In Jesus Holy Name Lent III March 5, 2024
Text: John 2:19-20 Redeemer
“A Carnival of Corruption”
Carnival time in New Orleans or Brazil always shows a crush of humanity going crazy. We have seen videos of “Smash and Grab” happening in various stores and the result is absolute chaos, most often fueled by corruption.
In 2010 On the way back to Galveston, a Carnival cruise liner listed dramatically to one side, creating a few minutes of panic for the passengers. Carnival stated that the ship had to make a sudden maneuver to avoid a buoy that was submerged in its path. But, the maneuver was so radical that it did more than break a few glasses.
One passage reported: "As I turned, you could literally see people just pouring out of the pool," "The boat had tilted that much. People were tossed out of the pool and were just sliding all across the deck." All of a sudden, everything just starts sliding down - liquor bottles, coke cans, everything, all sliding". "Glasses are breaking everywhere. You can hear all the glass crashing, and people are just starting to panic." It was chaos.
The gospel of John, chapter 2 records the miracle of Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana. John then writes: “After a few days Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover.” Upon arrival Jesus is clearly angry. “He clears the temple of money changers”. With a whip he drives out the animals, turns over the tables. Coins clatter on the stone floor, dove cages were overturned, thousands of birds began flying for freedom. Sheep and goats that had been brought into the temple area, for purchase by pilgrims and then sacrifice, were now set loose and chaotically running through the temple looking for a way out. It was chaos.
Jesus makes two bold statements: “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John places this historical moment in the life of Jesus not during Holy Week, as in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but at the beginning of His ministry. Why? I suggest that John is making a theological point that Jesus has come to fulfill all the O.T. laws. Jesus has come to replace, “the place”, where forgiveness of sins is offered, with a new place, a cross on Calvary’s hill. Every Jewish person understood that the temple was the one place on earth where heaven and earth intersected. It was the extension of the “Garden of Eden,” God’s dwelling place.
God had promised King Solomon that His Name, His presence would always dwell in the new Jerusalem temple. (I Kings 8,9) The Temple is where God’s glory rested. The physical temple in Jerusalem was a signpost. A sign post points to a direction. In this case the “signpost” is point to Jesus who is the real dwelling place of God. That’s why Paul could write ”God was pleased to have all of His fullness dwell in Jesus,” (Colossians 2:9) (Jesus: A Theography Leonard Sweet, p. 172
This dramatic event, the “cleansing of the temple” meant that it’s corrupt system was under God’s judgment. The city of Jerusalem, and the “temple”, the presence of God, were to be a light to the world. Instead, the religious leaders had turned God’s house into the commercial oppression of the poor. God’s forgiveness was no longer free.
“Forgiveness was the rule of the temple in Jerusalem. The temple offered forgiveness of sins by the sacrifices that were offered.” The problem: God’s forgiveness was free. It was His gift, but the religious leaders were making the people pay for His forgiveness. Jesus was rightly angry.
This was also the same problem 1500 hundred years later when Martin Luther challenged the selling of indulgences. John Tetzel was running around Europe proclaiming that when the “gold coin in the coffer clinks a soul from purgatory is set free.” Luther then nailed his 95 theses to the church door. God’s forgiveness is free, (he wrote) purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross. The religious leaders wanted Luther dead.
After Jesus cleanses the temple the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead, not because He healed a man who had been lame from birth, the same man who had been carried by friends to see Jesus, who then was let him down through the roof of a house in which Jesus was teaching. They wanted Jesus dead because Jesus forgave the man His sins. He was replacing the temple, the place of forgiveness.
The point? Jesus is boldly proclaiming that He Himself is God’s touchstone on earth, no longer the stones of the temple, nor the stone altar of sacrifice. Jesus is replacing the “holy of holies”. He is replacing the Jerusalem temple. The stone altar in the temple, a place for the sacrifice of lambs for the forgiveness of sins is being replaced by God’s perfect sacrifice, the holy Lamb of God, on the cross. The author to the book of Hebrews reflects correctly on this replacement idea.
“Sacrifices, offerings, sin offerings” were required in the Old Testament, but now God Himself has come in Christ to offer his perfect body on the cross. “So Jesus was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people and He will appear a 2nd time not to bear sin…(which happened at the cross) but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for His return. _ (Heb. 10:5; 9:27)
For 2000 years Thoughtful people have pondered this question “Why did Jesus die?” When we read the gospels, the record looks something like this:
Jesus was a good man, a very good man who went about doing good.
Even his enemies testified to his integrity.
He couldn’t be bribed or pressured or threatened or intimidated.
He healed the sick, raised the dead, caused the blind to see, made the lame to walk, and he preached the Good News to the poor.
The common people heard him gladly.
So how did he end up dying on a Roman cross? What crime had he committed that would allow this seeming miscarriage of justice? This question is not theoretical. It’s because Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh and bone. (John 10:30-31) (read) (from a sermon by Keep Believing Ministry, April 2, 2014)
From our perspective, we say that Jesus was betrayed, tried, beaten, mocked, humiliated, crowned with thorns, convicted in a kangaroo court, falsely accused, beaten until his skin was shredded, forced to carry his own cross, and then publicly crucified, the most brutal form of execution in his day. If we focus on those events, we may come to the conclusion that Jesus shouldn’t have died, that it was all a big mistake, that somehow the powers of darkness finally triumphed over the light.
But that is not the end of the story. He did not die because he could not help it; He did not suffer because He could not escape. All the soldiers of Pilate’s army could not have taken Him, if He had not been willing to be taken. They could not have hurt a hair of His head, if He had not given them permission. An unnamed soldier took branches, bearing thorns, nimble enough to bend and wove them into a crown of thorns. The same voice that stilled the raging storm. The same voice that cleansed the temple…and summoned the dead back to life could have stopped it all with a word. The blood begins to drip…Why didn’t Jesus resist? (thoughts from Rev. Ken Klaus)
Remember the garden of Eden? After Adam and Eve broke the one commandment God have given God put a curse on the land. “The ground will now produce thorns and weeds for you.” Rebellion results in thorns and punishment. On His head Jesus bore the weight of our broken commandments, the thorns caused holy blood to drip down His holy face. We did that to Him.
We live in the POW camp controlled by Satan, beaten down by the painful thorns of life. The stress of work. The uncontrolled anger that brings destruction to property and death. We are captive to the illnesses that degrade our bodies, but can not tarnish our soul. We know the pain of the thorns that accompany disgrace and shame over our foolish dips into drugs, or pornography. The results of sin are catastrophic. They are irreversible by our own power.
Adam and Eve felt shame and the inability to reverse their mistake, so they hid.
The dark shadow of death lurks in our future. Once the Wolf and Lamb had lain down together. Now a new lamb must be found. When Adam and Eve’s Creator came searching for them He could not pretend that their disobedience had never happened. A good judge never sets aside a law because He loves someone who broke the law.
The eternal judge of the universe did what only He could do. He left His throne and came to our POW camp and offered Himself as our Substitute. The innocent would die for the guilty, the perfect sinless, man Jesus for the imperfect.
Just as He promised to those standing near overturned tables, and scatter coins on the stone floor, there would come a day when He would give His life and He would rise from the dead.
It is we who now sing… “O death where is your sting, O grave where is your victory?” We have been set free by Your nailed pierced hands and thorn pierced brow. God’s holy and perfect Son would say, “Enough. If death is to be their punishment, I will die for them.”
The crown of thorns, the cross, the empty grave are the gifts of God for you and me. God’s will was being done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
