You will remember that John is writing for a very
specific purpose. John 20:30-31 - “Jesus did many other miraculous signs
in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded here. But these are
written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that by believing you may have life in his name.”
It’s important to keep this in mind. John is very
clear about the purpose, nothing is hidden. He has written this to show us
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He’s telling you plainly, if you read
this you are faced with a choice – a decision – either you see or don’t
see. You’re eyes are opened or they are not. Either you do believe and
have life or you don’t believe and don’t have life.
And throughout this gospel we meet people who have
different opinions about Jesus. There are those who say that he is
demon-possessed and should not be trusted, others will trust Him and give
their all to Him. There will those who say, “He fed us bread in the
wilderness; let’s see if He has any more.” When He refuses to give them more
bread, they turn away from Him. Others will say, “He feeds our souls with
His words; we cannot do without Him,” and they follow Him.
Some will want to stone Him, others embrace Him.
Always we are faced with a choice.
And so our passage today, we are faced with a choice –
a hard choice – it’s not a choice for Jesus meek and mild, that we often
think about at Christmas. Not a choice for a God who is our good buddy and
chum whom we can call on when things aren’t going well.
“Hello Jesus? I’m in a real jam, do you think you can
get me out of this? You can? Thanks you’re a real pal. I always knew I
could count on you – I always say to people, ‘You can count on Jesus’.
Worship? Yeah, yeah, I’ve been meaning to come to worship, but you know how
life is. Anyway got to go. I’ll call you again soon. And you won’t forget
to help me out, right? Thanks, you’re a real pal.”
That’s how we sometimes think of Jesus. But that’s not
the Jesus we are invited to choose today – or any other day for that matter.
It is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh who has come to
reveal God and bring us to God and who would have us focus on God and God
alone.
In our text, we read in verse 12 “After this” - that
is, after Jesus performed a miracle in Cana – changing water into wine,
bringing joy and abundance to a situation that was going seriously wrong.
Remember, the miracles have an immediate purpose as well as telling a truth
about Jesus. They are called “signs”. This sign points us the truth that
Jesus brings joy and abundance and has come to fulfill the Messianic law –
the jars are used for the ritual of purification. Jesus is the one who
fills these jars to the brim. The text is very specific at verse 7. He
will bring cleansing, a quality and quantity of which we have never before
experienced.
After this He stayed a few days in Capernaum and when
it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
It’s interesting that John mentions three Passover
feasts in his gospel and says that the cleansing of the temple happened here
at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
The other gospel writers put the cleansing of the
temple at the close of their gospel. The suggestion is made that John put
it at the start of his gospel in order to prove a point. Others suggest
that there were two temple cleansings and John chooses to record this one
and the other gospels choose the other one. We cannot know for sure, but I
am part of the camp who believes that there were two temple cleansings, one
at the start of Jesus’ ministry and one at the end of Jesus’ ministry.
What we do know for sure is that the Passover is a
yearly festival celebrated by the Jewish people to commemorate that great
event recorded in the book of Exodus, when the angel of death came through
Egypt and killed every firstborn male, but passed over those homes – Jewish
homes – who had marked their doorways with blood of a lamb. Thus no
firstborn male Israelite was touched by the plague and it was such a
wonderful occasion that the Jews celebrated it every year. John mentions 3
Passovers in his gospel - here in our text at John 2:13, John 6:4; John
11:55, and possibly a fourth time at John 5:1, which helps us understand
that Jesus’ ministry lasted 3 – 3 ½ years.
So this is the first Passover that John mentions in his
gospel. Clearly Jesus is at the start of His public ministry. When we read
through this gospel we often gloss over the details thinking that John is
just throwing it in. But these facts are not there merely for decoration.
We are meant to stop and think. This is the Passover – a great feast and
festival in the life of the Israelite nation.
To get an understanding of the Passover as it was
celebrated in Jesus’ time and the point that he makes, let’s think about the
history of the Passover for a moment.
You can imagine that through the long history of the
Passover as it was celebrated at the start - God was at the centre. It was
a reverent time, a wonderful celebration of God’s saving power, His mercy
and love. Every year after that, as they walked through the dessert for
forty years and as they entered into the promised land, the Passover would
have been a special time of meeting with God and celebrating His goodness.
And for generation after generation after that the Passover continued to be
a great time of worship and praise where people drew close to God as they
recognized Him as the one who rescued them and led them and called them His
own.
