Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: The real temple is Jesus – preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey, on Sunday, 3 March 2024 by The Reverend Jim Edie. (Exodus Ch 20: v 1 – 17; John Ch 2: v 13 – 22)
Intro Story – Cathedral entrance charge – I was excluded – parallels with today.
Intro to John
Following the wedding at Cana and the miracle of water into wine, the story of Jesus’ righteous anger at the temple in Jerusalem is the second of the seven so called signs in John’s gospel. These signs are described by the theologian Tom Wright as ‘moments when heaven is opened and when the transforming power of God’s love burst in to the present world’ and this account from John has all of that, but not perhaps in a way we expect.
To our setting – The temple courts
The temple was brand new having been commissioned by Herod and completed in 28-29AD and the bustling epicentre of life in Jerusalem. Being the place that Israel’s God had promised to live amongst His people, it was the centre for worship, but also for politics and society.
It was the place where people congregated for national celebration and mourning. Perhaps a bit like our own Abbey, but that is where the similarities end…
The temple courts that Jesus and his disciples entered would have been an attack on the senses. It would have been loud – a hive of conversation with a chorus of animal noises in the background. At Passover the air would have been full of the smell of animals being slaughtered and burnt for sacrifice. The combined scent of the abattoir and the BBQ. The temple was split into four areas and reflected the layout of the tabernacle detailed by God in Exodus Ch 25; in the middle was the holy of holies where God resided, next to this was the inner courts were where people brought their animals for sacrifice, a bit further out were the outer courts for Jewish women or the unclean – where those with illnesses or leprosy could worship, and finally, this was all surrounded by the huge Gentile courts, the area for non-Jewish people to worship.
Jesus and His disciples step into the scene…
It was bustling, pilgrims would have flocked to Jerusalem and to the temple for the Passover celebration. Local people would have just been going about their daily business. Approved animals were required for sacrifice therefore a sizeable business had built up selling cattle sheep and doves as we read. Temple tax needed to be paid and this could not be done with the unclean roman idolatrous money, therefore they needed to change it for the temple shekel made of pure silver, hence the money changers. All this was needed so that people could worship God appropriately.
And then chaos..
Just imagine all the people, cattle, sheep and birds being driven out, tables overturned, whip being used… Jesus behaviour would not just been seen upsetting, but as outrageous.
As mentioned, the temple was the epicentre of life, the Jewish government and judicial system would have been based there. Weapons were not permitted in the temple grounds and a whip would have been considered a weapon. Jesus was lucky not to get arrested there and then, but strangely the Jews in the story, who were most likely the temple authorities, don’t object or question Him.
They say to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?
There must have been something about Jesus’ righteous anger and moral message that spoke truth, followed by insight to who he was. Through His actions Jesus has made His feelings known about the corrupt temple and now He points to the real activity of God, the real temple is Jesus. The old way and the temple are compromised and through a violent and miraculous death and rebirth a new way will be born.
To the meaning
For me the question me need to ask is ‘why was Jesus angry?’
The text is clear, one reason was all that was going on in the temple, and the temple existed for the worship of God, but with a further focus I think there is even more that we can draw from this and as a result a further understanding of Jesus’ outrage at what was going on.
Anyone watch the Channel 4 program, Location, Location, Location?
Because, this is really an issue of location, location, location. At one time the animal merchants set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley just to the east of the temple on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. But over time these stalls had obviously found their way into the temple courts and had they been allowed to establish themselves. This was almost certainly in the largest and most outer court, the Court of the Gentiles. Therefore, Jesus’ anger, I would suggest, was not only aimed at the fact that the temple should only be for worshiping God, but that Jewish people had preserved their worship areas, whilst being happy for the Gentiles areas of worship to be used for trading. This excluded the Gentiles from being able to worship. God was and is the God of all nations, hence the court for the Gentiles existed.
In fact, in the story found in Mark’s Gospel it says exactly that:
Mark Ch 11: v 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Jesus knows that the Temple is corrupt and under God’s judgement, but it was defiled because of how it excluded people the opportunity to worship rather than included them.
Today’s Application
Herod’s temple is gone today, destroyed in the ‘Roman – Jewish War’ of AD70. We know and believe that Jesus’ earthly body was the new temple destroyed and raised up in three days. We live under a new covenant with God, brokered to us through Christ. But this this passage should still be a signpost for us today. The temple traders and money changers in the Gentile Courts excluded people from worshiping God. The Jewish temple authorities appeared happy to let this go on, maybe it had become so normal that no one even questioned it until Jesus arrived.
Are we any different?
Do we, the church, intentionally or unintentionally exclude people or put obstacles up which distract people or even ourselves from worshiping God?
Does the way the church conducts worship include or exclude?
Do we insist on having to dress or look a certain way to worship God? If so, does this include or exclude? Do we believe being a Christian is living by a set of rules rather than a freedom? If so, does this include or exclude?
So I ask you this? As you look around this morning, who isn’t here? Is it because they feel excluded or not welcome or that they might not fit in or understand what is going on and get something wrong? Is it, may I say, because there is simply no access to toilets?
My understanding is that here under Martin’s incumbency things have changed hugely. As an example, I had a moving conversation with a lady at Christingle in 2022 who explained that when her children were growing up she couldn’t bring them, because she wouldn’t be welcomed. She was there with her granddaughter and they were welcome! Be encouraged.
But still, who isn’t here?
As I think about St Paul’s on a Sunday, I can also ask who isn’t there? Those in the food larder queue? The 1,500 Gryphon pupils? The dads and mums on the side of the football pitch?
If Jesus is for everyone, perhaps we need to take “Sunday” or Him to them… whatever their creed, colour, gender or sexuality… Jesus welcomes all. Along with this, I would also encourage you to think about obstacles that you may put up that stop yourself from worshiping God. Maybe you are a Mary, who finds it easy to meet with Jesus or maybe you are a Martha, who gets distracted by getting everything done in life.
Either way Jesus wants to meet with you.
Maybe you get frustrated by things not being done correctly in a service or maybe you find yourself drifting off and thinking about other things
Either way Jesus wants to meet with you.
Just as in the temple, Jesus does not want us to put up barriers that exclude people or ourselves to worshiping God today.
He wants to meet with us.
From this text I believe we need to be watchful for things that exclude and be willing to flip the tables of any construct that turns people from Jesus. But we should also be encouraged. The text and story that we have read today speaks of a righteous anger, A righteous anger driven by an incomprehensible love for us, a love that has acted and put things right through Jesus, the new temple and despite our failings and by His grace we have an eternal hope that through Jesus we can have communion with God.
As we read later in John’s gospel those famous words of John Ch 3: v 16:
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’. Amen.