John 2:13-22 Good News—The Temple is Rebuilt

This morning we’re reflecting on one of the more shocking stories of Jesus’ life, a time where he actually makes a whip in the temple and drives out the cattle and sheep that were being sold in the temple, along with moneychangers who were exchanging the people’s Roman coins, which had the image of Caesar on them, for Jewish coins which did not, so that the people could pay the temple tax. Jesus forces us to think about what worship is, and about who should be the true focus of our worship. A hint, it’s not about us and our wants, it’s all about God, all about Jesus.

The chaotic noise and busyness of the business was being done in the area where the women and foreigners worshipped. The temple area was divided into various sections: at the very front of the temple was the Holy of Holies, the place of God, then came the area of the priests where the priests offered the sacrifices, the next section is where the men worship, and in the back was the Court of the Gentiles where the non-Jews are allowed, and this is where the animals and money exchangers are set up. The historian Josephus tells us that one Passover over 255,000 lambs were bought, sold and sacrificed in the temple courts. You try worshipping God and praying in that chaos, yet this is where the Gentiles are expected to find God through reflection and prayer.  It seems as if everyone had forgotten the real purpose for the temple as the place to meet God and worship him through offerings and prayer, it had turned into a business.

Alicia Meyers writes: “In verse 16, Jesus calls the temple an “emporium,” or a marketplace. Rather than a scene of spiritual preparation, Jesus instead sees a place focused on monetary exchange. Like Old Testament prophets, he challenges the temple economy, questioning whether it was focused more on wealth than prayer.” What are we really focused on? Is our worship more about what we want than on prayer and helping others to encounter Jesus? Satan is always working behind the scenes to distract us from truly worshipping God and Jesus, encouraging us to focus on ourselves and our wants first instead. How often does it cross our mind on how someone who is looking for Jesus might experience worship here in Bethel? It’s important to make Bethel a place where people can find Jesus, can see how the worship of Jesus shapes who we are into grace filled followers of Jesus who care about leading people to Jesus and praising him. Worship is central to who we are, but worship is always God focused, always about pleasing God rather than ourselves; it’s a time of praise and helping others to praise Jesus.

Imagine being there at the temple that day, you’ve just come down from the north where Jesus did his first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding. Jesus has miracle like power and is willing to use his power to help others, to make sure that people like the groom aren’t embarrassed by their inability to provide proper hospitality to their guests. As you stand there with Jesus, you see him get angrier and angrier as he watches what’s going on around him in the temple, then you see him pick up cords and start to make a whip, and you start wondering what’s Jesus going to do?

Then Jesus turns towards the animals and drives them out of the temple courts, every single one of them, cattle and sheep. Then Jesus turns to the money changers and walks towards their tables where coins are all stacked neatly. The men behind the tables see Jesus coming and the look in his eyes and they begin to panic. Jesus strides up to the tables and sweeps the coins all over the temple floor and overturns the tables, shouting to those selling doves, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” There’s a fierce and holy passion in Jesus! Matthew tells of Jesus coming into the temple on Palm Sunday, “entering the temple area and driving out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written, he said to the, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers.” Worship for many had become shallow, no depth to it, it was often simply going through the rituals.

Jesus has a passion for God’s house and worship. The disciples’ eyes are opened as they remember what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 69, “for zeal for your house consumes me.” For Jesus, faith and his relationship with God is a passionate consuming fire inside him. People are often uncomfortable around those who are passionate about God, about Jesus, because of what such passion demands much of us. We’re so used to thinking of ourselves first, even in worship, that someone with a passionate willingness to sacrifice and put the needs of others first, being deeply other-focused because of their passion for Jesus and his mission to make disciples of all people, can make other followers of Jesus uncomfortable. When this passion shapes our worship, when it’s all about God and Jesus, listening to the stirring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, many are unsure of how to relate to us.

Jesus becomes a target for his enemies. We see some of that in this account, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Basically, they’re saying, “How dare you come in here and act like this, who do you think you are?” Jesus answers them with a very unexpected response, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” We look back and understand Jesus is pointing to his death on the cross and resurrection three days later; we see that Jesus is saying that the temple of God, that God’s glory is now found in him, not in bricks and mortar, but his listeners have no clue as to what Jesus is talking about. Jesus comes into our fallen world as the true temple that links heaven and earth. The temple will be destroyed and rebuilt in three days, just as he said. This is the good news of the gospel! We who believe in Jesus as the Son of God are the body of Christ on earth who are here to make disciples of Jesus, creating relationships and spaces where they can meet Jesus and learn to worship in spirit and truth as Jesus later on tells the Samaritan woman.

The Jews who are confronting Jesus remember what Jesus says here, becoming the major part of the case against Jesus in his trial before the Sanhedrin the night of his arrest, and leads to Jesus’ conviction. While on the cross Jesus quotes Psalm 69:21, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” For those at the cross and those reading John’s account of Jesus’ life, they’re being invited to remember Jesus’ actions and words here in the temple, to remember Jesus’ passion for God and his house as a place of prayer and worship where we can come close to God and remember who we are as children of God who need to connect with God regularly. Jesus’ disruption of the worship practices in the temple is God’s critique of how far they had drifted from him again. 

Worship centers us on Jesus, on who he is, what he has done for us through his life, teaching, death on the cross for our sin, and resurrection. Worship is not about us and what we want to experience, but about coming in humility before God and offering him ourselves, as Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Matt Redman wrote the song The Heart of Worship to remind us of what worship is really all about:

When the music fades
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, it's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much you deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath!

Worship is about coming to Jesus with a spirit of reverence, wonder, and a sense of mystery about who Jesus is that brings us to our knees in humble gratitude for calling us to be his children, while calling us to share the good news of Jesus with the world and help others worship Jesus too.