And over the years the people of God would celebrate
the Passover in so many different places until finally at the time of Jesus
Jerusalem was the centre of worship. After all, that is where the temple was
located. So people from all over the middle east would pour into Jerusalem
– thousands, upon thousands of people - to celebrate. At the start, it all
focused on God.
But you can also imagine that as this feast was
celebrated year after year and generation came and generation went and
generation came and generation went, it began to lose its holy purity,
priorities began to shift, the focus that once was so centred on God moved.
We can understand the shift – if we compare it to our Christmas celebrations
and how the focus of that worshipful time has shifted in our society to
something that is not so worshipful and is driven by so many forces other
than the celebration of the fact that God came to earth in the flesh - we
can understand the shift that takes place with the Passover.
I mean, the Passover was a great family reunion.
Relatives from all over the middle east would flock to Jerusalem to
celebrate Passover and stay for the week. After all, right after the
Passover there was the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread. So it was a
great celebration with family and friends – it was a homecoming of sorts.
Meals would be shared, late night visits getting caught up on each others’
lives would be enjoyed. You can imagine great aunts tweaking the cheeks of
their nephews, grandparents looking forward all year to seeing their
grandchild – “O little Zechariah, look how you’ve sprouted up!”
Reunions with friends only seen once a year would be
planned. “We really must have so and so over for dinner.” “But we just
had a dinner party last night, honey.” “I know but passover only comes
once a year. We really should have them for dinner.”
You can imagine the shift, can’t you? Who has time
for God when there are family and friends to visit?
If you were in business in Jerusalem, well, can you
blame them if their priorities shifted a bit? After all the city was
overrun with visitors – innkeepers were swamped, restaurants, whatever their
ancient equivilent was – were packed - it would be impossible to get a
reservation, Passover parties were happening everywhere.
If you ran a business in town – who has time for God
when there’s business to take care of?
And then think of the organization it all must have
taken. These thousands of pilgrims from all over the ancient world needed
to offer sacrifices. They couldn’t have been expected to bring their own
sheep and cattle, could they? No, organization was needed. The efficient
delivery of services was paramount. How to move people in and how to move
them out - crowd control and everything must be organized and move smoothly.
Stalls needed to be set up so that people could purchase their sacrifices.
And for convenience’s sake they should be really close to the temple. So
there were cattle sellers and sheep vendors and dove dealers very
conveniently located on the temple grounds.
And there really needed to be a money exchange system
in place. With people coming from all over they couldn’t just offer any old
currency to the temple – it had to be a special currency, correctly weighed
and minted. It was a great way to get rid of wooden nickels, people who
wanted to cheat the system – the setting up of money exchange tables wasn’t
about greed necessarily – it was just good business.
And every male over the age of 20 was required to pay a
temple tax – it had to be the right amount according to the law. So the
first ATM was established there in the temple – where people could exchange
their money for what I would call temple tokens. They’d go the exchange
desks and give their money in. Two please - and get the proper tokens back
and when they entered the turnstiles of the temple, they’d put in their
required tokens and their tax would be paid for another year.
All of that required organization. Hey, can you blame
them if the priorities shifted?
And Jesus comes and essentially says – Yeah, I can. He
comes to the temple and He is filled with a mixture of anger and shock and
grief that the people have allowed their priorities to get all messed up for
this most holy of occasions so He drives out the sheep and cattle and
overturns the tables of the money changers and says, “Get these out of
here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market.”
What is He doing? Well, first He is fulfilling
Scripture. In your daily devotional guide in preparation for this study I
had you look up and read Malachi 3:1-2 - “ ‘See, I will send my
messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you
are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you
desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the
day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a
refiner’s fire and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine
them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring
offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be
acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.”
There is a refining here, there is a purifying
happening here – Jesus is the one who fulfills the Scriptural promises.
This is what the disciples learned as they thought
about the event much later they said – Hey, what Jesus did there in the
temple points us to the truth we read about in Psalm 69:9 - “Zeal for
your house will consume me”. That means that God’s chosen one will be
concerned, consumed with everything that is godly. The worship of God, the
adoration of God, reverence for God will be His top priority. This is the
one who fulfills Scripture.
But there is also this: Jesus is calling the people
back to God. “You’ve got your priorities mixed up,” He says.
And if I were there, and had a little bit of boldness,m
I would say to Jesus – “Hey, just a minute, it’s the Old Testament Law that
says I have to offer these sacrifices – and you’re telling me that I have to
get them out of the temple?”
