Raise Up

John 2:13-22, CEB

13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 He found in the temple those who were selling cattle, sheep, and doves, as well as those involved in exchanging currency sitting there. 15 He made a whip from ropes and chased them all out of the temple, including the cattle and the sheep. He scattered the coins and overturned the tables of those who exchanged currency. 16 He said to the dove sellers, “Get these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place of business.” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written, Passion for your house consumes me.

18 Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? What miraculous sign will you show us?” 19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” 20 The Jewish leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?” 21 But the temple Jesus was talking about was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

INTRO

This Lent, we are invited and challenged to ask ourselves what’s up with our souls as we examine our call to get up to something good over the next 40 days. In our “What R U Up 2?” Sermon series, we examine this call to be up to something good as a means of living out a holy Lent. We began by examining our call to wade into the troubled waters of life as God stirs us up so that we may Come Up better than before, empowered for the work ahead. Last week, we explored our call to discipleship by examining what we are called to let go and what we are called to take on so that we can take up our cross and follow after Jesus. This week, we continue our journey exploring ways we are called to be up to something good.

In a sermon on this text, Bishop Willimon shares a story about one day coming to work as dean of Duke Chapel. He reports walking from the garage and hearing a great commotion coming from the chapel. The closer he got, the louder it seemed to get. He arrived at a scene of great commotion as hymnals and bibles and altar tables and pews were being thrown out of the chapel. His initial reaction was the great cost of each of the materials, the hymnals that had recently been purchased, and the extra cost of getting “Duke Chapel” embossed in gold on the front, the expensive bible, and furniture. As he approached the door, Bishop Willimon asked what was going on. The employee responded that Jesus was inside and he was cleaning the house. In response, Bishop Willimon ponders if this is his Jesus, Jesus who bears all compassion, Jesus who is meek and mild in the manger. Is this really Jesus? While this is just a story, it brings our text this morning into our modern world. This week, we examine what it truly means to be the church of Jesus Christ.

In our text this morning, Jesus enters into the temple. This sacred space was the place where God came down and touched the earth. In a politically savvy move, Herod the Great had begun a restoration and expansion of the temple meant to gain favor with the Jews. It must have been a beautiful and glorious sight to see. As Jesus came into the temple expecting to find a sacred space, he instead was met with a market. Cattle, sheep, and doves were wall making noise; people were talking and yelling, and the sounds of coins clanging as imperial coins were changed over to temple coins. Now, these activities were necessary. Perfect animals were required for temple sacrifice; blank coins were needed to pay the temple tax.

Jesus’ complaint is not that those in the courtyard who conduct the “business affairs” of the temple are guilty of unethical business practices. Jesus is not demanding that they reform their business ethics; rather, Jesus finds that this transactional activity isn’t necessary inside the temple. Instead of brokenness and contrition before the Lord, prayers of adoration, and prolonged petitions met with solemn dignity, the temple is filled with noisy commerce. Instead of a reflective place where God meets the soul, there is the bellowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep; there are distractions. The temple looked like it should, but it had been taken over by the consumers, by the ways of the world.

John’s Gospel is concerned not with the chronological ordering of events that take place in Jesus’ life. Rather, John desires that we have a theological understanding of who God is in Jesus Christ. One of the most significant differences between John’s account and the other synoptic gospels is that Jesus quotes scripture and makes a whip to drive out the animals.

While Jesus directly quotes Psalm 69, he also alludes to Malachi 3:1 where the Lord purifies the levites and refines them like Gold and Silver…Jesus' cleansing of the temple is, then, a prophetic symbol of one’s call to denounce worship that is not pure-hearted. Jesus's whipping, over turning tables, running live stock out of the temple is an invitation to worship God from the heart, without clamor or distractions.

One commentary notes: “Malachi 3:1–4, which tells of a “messenger” who suddenly appears in the Temple to “purify the Levites,” sets the stage for “offerings in righteousness … acceptable to the Lord … as in former years.” Nothing in Jesus’ Temple actions violated the spirit of these prophetic expectations.” Rather, Jesus’ passion which consumes him is a passion for worship that is not a display of power but borne out of love for God.

