SMALL TOWN PREACHER UPSETS

John 2:13-22

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

 ¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^{[a]  18} The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
 ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
 ²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Dear brother,

This gospel reading for next Sunday from John 2 shows Our Lord and Saviour acting out of character. He walks into the temple and begins to act crazy. In order to understand this we have to understand what the temple meant to the Jews. In a word, everything! Just like the Roman Forum and the Areopagus in Athens, the Temple in Jerusalem did not separate the religious from the secular. It was the religious, cultural, political and social hub of the nation.

To put it in modern terms for us in Europe, it must have been like a combination of the United Nations, the Vatican and the Houses of Parliament all rolled into one. Can you imagine the outrage if a small town vicar waltzed into a place like that with a whip and began to scream at people and chase them out? He would be arrested as a nutcase!

In essence, this is what sealed Jesus' fate and his enemies began to gather around him to find ways to get rid of him. To make matters worse, Jesus says that he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days! In our time terrorists, 9/11, Northern Ireland and Guy Falkes come to mind as similar threats to national security.

But what does all this mean? Jesus is showing us who he is. He is claiming an authority no-one else can claim in God's House. Only God himself can do what he did. It is interesting that all through his ministry people were asking, "Who is this?" "Who is this?". Remember the stilling of the storm and the disciples saying, "Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?"

Jesus is also showing us a new temple. The new temple is his body and the 3 days he said it would take to rebuild is a wonderful reference to Easter. He is saying, "I am God's dwelling place among you." And more, we, our bodies, are also God's temple. And so as we move through Lent, we ask, "What forces have found their way into the temple of my life? What tables is Jesus overturning? What thieves is he expelling?"

Have a wonderful week brother.

Mark