carnival Of Corruption" Lent 3

In Jesus Holy Name Lent III March 5, 2024

Text: John 2:19-20 Redeemer

“A Carnival of Corruption”

Carnival time in New Orleans or Brazil always shows a crush of humanity going crazy. We have seen videos of “Smash and Grab” happening in various stores and the result is absolute chaos, most often fueled by corruption.

In 2010 On the way back to Galveston, a Carnival cruise liner listed dramatically to one side, creating a few minutes of panic for the passengers. Carnival stated that the ship had to make a sudden maneuver to avoid a buoy that was submerged in its path. But, the maneuver was so radical that it did more than break a few glasses.

One passage reported: "As I turned, you could literally see people just pouring out of the pool," "The boat had tilted that much. People were tossed out of the pool and were just sliding all across the deck." All of a sudden, everything just starts sliding down - liquor bottles, coke cans, everything, all sliding". "Glasses are breaking everywhere. You can hear all the glass crashing, and people are just starting to panic." It was chaos.

The gospel of John, chapter 2 records the miracle of Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana. John then writes: “After a few days Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover.” Upon arrival Jesus is clearly angry. “He clears the temple of money changers”. With a whip he drives out the animals, turns over the tables. Coins clatter on the stone floor, dove cages were overturned, thousands of birds began flying for freedom. Sheep and goats that had been brought into the temple area, for purchase by pilgrims and then sacrifice, were now set loose and chaotically running through the temple looking for a way out. It was chaos.

Jesus makes two bold statements: “How dare you turn my Father’s house 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, but at the beginning of His ministry. Why? I suggest that John is making a theological point that Jesus has come to fulfill all the O.T. laws. Jesus has come to replace, “the place”, where forgiveness of sins is offered, with a new place, a cross on Calvary’s hill. Every Jewish person understood that the temple was the one place on earth where heaven and earth intersected. It was the extension of the “Garden of Eden,” God’s dwelling place.

God had promised King Solomon that His Name, His presence would always dwell in the new Jerusalem temple. (I Kings 8,9) The Temple is where God’s glory rested. The physical temple in Jerusalem was a signpost. A sign post points to a direction. In this case the “signpost” is point to Jesus who is the real dwelling place of God. That’s why Paul could write ”God was pleased to have all of His fullness dwell in Jesus,” (Colossians 2:9) (Jesus: A Theography Leonard Sweet, p. 172

This dramatic event, the “cleansing of the temple” meant that it’s corrupt system was under God’s judgment. The city of Jerusalem, and the “temple”, the presence of God, were to be a light to the world. Instead, the religious leaders had turned God’s house into the commercial oppression of the poor. God’s forgiveness was no longer free.

“Forgiveness was the rule of the temple in Jerusalem. The temple offered forgiveness of sins by the sacrifices that were offered.” The problem: God’s forgiveness was free. It was His gift, but the religious leaders were making the people pay for His forgiveness. Jesus was rightly angry.

This was also the same problem 1500 hundred years later when Martin Luther challenged the selling of indulgences. John Tetzel was running around Europe proclaiming that when the “gold coin in the coffer clinks a soul from purgatory is set free.” Luther then nailed his 95 theses to the church door. God’s forgiveness is free, (he wrote) purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross. The religious leaders wanted Luther dead.

After Jesus cleanses the temple the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead, not because He healed a man who had been lame from birth, the same man who had been carried by friends to see Jesus, who then was let him down through the roof of a house in which Jesus was teaching. They wanted Jesus dead because Jesus forgave the man His sins. He was replacing the temple, the place of forgiveness.

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.