John 2:13-22
Anger is an emotion that often leads to sin but is not
sinful in and of itself. There is no
doubt that Jesus was angry as He came into Jerusalem and saw the people who
were exploiting the sacrificial system as a means of financial gain. People desperate to make a sacrifice to atone
for their sins would pay inflated prices for animals to offer as a sacrifice. This practice made a mockery of the Law and turned
forgiveness into a business. That which
was supposed to by a symbol of the sacrifice Jesus had come to make had become
a means of exploiting people. The heart
of man is very quick to turn anything into that which benefits him. Churches today offer a place where people can
come and hear the Word of God, practice corporate worship, minister to one
another and to fellowship with other believers as a means of growing in our
relationship with God. However, church
can easily become a place where people go to practice the rituals of “going to
church” because that is what we are supposed to do. They come in, hear a motivational speech, place
a donation in the offering and leave feeling good about themselves but no true
spiritual growth or worship has occurred.
The “business” of the church is prospering but the purpose of the church
is not. I wonder how Jesus would respond
if He were to attend many of the services being held in His name today.
JESUS PURIFIES THE TEMPLE: When Jesus sees the animal auction
being held inside the Temple and merchants taking advantage of those who came
to make sacrifices; His anger boiled over.
He made a whip and drove these men out of the Temple. He turned over the tables where the money was
being exchanged, more than likely at highly profitable margins. The image in our minds is not one we usually
associate with our idea of Jesus. There
are a couple of things that make me curious about this scene. First of all, I wonder why these people that
were being chased from the Temple did not react. It would seem that there would have been more
of them and that they could have turned on Jesus. The physical strength of Jesus must have made
these men decide it was not worth the risk to try to resist. Perhaps they had guilty consciences and knew
that they needed to clear out of there.
The other thing I wonder about is where were the priests during all of
this? They should have never permitted such
activity in the Temple in the first place.
I wonder if they were getting a “cut” of the profits from these
merchants. The temple was supposed to be
a place of worship, sacrifice for sin and prayer. It had become a place of business and
exploitation. Jesus would not tolerate
this treatment of His Father’s house.
The most important lesson that we can take away from this is that our
hearts are temples. Our hearts have been
purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has consecrated our hearts to worship the
Father, love others and live in holiness.
When we tolerate sin and even cultivate sin in our hearts we are doing
essentially the same thing as the merchants and the priests were doing at the
Temple. Jesus wants to purify our hearts
from the greed, lust and idolatry that so easily and repeatedly infests
us. As “priests” responsible to guard
the temples of our hearts; we must not stand passively by and allow sin to
thrive unchecked.
JESUS PROPHESIES HIS RESURRECTION: There were two different
responses to what Jesus did at the Temple.
His disciples remembered the Scriptures and what they said about Messiah
having zeal for His Father’s house. The
disciples saw this as being further proof of the identity of Jesus as
Messiah. The second response was from
those who were watching the action and questioned Jesus as to His authority to
do these things. They asked for a sign
to prove that He was who His disciples were claiming Him to be. His response was a cryptic prophecy of His
death and ensuing resurrection. Jesus tells them that if they tear down the
Temple He would raise it up again in three days. The people thought that he was referring to
the physical building He had just purified.
In reality, He was referring to the temple of His own body that they
would kill but He would rise from the dead.
At the time the people and even His disciples were not able to interpret
His message because they were focused on the physical building of the Temple
that had taken about a half a century to build.
They just scoffed and were not about to demolish the temple in order to
find out if He was serious. However, as
is clear by John’s insertion in the text; after Jesus rose from the dead, His
disciples understood perfectly what He had meant on that day. The Temple was a place where people came to
draw close to God and deal with their sins as best they could. Jesus had come to reconcile us to God and
deal with our sin through His own blood.
We must not make a mockery of the blood of Jesus as the people in
Jerusalem did with the Temple. We are to
worship Him because He has paid for our sin and been victorious over
death. His death and resurrection
purchased our eternal life by paying for our sin. This sacrifice is not to be taken lightly or
used as a means of exploiting people.
APPLICATION: Beware of our heart’s tendency to turn our
relationship with God and forgiveness of sin into a religious ritual that is
devoid of life. Don’t allow church to
become a business that makes us feel good about ourselves but does not deal
with sin. Guard the temple of our hearts
from the sin that seeks to infect us; we must never become tolerant of sin in
our hearts. Worship the Lord Jesus for
His death and resurrection that has purchased our freedom form sin and given us
eternal life.
Comments
Post a Comment