So often, we think of Jesus as going into a rage in the temple. We believe that Jesus’ actions are motivated by his anger and thus reflect an angry reaction to what is happening in the temple. But Jesus is not losing his temper or blowing things out of proportion. In fact, we can even argue that Jesus shows great restraint in his response. Notice that nothing was lost or damaged. The text doesn’t tell us that money was thrown away or taken away. The doves were not released into the air. In fact, Jesus couldn’t have driven the larger animals out without the whip. Jesus just wanted the commerce, the earthly things, located outside the temple.

Just as Jesus has done all of this, the temple authorities approach him. “By what authority are you doing these things? What miraculous sign will you show us?” While we often give them a bad reputation, the temple authorities have the right to question Jesus. Jesus has taken an especially bold action in the temple, and it is only right that they question Jesus about it. However the way that they ask their questions of Jesus show where they go astray. They do not inquire about whether Jesus’ actions are just. In other words, the temple authorities are more concerned with precedent and authority than pure worship and the right way to approach God.

However, if they thought Jesus was a criminal or a fraud, they could have ultimately had him arrested. In other words, the fact that they chose to ask him these questions shows that they at least suspected Jesus might be a heaven-sent prophet. If their eyes were truly opened to the things of God, they would have seen Jesus’ acts of cleansing the temple as a sign from God.

Instead, Jesus responds to the temple leaders by saying, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” But the temple leaders don’t get it. They snarkily talk about how many years it took to build the temple. They focus on the renovation work underway. They don’t understand how one person has the ability to rebuild the massive, glorious temple in just three days. They fail to see that God has become flesh and is dwelling among them.

This is the focus of John’s gospel. John’s gospel is concerned with understanding who Jesus is. From the very beginning, John doesn’t focus on the manger scene. John focuses on Jesus being God incarnate in the world. I love the way that the message translates John 1:14. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” These temple authorities have failed to realize the flesh and blood before them was God moved into the neighborhood.

In this, Jesus predicts what we know to be true at Easter. That the son of man will die and will, three days later, rise from the dead. The word made flesh is the new temple. Now, we are here as the body of Christ on earth, and we must ask ourselves whether Jesus would throw things out of our temple. What do we need to tare down so that we can build forth the body of Christ as Christ would have us do. So often, the church clings to a building or a way of doing things. We make idols out of altars and crosses and hymnals.

But Bishop Willimon reminds us, “The good news is that Jesus is just consumed with passion for God’s house. Jesus loves us but loves the righteousness, truth, and holiness of God even more. He will purify God’s house, transform our little play church into his very body. He will, with whip in hand, drive out the idolatry in us. He will cleanse us until we shine like the sun. He will take our church and our fumbling attempts to praise and transform them into a purified acclamation of the true God.”

You see, we must offer ourselves as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ, offering for us that we might Raise Up the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit in new and different ways. We must drive out the practices of old that hamper us from reaching the world around us. We must lay aside the ways we have always done it. We must offer what we have and all that we are up to God that God might perfect us and use us for the Raising Up of God’s kingdom here in earth.

This Sunday, as we ponder the work we have to do, we pray this prayer from Bishop Willimon, “Lord Jesus, drive out our self-contrived demons, whip us into shape, clean us up, dust us off, until we are able to worship you—in word and deed, on Sunday and on Monday—as we ought. Amen.”

May we be cleaned that we may be for the world the body of Christ whose been reedeemed from hatred, bias, “this is the way we’ve always done it.” May we be driven by God’s Spirit to share with the world the love of God on Sunday, Monday, and every day. For we worship God not just in this space but through our everyday interactions…Lord Jesus, drive out our self-contrived demons, whip us into shape, clean us up, dust us off, until we are able to worship you—in word and deed, on Sunday and on Monday—as we ought. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.