Jesus Cleaning the Temple

[Read John 2:12-22]

I read a blog post this week that began by quoting an article from a newspaper objecting to some of the new trends in Christian Music. The article said, “There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous…The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style…Because there are so many songs, you can’t learn them all…It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics…This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly…The preceding generation got along without it…It’s a money making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.” What I found interesting about that quote is that it’s from a newspaper from 300 years ago and he’s criticizing Isaac Watts, the author of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and Joy to the World (along with numerous other well-known hymns). 

I make this point to help us understand that, what some have called, Worship Wars have always been a thing in the church. It started way back when the church moved from Gregorian Chant to singing harmonies, people argued that harmonies showed a lack of unity in the church. As many of you know, the Worship Wars of the 90s and early 2000s were pretty intense in many churches and caused numerous church splits. Half the church wanted to sing hymns and the other half wanted to sing more contemporary songs, so half the church started another congregation where they could sing their preferred music. 

Now, I realize I’m telling this story with a little bit of a slant, but the more I’ve talked to people in the midst of these Worship Wars, the more I’ve been convinced that they flow from a complete misunderstanding of worship—and that applies to my own attitude toward worship back in those days. Many of the people I have spoken with about Worship Wars—back then and the ones still going on now—would say things like, “Well, this style of music speaks to me more than the other style” or if you pushed deeper into their objections, it would eventually come out that they were really saying, “This style of music moves my emotions or feelings more than the other style of music.” It’s this sort of thing that’s been going on for millennia in the church and I’m saying that it flows from a complete misunderstanding of worship. 

I realize that’s a strong statement, but we need to ask the question, “Who is worship for?” Is our worship for US or is it for God? Do we come to worship services every Sunday for US or for God? I think we know the answer. Primarily, we are coming to church to worship God. That’s why we come. Yes, we benefit from worshiping God and we’re equipped and built up to follow God. But, the primary reason we come to church on Sunday mornings is for God’s sake. We sing songs to worship him—not to make us feel better. We pray to God to honor him—not for ourselves. We hear God’s Word preached to listen to God speak to us. That’s why we come. 

And since worship is primarily about God, and not about us, it shouldn’t matter what we like—because it’s not about us. What matters much more, is what God likes—because it’s about God. So, if God commanded us to worship him by sitting on the floor, criss-cross applesauce, singing in Gregorian Chant, while holding one hand in the air, it doesn’t matter if you like it or not because worship is not about you. It’s about the God we worship.

That’s really what’s going on in this morning passage. Jesus is really wound up. This isn’t gentle Jesus meek and mild. This is Jesus all hot and bothered and kicking tail and taking names. I think it’s really important to understand that about this story. Everything about this story paints a picture about Jesus being really angry—righteously angry—and it’s important not to try to water this down at all because it makes us uncomfortable. It’s a reminder to us that Jesus wasn’t always soft spoken and gentle. Sometimes he was angry and bold and blunt and took drastic action.

To help us understand how worked up Jesus was, I want to take some time to understand what the temple looked like. Here’s a picture of Herod’s Temple. In this picture you can see the Holy Place—inside of that is the Holy of Holies. You can also see three different courtyards. There is the Priest’s courtyard and the Women’s courtyard, outside the walls of this area is the Gentiles courtyard. Only Jews could enter the Women’s or the Priest’s courtyard, and only men and priests could enter the Priest’s courtyard.

Now, let me show you another picture that helps give us an idea of how large the temple was. This picture shows the two Jewish courtyards in comparison to an American football field—which is 120 yards long and a little over 50 yards wide. If you turn that football field vertical, it looks like you could place at least three of those football fields inside the temple. Maybe three and a half. That’s a huge area.

The point I’m trying to make is that this is how large of an area Jesus cleared. It’s not like Jesus walked into a building the size of our church, caused a ruckus, and left. It took him a long time to clear this large of an area. 

And, that’s the smallest option. More likely, the sellers and the money-changers were out in the Gentile’s Court. Most likely, they were not all Jews and wouldn’t have been allowed to pass beyond the Gentile Court. So, most likely that’s where they were. Now, I don’t have the exact dimensions of the Gentile Court, but I do have a picture that will give you some perspective of how large that area was. As I change the picture, don’t forget this picture and how large it is. Now, look at how small this part of the temple looks in relation to the court surrounding it. The court around it is at least twice the size of the temple, if not three times as large. And that’s the area Jesus cleared. 

We read, “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.” (John 2:14, ESV). Now, on the surface, these people were there to help people worship God. As people traveled to make sacrifices, most couldn’t travel with livestock for sacrifices, and most didn’t have the proper coinage used for taxes and various offerings. So, these people were offering their services. They would exchange money to help them pay taxes and offer sacrifices. They would offer up various animals to be purchased for sacrifices, so that people could fulfill their God-honoring duties. They could easily make the case that they were an essential part of the sacrificial system and that they were there to help people worship God rightly. Yet, Jesus was having nothing to do with  it. 

We read, “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2:15, ESV). As I mentioned last week, it’s important to read this passage carefully and not read any assumptions into it. We clearly read that Jesus made a whip of cords. Now, how did he use that whip? Yes, he used it on the animals, but this passage is very clear that he wasn’t just using it on the animals. We read, “he drove them ALL our of the temple, with the sheep and oxen…” That means he was primarily using the whip to drive out the sellers and the money changers, and as he drove them out, he also drove out the sheep and oxen. And as he did it, we was flipping over tables and dumping out bags or jars of coins all over the court.