And I think Jesus would say – “Yes, it is prescribed by
the law that these be offered, but what has happened is that you are simply
going through the motions – your priorities have shifted and God is no
longer the focus of your worship, the centre of the celebration of all the
sacrifices - How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market.” The
priority has changed.
And so it is a danger that we always live with. When
we come into worship, are our priorities right? Is it God that we are
focusing on? Is He the one who gets our attention, our praise, our
adoration? Is He the focus of our worship, of our service, of our
obedience, our lives?
Many people read this text and say, “What Jesus is
against is the exchange of money in the church – that’s what this text is
teaching us. Nothing should ever be sold in the church.”
I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. The issue
is – is God the centre of your life and the centre of our church?
There are lots of churches who don’t sell anything in
the foyer after worship – no ticket is ever sold – that would be the worst
sin – to sell something in the church - but their church is still full with
division and a lack of forgiveness and no repentance and no grace. But no
tickets are sold in their building.
Jesus would put like this – it has nothing to do with
the outside of the cup – whether things are sold in the foyer or not – it
has everything to do with the inside of the cup – with the heart.
Is the Lord the centre of your life? Is the Lord the
centre of our church?
And you know He deserves that central place, don’t
you? He does? Yes, this is what Jesus says. After He drives out the
merchants the people come to Him and notice they don’t argue with what He
has done, but they ask in verse 18, “By what authority have you done
this? Give us a sign to show us that you have authority to do this.”
And Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in
three days.”
And if we were there, we along with those who are
listening would have said, “Are you crazy? Destroy this temple? It has
taken 46 years to build this temple.”
In fact, at the time, the temple wasn’t even completed.
It would take approximately another 14 years before it was declared to be
finished. It was a huge structure. Some of the stone of its foundation
measured 44.6 feet by 11 feet by 16.5 feet and weighed 567-628 tons.
While in Scripture the whole thing is referred to as
the temple, the temple itself is the tallest structure in the centre of the
all the buildings. The building on the far left is the Antonia Fortress, the
building in the centre is the temple proper, and the building on the right
are a series of porticos.
The temple was gilded with gold. All around it were a
series of courts. The more privileged you were the closer you got to the
temple – so working our way out, the high priest got to go into the Holy of
Holies, the next court was the court of priests, the next the court of the
Israelites, the next the court of women and the outer courts is the courts
of the Gentiles. It is here that the cattle would probably have been sold
and the money exchanged.
It was a magnificent structure and so you can imagine
the people are a little more than incredulous and mock Jesus a bit, “You’re
going to build this in three days???”
But John as he often does throughout this gospel -
whispers from the sidelines – “the temple he had spoken of was His body.”
And we in the audience say, “Oh.” Jesus was speaking of his death and
his resurrection. He was going to die and rise in three days.
Which is harder - to rise from the dead or build a
temple? “Hmmm. Well, rise from the dead obviously.” Right, those are the
credentials that Jesus offers.
And John tells us that it is the resurrection that
verifies Jesus and all His claims. If Jesus had not risen from the dead
then He was a fraud, a liar, woefully misguided. But He did rise on the
third day and so all His claims are validated. So John writes at verse 22,
“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had
said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
The Resurrection is the great seal of authenticity upon
Jesus – this is the Christ, the Son of God. Is it enough for you? You
will may say, “Yeah, that’s enough for me.” But wait don’t agree so quickly
- think about the implications here. As awesome as the temple was, as
beautiful as the temple was, as magnificent as the temple was in size and
architechtural wonder, it was above all the centre of worship – the place
where the people knew they could meet God. For it was believed that God
lived in the temple. It was His special dwelling place.
And Jesus says, Destroy this temple – He compares
himself to the temple. What He is saying is “As the Christ, the Son of God,
He is the new temple.”
If you want to meet God – look to Him. If you are
looking for a sacrifice for your sin – don’t go to the temple - look to
Him. If you want to know where God dwells, look to Him. If you want to
speak to God, speak to Him.
Jesus is saying that He is the new temple of God which
not only makes the temple they are standing look like a pile of lego blocks.
But He is the one to whom we are to come and worship.
Is this the one on whom you are focused? The majority
of people during Jesus’ time were focused on things of ministry. Did they
have the right sheep? Did they have the right coins? Their focus was all
wrong in the midst of this holy festival – they had forgotten God and were
going through the motions.
