Sermon Tone Analysis
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Right Worship
Intro
Earlier this week, Corrie and I had an interesting conversation.
She is currently participating in a reading plan that is going to take her through the Bible in a year.
Well she had just finished Exodus.
And when you think about the book of Exodus what is it that you think of?
If your like most people the first thing you think of is Moses, the 10 plagues, the Israelite rescue out of slavery, The parting of the Red sea, and the giving of the 10 commandments.
And those take up about the first 24 chapters of Exodus.
Then in Exodus 25 God starts to give instructions on how to build the tabernacle.
So Corrie said, “Wow, there sure is a lot of material covering the building of the tabernacle.”
And she’s right, almost half of the Exodus narrative is written around how the Israelites are supposed to build this place where God is going to meet with his people.
Not only that but one of the most dreaded books of the bible, Leviticus, comes right after Exodus and it is all about how the priests and the rest of Israel are to act in relation to God’s presence.
That he is a holy God.
He gets to set the guild lines and boundaries by which he is worshipped.
This is something that we have to wrap our heads around, God is the one who dictates everything.
Especially how he is worshipped.
And we are going to see that in today’s Scripture.
That there are right ways and wrong ways to worship God.
I pray it challenges you to think about what it means to worship God.
I pray it changes and transforms your mind.
I pray that it makes a might impact on your understanding of who God.
Let’s Pray.
Transition to Public Ministry
Verse 12 sets up a transition for the story that goes from Jesus’ private ministry at the wedding feast to now a public declaration of his calling.
He travels with his Mother, brothers, and disciples to regroup before they go to Jerusalem.
They are going to Jerusalem b/c the Passover feast was about to take place.
John here calls it the “Jewish Passover”
Scholars and commentator’s disagree about why he distinguishes it as the “Jewish Passover”.
Some argue that the original audience for this gospel weren’t Jewish so he was Identifying it as a particularly Jewish Feast.
Others argue, and I personally lean this way, that he is marking a breakaway for the Christians.
That Christians don’t have to observe the Passover b/c it has been fulfilled in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
That we are beholden to the celebration of that festival.
Not only that, but the theme of Passover fulfills a great role in John’s gospel.
Jesus is noted as the lamb of God in 1:29, 1:35.
The passover feast is mentioned 3 times in John’s gospel.
Passover imagery is scattered throughout the text.
John wants us to see that the greater passover was fulfilled when Jesus sacrificed himself for us.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the passover, but that didn’t mean that he could avoid passover during his earthly ministry.
Jesus was a Jewish man and he had to attend the Passover feast
In fact, it was required by law that every Jewish male that lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem had to attend this festival.
Which is going to play a big role in what Jesus is going to see when he gets there.
In Fact, What he sees is going to enrage him.
One thing we need to talk about real quick is John’s accounting of the clearing out of the Temple.
There are many arguments among scholars about the purpose of this story and it’s placement in John’s Gospel.
Each of the Gospel accounts contain this story of Jesus clearing out the temple.
The problem is that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19 , and Luke 19:45-48) all have this event taking place at the end of Jesus’ ministry before his death.
So what is John doing, putting this story at the beginning of his gospel?
There are a couple of possible options.
1) there could have been two cleansing of the temple events.
And the Synoptic Gospels cover one and John’s Gospel covers the other.
2) This cleansing of the temple is the same one that the other gospel authors cover, but for some theological reason John chooses to tell the story here.
Either option is valid.
Neither negate or change the Word of God.
John is not as concerned with the chronology or timeline of events as much as he is of telling you these stories so that you may believe.
This may not even be something that bothers you.
And that’s fine.
If you were going to ask me which option I held to, whether there are two temple events or if John tells this story upfront to set a theological tone for the rest of his gospel.
I believe and think that John simply arranged the telling of the story so that he could show that something better than the temple has come.
But we will talk about that in a few minutes.
So now lets get into this scripture and see what Jesus is doing here.
Distracted Worship
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he noticed that things weren’t as they should be.
The Temple looked more like a Farmer’s Market then a place of Worship.
Why were there so many vendors within the temple gates.
Remember why Jesus is in Jerusalem, it’s for passover.
And remember all males within a 15 mile radius had to make the journey to Jerusalem for passover.
Not only that but there were many Jewish people that would travel long distances to make it to the passover celebration.
Jerusalem’s population at this time was between 50,000-75,000, but during this time it would get up to 250,000.
The city was hustlin and buslin.
It was like if the super bowl was coming to your town.
It was a time to make money.
It was a time to take advantage of people.
It was a time to charge $12 for a $.50 coke.
Why?
Because if you are traveling over rough terrain for many days, weeks, and even possibly months, you know what you don’t want to have to move with you animals for the temple sacrifice.
Because if you came to the temple to celebrate and remember passover you were required to offer a sacrifice.
And what better place to put all that you need to fulfill your obligations than right inside the temple.
That’s what they were doing.
Not only did you have to make a sacrifice, but all men age 19 and older had to pay a temple tax.
And many of them would come and pay that temple tax on at passover.
But did you know that the temple tax had to be paid with a certain coin.
That’s why the money changers were there, they would exchange your local currency for the correct temple currency at a hyper inflated rated.
Now hear me, I am not saying that it’s wrong to provide a good or service for someone and make some money for yourself at the same time, but when you are taking advantage of people that’s a wicked endeavor.
I know of a company that did something similar to this when Hurricane Harvey hit here in Houston.
This company provided storage containers for families and businesses.
In fact, they shipped and moved thousands of containers here to help people clean out their homes.
But at the same time, they increased the base rental price for each container rented out.
And when you hear that it should make your skin bristle.
It should make you a little angry.
I know it made me a little angry to hear that.
When you hear of a company raising prices b/c people simply need a good or service something within us should become infuriated.
That’s what happens with Jesus he is angry at the injustices he sees by the money changers and the livestock sellers.
We especially see this in the other gospels when he says Matthew 21.13 “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!””
But John wants to highlight something else here.
Jesus is angry not only that the sellers are price gouging and taking advantage of the pilgrims, but also that this noise and commerce is distracting from the worshipful mind and attitude.
Remember God gets to dictate to us how he is to be worshipped.
And the temple area was supposed to be one of awe and reverence.
One of peace and reflection.
But with all the noise made by the livestock, the clashing of coins, and the chatter of haggling, how can someone who is coming to worship God be in a meditative, contemplative, and reflective state.
They simply couldn’t.
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