Third Sunday in Lent

Here’s Your Sign

Pac 12 Football schedule released this week. All sorts of guesses and interpretations about what that will mean.

Stock Market constantly reading earnings, Husbands and wives trying to read spouse as they enter the door (whats the mood)

The Background information vv. 13-14

First of 3 Passovers mentioned in the book of John (Ch 6 & ch 11) Likely April 7 AD 30.

Typically believed to have been happening in the Court of the Gentiles

These coins are called Tyrians (Think the place Tyre) and on one side they have the Face of Heracles, on the other, the Ptolemy Eagle. High quality silver.

To be fair, these people are providing a valuable service. You don’t really want to walk 80 miles with extra sheep or doves in cages.

In your head picture more of a country fair than a space of worship.

Further, Israel has a reason to be sensitive about how they worship and any sort of disruptions in their temple. (586 fell)

2 Kings 25:13–15 ESV

And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver.

- Nebuchadnezzar had the temple destroyed and carried off. We’d get nervous too.

Herod had started to rebuild the Temple in BC 20 after the destruction from the Babylonians and Assyrians (46 yrs)

We have records that merchants used to gather outside the temple but eventually moved into the temple space.

v. 15 Watch Me Whip

Now the preconceived notion here is that Jesus is full of ‘righteous anger’. Whips, table turning, etc.

Nobody stops him.

Further, how else are you supposed to move full size oxen?

Almost everyone thinks Jesus was HOT MAD. The scriptures tell us when God is mad.

We don’t know if he is mad. Don’t read into it. We want Him to be mad.

v. 16 Watch Your Tone

John 2:16 ESV

And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Jesus doesn’t seem to shout or yell. He simply ‘says’. (eipon)

John 11:43 ESV

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Krazo megalon

What Jesus is doing here is setting himself up as the great exchange- the one who would be traded. Not livestock

Jesus is setting up that He himself would be betrayed @ the passover. (2 years later during the Passover feast)

John 6:64 ESV

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

v. 18-19 “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

Again, the Jews want a sign.

We all want some sort of assurance ahead of time that we are on the right track

The difficulty with Zoom meetings is that you aren’t in the room. You can’t pick up all the signs.

The witnesses of this zeal recognize a sign but don’t know what it means. (Like a Zoom call where someone goes dark)

Jesus interprets plainly:

I will be destroyed and on the third day will rise. This is the 1st specific foretelling of His death and resurrection in John.

For Christians, this is our sure sign that our world will end up secure. Jesus rose.

v. 21ff The Key Sign

John 2:21 ESV

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

John’s gospel uses the greek word Soma here for body. He manages to avoid using that word again until chapter 19 when His body is on the cross.

See if you wish to understand the scriptures, if you wish to understand the world, then you must know Jesus and trust His word.

When Jesus clears the temple courts he doing more than rectifying an unjust situation; He is making way for His final sacrifice.

Don’t you remember that Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver?

Further once a year the priest was supposed to enter into the Holy of Holies (Lev 16) and make atonement, a big and final sacrifice to receive the forgiveness of sins.

Here is the problem with that - it was supposed to be done on top of the ark of the covenant. Herod’s temple didn’t have the ark. THERE WAS NO ATONEMENT. It was an empty room. The Glory of God didn’t reside in that place it had left some 600 years prior. (Ezek. 10)

Jesus was the glory of God reentering the temple.

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The signs of the times

These last months we’ve seen innumerable protests. Likely some were thinking of this very passage as justification for storming the capital, universities and other institutions.

The footage of these events is a sign of their beliefs. Once people break into these temples of democracy they betray themselves. These are the political agnostics.

Once inside congressional offices or Police Stations we didn’t see activists writing new laws or policing the streets, announcing forgiveness or demonstrating mercy.

Once they had flipped the tables, there was no plan- there was no rebuilding the temple. It’s as if we all wanted to peer behind the sealed doors and once we realized that there was no glory we, like Israel moved on.

They signaled that they just wanted to destroy the house in search of the real and true.

It reveals that the problem was never the external temple, it was the temple of our hearts.

Growing up we used to have those coke commercials “always the real thing”. This was in contrast to Crystal Clear Pepsi. Tab Clear (2 Years!) Not because it wasn’t good. We just didn’t like what it looked like.

Our world is in the process of destroying everything in search for something real. Here it is. The person of Christ - met here in the church, His holy house. With grace and truth.

He has come to take up residence in your life.

Friends, you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for something, someone authentic. Jesus is it.

Jesus didn’t just clean the temple, He always was the temple- the meeting place with God, the place of sacrifice, the wisdom of God. Jesus is the real thing. Not only did he make space for all people, He brought them into the presence of God. He is more than a sign, more than a plan.

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 ESV

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Friends the point of this sermon is that you and I have been given the fulfillment of all signs and the creator of all wisdom. We have been given the crucifixion and resurrection of God Himself.

This should cause you and I to appreciate the real and eternal institutions we have- Church, community, the knowledge of God and the promise that we will stand in the presence of God. To this we are witnesses.

Amen.