This is a side of Jesus was don’t often think about. I’m belaboring this point because I think it’s a side of Jesus that has been neglected for a long time. I think we’ve painted an inaccurate picture of Jesus to the point that we could never imagine him doing something like this. But he did it and it’s very clear that he did it (and as a side note: most likely he did it twice. Once at the beginning of his ministry and a second time right before his death—and that time it was even more severe). So, we need to make sure the way we see Jesus—the way we think about Jesus, the picture we have of Jesus—can accept that he could do something like this. Because, if the Jesus you have in your mind could never do something like this, then the picture you have of Jesus in your mind needs to be corrected and aligned with the real Jesus. 

Yet, we also don’t see Jesus acting this way all of the time. He wasn’t always walking around whipping people and flipping over tables. So, what about this scene brought about this righteous fury? He tells us: “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” (John 2:16, ESV). Jesus says, “This is my Father’s house and it was never intended to be used this way. This is not a house of trade!” 

At its core, this is all about the purity of worship. That’s what got Jesus so righteously angry. They had not followed God’s decrees and direction for worship. They had taken matters into their own hands. They had moved their money changing and animal selling from outside the city inside the temple for their own convenience and profit. They had done what they wanted. They had made decision based on their own preferences and their own wants and their own desires and their own feelings, and Jesus wasn’t having any of it. So, he rebuked them and cleansed the temple of all of all of this, telling them to restore the temple back to the way God had commanded it to be used in worship of Him. 

And here’s how they respond: “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” (John 2:18, ESV). Really, what they’re saying is, “If you’re going to do something as drastic as this, you better be able to show us some sort of miracle that shows you have the authority to do this.” For them, signs and miracles showed that someone had been sent by God, and only someone sent by God would have the kind of authority to do what Jesus just did. It’s almost like they’re using the line that was popular a while ago, “Who died and made you boss?” 

Jesus responds, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19, ESV). Later we read that Jesus was talking about his own body when he said this. So, they ask him, “Who died and made you boss?” and Jesus basically responds by saying, “I’m going to die and I’m going to rise again from the dead. That’s what makes me the boss. That’s what gives me the authority to do this.” 

But Jesus is actually saying much more than that. He’s directly associating the temple with his body. And in some ways, he is looking at the religious leaders and telling them, “You guys are destroying this temple by walking away from God’s commands and design. This temple is being destroyed and will be destroyed. But I’m going to raise a new temple that will never be destroyed.” That temple is the body of Jesus Christ. 

You see, the temple was the place were people were to meet God—to be in his presence. That’s all changed now. It’s through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we have a pathway to enter into the presence of God. We no longer need the temple to enter into the presence of God—we now have Jesus. He is the temple. 

But there’s even more to this line of thinking. It’s through Jesus’ death and resurrection that he has the authority to cleanse the temple and the authority to demand right and pure worship. But, if we are honest with ourselves, we know we will never be able to offer pure worship. We’re a mess. We’re frail and imperfect people. We don’t always listen to God’s commands. We do what we want to do—what feels good—rather than following God’s commands. Yet, it’s also through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we’re able to offer pure worship to God. It’s through Jesus’ death and resurrection that the filth of our hearts and actions are cleansed and offered to God in pure worship. So, Jesus demands that we offer pure worship to God—and shows us he has the authority to make those demands—then he dies and rises again from the dead so that we have the ability to fulfill those demands. Apart from Jesus there is no pure worship, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection, our hearts, actions, and worship are cleansed and offered to God in purity. 

I think all of this is extremely relevant for us today as we try to worship God rightly in our current cultural context. Who has authority over the temple—the Church? Who has authority over our worship practices—the things we say in do in worship of our God? Who tells us how to worship rightly? It’s not us. We don’t have that authority. Our emotions and our feelings don’t have that authority. God is the only one who has authority to tell us how to worship Him rightly. So, we must repeatedly go back to God’s Word and ask Him how he wants to be worshiped. 

We must also make sure not to make the mistake that’s been made throughout the history of the church—the assumption that our own opinions and preferences are “pure worship.” When we do that, we start making up excuses that sound like good arguments for why our own personal preferences are most honoring to God. We don’t get to make those definitions of what is good and right and pure in our worship. God is the one who tells us how to worship him rightly. 

In this midst of this, it’s also important to understand where the temple is right now. We don’t have a physical temple anymore—outside of Jesus’ physical body. Throughout scripture we’re told that we are the temple of God—not each of us individually, but all of us together. Corporately, the church is the temple of God. Each of us are stones in the temple of God. Each of us is part of manifesting God’s presence and glory in the world. So, we’re not just talking about what happens in our church buildings—they are not the new temple. We’re talking about the way we worship with all of our lives. The way we worship by raising our children. The way we worship by going to work each day. The way we worship by interacting with people in our community. AND the way we worship by showing up for corporate worship every Sunday. Who has authority over these things? Who has authority over our worship? Who has authority over this temple? Who demands pure worship in our lives, our work, and our churches? Our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. 

Yet, he doesn’t just demand pure worship, he offers the only way for pure worship throughout our lives. It’s only when we come to Jesus Christ by faith, the true temple, that we can find forgiveness and cleansing of our sins. It’s only when we come to Jesus by faith, that we can enter into the very presence of God. It’s only when we come to Jesus by faith that we can offer up pure worship to God in every area of our lives, wherever we are, in whatever we’re doing.