Do you know a scary thing? It is possible to worship
without God. It is possible to sing the songs, to preach the sermon, to
listen to the sermon and pray the prayers and do it all without God.
It is possible to do what the church does without God.
Programs can be run, people can be helped, buildings can be kept up,
expanded and built, staff can be hired, sermons can be preached, worship can
be offered, all run like a well-oiled machine and God not be present in it
at all.
Of course I know that is a broad statement and I know
that if God is not in it such a church will not stand and its results will
not be eternal. But there is a sense that a church can do what it does
without God.
Do you know a pastor by the name of Lloyd Oligivie? He
is the pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Hollywood California, and
has written quiet a few books and has a radio program. Well the story is
told that Lloyd Oligivie went to the leaders of his church and he asked
them, “What’s going on in our church that could not possibly go on here if
the Spirit of God wasn’t at work.”
To the credit of the leadership they couldn’t point to
anything. Elaborate programs, good crowds, all sorts of things were
happening but they could not point to anything that could be explained only
by the spirit of God working. They couldn’t say, “That is happening because
of the Spirit of God is enabling it.” They could point to most everything
in their church and say “This is was all happening, because of our efforts,
our money, and our knowledge of how to move people and motivate people.”
So they redirected their ministry. They took risks.
They reached out to the poor people in the area, folks who couldn’t pay
them back. They got the people involved in feeding the poor. They got
people involved with AIDS victims and they began to take risks.
They began to do things that they could only do through
the help and power of the Holy Spirit.
What is going on in our church that could not possibly
happen if the Spirit was not alive and vital? Is God the centre of your
life? Is God the centre of our church?
Now don’t misunderstand me – I know God can work
through our efforts, our money and our knowledge. In fact, I know that’s how
He always works. We are His hands, we are His feet. If people are going to
be embraced by the love of God it will be through His people. Don’t
misunderstand me.
In ministry there is always this tension of using our
abilities and talents and gifts and resources in partnership with God for
ministry. Think of the story of David and Goliath. When David fought
Goliath, he trusted in the living God but he had five smooth stones.
Haddon Robinson tells the story of his friend Dr. Bruce
Waltke.1 When Bruce’s children were small, they used to play
Bible story games. One of the games he played was David and Goliath. What
he did was he took a hankerchief and he got some ping pong balls and he put
them in this handkerchief and the kids would come and they would say, “I
come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel,” and they would hurl the
ping pong ball at him with his handkerchief and they’d hit him and down he’d
go.
His sons were particularly interested in the ping pong
ball part, and they would come up against him and they would hurl the ball
at him and hit him in the head and he wouldn’t drop.
You see they didn’t say, “I come against you in the
name of the Lord God of Israel.”
His daughter wasn’t into the ping pong ball thing – she
liked the formula. She would say to her father, “I come against you in the
name of the Lord God of Israel, fall down.” And he wouldn’t fall.
To slay the giant you have to have faith in the Lord
God of Israel, but you need five smooth stones. David was no amateur when
it comes to working with sling shots. In the church you have to have both.
But listen - the difficulty and the danger is that we
get so good with the slingshot and the stones that some how in the process
we lose God. We get so good at selling the cattle and the sheep and
exchanging the money and efficient management of people and things that
somehow in the process we lose God.
We get so good at doing church that we lose God. Some
churches aren’t even good at doing church and still lose God.
The question is - what good is a church to anyone if it
can do what it can do and it doesn’t need God to do it?2 This
is why Jesus drives the cattle sellers and the moneychangers out of the
temple – they were going through the process and had left God behind.
Have you left the Lord behind? Are you merely going
through the motions of your faith? Or does He take His rightful place as
centre of your life? Is He the temple? The centre of worship – the centre
of our adoration, the one on whom we focus our attention, adoration and
worship and service?
Have we as a church shifted focus? Is the Lord always
at the centre of what we do? Are we doing what we are doing in our own
power alone? Can it be explained that way?
If you think our church has shifted in focus, you know
how to change it, don’t you? It begins with you and you and you and you and
me – each of us who make up the church – making sure that our focus is
centred on the Lord and on Him alone.
May Jesus – the one who died yet rose again on the
third day – be the centre of our attention, our worship, our adoration and
service.
Copyright MBC and Rev. Dr. Tom Cullen -
January 2009
-
Haddon Robinson in a message entitled, “The Challenge of Personal Ministry
for “2000” delivered at the Ministry 2000 conference, Toronto Ontario,
February 13, 1992.
-
Ibid.
