Jesus Overturning Tables

Brady, my seven-year-old grandson, wears his food wherever he goes. He goes to school looking like food graffiti. He puts on clean clothes in the morning, and he eats his breakfast, and he gets his eggs and syrup and milk on his pants and his shirt. He dabs at them a little, and then he is off to kick his soccer ball. No matter how many times we tell him to eat his food with his mouth over his plate, he forgets, because he is in the blocks to race to the next thing, which is more fun than staying clean.

This drives us all crazy because we are clean freaks. Janet is always cleaning clothes or floors or bedding or bathtubs or cars. Rebekah is always cleaning her own house, her own car, and the houses of other people. We talk about cleaning at the table—the latest concoctions for conquering dirt. When we go to the big box stores, we load up on cleaning supplies—gallons of it.

I, too am cleaning--my teeth, with my newly discovered battery-operated toothbrush, that I should never told you about. My smile has never been brighter.

The Jews were intent on keeping things clean. We saw last week at the wedding in Cana that the house had six stone jars that could hold as much as 150 gallons of water, and that they were used for ceremonial cleaning. This family wanted to stay clean for their religious observances.

Today we are looking at some more cleaning—the cleansing of the temple. This is also a spiritual cleansing, like one would do with those stone jars. Jesus is not sweeping up leaves and soil from the feet of pilgrims. He is protesting the unlawful presence of the bank and barn right there in the space where people worship.

Emotions are Running High:

"So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts." — John 2:15

Jesus was really upset. He was angry. He made a whip. He overturned tables. He drove out the moneychangers and those selling animals. He hollered at them. Nowhere else in the Gospels do we find Jesus this agitated, thrashing with a whip.

• Emotions are running high on both sides in the temple. The temple is sacred space. It represents the heart of Hebrew worship and the center of their collective life. They resent anyone who threatens that house. They are extremely protective of it. No weapons were allowed in the temple. A military unit called the temple guard was stationed nearby to protect the premises.
• The house of worship in Shiloh was destroyed. Solomon’s temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Those structures were tiny compared to Herod’s temple.
• The prophets said that God was going to destroy the temple because of the unholiness of God’s people. And Jesus clearly prophesied that the temple would be destroyed (Mk. 13:2).

This saying of Jesus is only recorded here in the Gospels. But it is twisted by his enemies and used in the accusations against him as recorded in the other gospels and in the Book of Acts.

• False witnesses bring it up (Matt. 26:61: “this fellow said he would destroy the temple and build it back in three days”).
• Those gathered at the cross also mentioned that Jesus said he was going to destroy the temple. Nothing stirred up more anger against Jesus than this cleansing and these words recorded here.
• We do find in the Gospels and in other places in the NT the judgment that the Son of God will bring to those who position themselves against him. As John the Baptist said, “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Lk 3:17).

Jesus’ prophetic statement fits with what we see in the miracle at Cana—the replacement of the old in favor of a new and better wine available in abundance.

Jeremiah 7:9-11 is the text that Mark and Matthew record to explain the actions of Jesus in this Cleansing: “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, 'We are safe'—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord."

Jeremiah goes on to mention the destruction of the house of worship in Shiloh and the coming destruction of the temple in Jerusalem—because of the wickedness of God’s people.

Destroy This Temple:

The physical temple and its outer courts and holy place

• There are two Greek words used here for “temple.” The first refers to the temple compound or precincts. It includes all the massive courts that Herod added around the temple in his building project—the court of the Gentiles being the key one.
• The second word is used by Jesus when he says “destroy this temple.” It refers specifically to the much smaller temple proper, the holy place and the Holy of Holies.

Jesus’ body is the new temple. The rending of the curtain in the Holy of Holies happened when he died upon the cross. It means that the era of the Old Covenant has passed. The New Covenant initiated in the blood of Christ has begun.

• Jesus is the new wine. Jesus is the light. Jesus is the bread come down from heaven. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is the new temple. Every religious institution in the Old Covenant is being replaced by Jesus himself who is God with us.
• The New Covenant is all about Jesus. We are new creations through him. We are justified with God through him. We are sanctified through our relationship with him. We will soon be glorified to be with him.

His church is the new Temple. Ephesians 2:20-21: church: "In him (Christ) the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord."

• What is God doing in the world? He is doing his Church. We are individual members of the body of Christ.
• He is working through loose-knit and formal structures that are his living body, the church.
• Therefore, the church must attend to its work with a full immersion in the Spirit of God and the Character of Christ. We cannot be just another nonprofit or another small business. That is not who we are. We are the Church. We must work to clarify this distinctive so that how we do our work will reflect who we are—the temple of God.

You are the temple—your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit—call to purity. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit… Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God’s."

• We are not our own. We cannot do just anything we want. We cannot claim autonomy anymore.

My heart is owned by Jesus, I told a room full of atheists. I seek to do what he wants me to do. One of them said, “I would never surrender my will to another human being.” The God of this universe, has made himself known in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't Damage the Innocent with Secondhand Smoke:

Full page ad in newspaper this morning that claims “Secondhand smoke kills 38,000 Americans each year” by giving them lung cancer and heart disease.

The spiritual leaders in Jerusalem were using religion for their own personal gain. They perverted the worship of God in order to achieve more wealth and power.

They were not just hurting themselves. They were damaging the spiritual lives of people all around them. They were creating a deep distrust among the people. They were encouraging a cyncisim about faith and the spiritual life.

People came to the temple from all over the world to worship the God of Abraham. They wanted to say their prayers.

• House of Prayer—Fundamental spiritual exercise. Prayer is the petition of the Almighty God who made us and loves us. This is what the house of worship is always about.
• For all people—the house of worship is never to be exclusive or dismissive of strangers and foreigners and immigrants. The house of worship is “for all people” including the Gentiles who came from all over the world.

But the Court or the gentiles, which is as far as any Gentile could go in the temple, was a chaotic mess of noisy coins, merchants hawking their wares, and the bleating of sheep.

• The religious leaders would certainly insist that the Holy Place itself was pristine. But only the priests could see the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
• The ordinary people saw the Court of the Gentiles. And here the temple was taken from the practice of worship and given to the ulterior motives of the religious leaders.

You are the temple. There are things about your life that may not be right with God. But you insist that your heart is pure, that inside you are a true worshiper.

• The problem is this. People see the outside. People can’t see your heart. They see your behavior, your habits.
• When your behavior and habits don’t line up with you being the temple of God, you create secondhand smoke. You hurt the ones you say you love. And you damage the reputation of ther Savior who bought you with his blood.

Jesus Is the One to cleanse your temple.