“Jesus Cleanses the Temple” John 2:13-25

 Often when folks want to show that Jesus had a full range of emotions there are three text that they lift up - that Jesus wept tears in the Garden of Gesthmane, that Jesus wept when Lazarus died and that Jesus was angry when he cleansed the temple. 

While it is certainly the case that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, and as a result did have emotions, we short change this text when that is all that we lift up about it. See this text isn’t just about Jesus’s feelings, its about another sign that took place. 

A sign like that which happened earlier in this chapter of the Gospel of John when Jesus created wine out of water. However, while that was a sign filled with joy, celebration and abundance, this sign - this sign is about something different. 

John writes that the Passover was near and Jesus was going to Jerusalem. Remember that this is a high holy day for the Jewish people and folks traveled from far and wide to come and celebrate that God had freed his people in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. Part of that celebration was a meal of remembrance around the table. But another part of that celebration was worshipping God in the temple with sacrifices. 

Enter Jesus. 

Jesus and his disciples have traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover as well. But when he comes to the temple to worship, what should have been a time of praise had been replaced by the feeling of animals for sacrifice. In and of itself, this wasn’t the problem. It would have been unrealistic that folks would travel so many miles with animals with them. The problem is that the folks selling the animals wouldn’t accept Roman or Greek coins. So before you even bought the animal you had to go through this process of exchanging currency, for a price.

If you have ever traveled outside of the United States, you may be familiar with this process. In other countries, they use their own currency and prices - so as soon as you set foot on their soil you need to exchange money - often for a hefty fee.

But here, the people would have had Roman or Greek money, because that’s whose land they were in. Yet, to bump up the profit, the temple courts had become this place of commerce through a Temple Tax and exchanging money - not about lifting up the mighty name of Jesus. 

So Jesus decides to take care of the problem. And, friends, it really was a decision. This was not an impulsive act, fueled by anger. No, Jesus took time to bring cords together to make a whip. And then he used that whip to drive out all that was happening in the temple that wasn’t of God, his Father. 

And of course the religious leaders are none to happy. Who is Jesus that he can enter this place and create such a mess? Such disruption? What sign did he have to justify that this wasn’t a complete disaster? 

To which Jesus replied “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Of course with his words, more chaos broke loose. Doesn’t Jesus know how long it took to make this temple? How can it be destroyed and rebuilt that quickly? 

But of course they misunderstood. Jesus wasn’t speaking about the building, the place in which they were standing, but instead his resurrected body that will replace the temple. 

Oh friends. This text often gets brushed right over, perhaps because it makes us uncomfortable or perhaps because it demands so much of us. If we only focus on the act of what happened, we miss the heart. The why. The reasoning that led Jesus to this act in the first place. 

See Jesus didn’t have an objection to worshipping God, and even worshipping God through sacrifices. But what Jesus did object to was what the folks had made it. They had made it about meeting their own needs and understandings instead of actually focusing on God. 

What about us, friends? What in our worship is about us? Or meeting our needs? And is actually not what God is asking of us at all?

I’ve asked this question before with congregations and the answer often comes back through a list of everything that folks would be okay getting rid of because someone else isn’t really focusing on God because of that aspect of worship, all the while not examining their own hearts or practices. 

A few years ago, I was a part of a fellowship program for young clergy from around the United States. We would travel to different churches who were engaging in ministry and get to speak to the pastors and staff, learning from them. I still remember meeting the senior pastor in a church in Washington DC that was going through the process of really making sure that the church was fulfilling the mission that God had given them. They were doing this by praying over their church calendar - asking God if all of the things that they did - the studies, the fundraisers, the flower sales, etc - were what God was asking of them for such a moment. If the answer was ‘yes’, they kept it. If the answer was ‘no’, they blessed it - thanking God for what it once was and letting it go.

Friends, the pastor was telling us of the deep pain and freedom that this process brought. 

And that is true for us as well. There is both pain in letting go and freedom in truly following the way of God - even if it means giving up something that we hold dearly.

Because when we gather together as the body of Christ, it isn’t about what individuals enjoy the most. It is about gathering together in the presence of God. It’s about remembering just whose body this is, just like in John 2 Jesus was calling the people to remember who was the true owner of this place of worship.

When we misunderstand that or forget it all together, we can quickly slip into the place of the moneychangers in the temple. Creating a system that meets our needs, but all the while leaving out who matters most - Christ. Or worse, slapping Christ’s name on something that he would not approve of just to make ourselves feel more holy. 

The sign here was not a miracle or healing. Instead, it was a prophetic moment of tension that invited the people to be transformed. Unfortunately, the text doesn’t tell us that happened. While the heading in many Bibles, and even the title for this sermon is “Jesus Cleanses the Temple”, we have no indication that the behavior of exchanging money and selling animals stopped. Probably folks were right back at it as soon as they could be. 

Yet, there is still a powerful cause for reflection for each of us in today’s text. Where do we stand in need of transformation and are we really willing to be cleansed or given the chance will we go right back to things as normal? And what are some of the things that we engage in that are not of God - even if we put God’s name to them? In what ways has our discipleship shifted to look more like the world around us and less like the transformation we are offered in Christ? Let us take this sign and let it work in our hearts and lives in new ways. Amen.