Text:  John 2:13-22                                                                                         X Oculi (3^rd Sunday in Lent)

Cleaning House

            In the name of him who is the power and wisdom of God, dear friends in Christ: according to the calendar, tomorrow is vernal equinox:  the first day of spring – though if the weather forecast is correct, it sounds as if we might finally be getting the winter for this year.  But even if that’s the case, we know it can’t last very long; it’s just too late in the season for that.  No, spring is upon us, and with it we will all soon find ourselves engaged in the annual spring rituals – including spring cleaning.  Yes, we’ll be clearing out all that junk and recyclable stuff that has accumulated here and there that we haven’t bothered with because it’s been just too cold to worry about; and we’ll be washing windows and airing out of damp stuffy places and all those other tasks we’ve been neglecting for the same reason.  And though it’s a lot of work, there’s something inherently satisfying about doing the spring cleaning.  After the cold dead of winter it’s like setting the stage to get a fresh new start on life.

            I mention this because in today’s Gospel lesson we find Jesus doing a little spring cleaning of his own.  He’s come to the Temple in Jerusalem, his Father’s house.  He’s here to celebrate the Passover:  one of the three highest holy days of the Jews.  The Passover, I’m sure you recall, was the commemoration of God’s deliverance of his people from bondage in Egypt by the blood of the lambs and the death of the firstborn.  He commanded his people to return to Jerusalem annually to reenact and remember that mighty act of salvation. Specifically, they were to retell the story through the means of a sacred family meal that featured unleavened bread, wine, and a lamb sacrificed at the Temple.

And what’s interesting about this morning’s text is that even today among Jewish people an important part of preparing for the Passover is a thorough cleaning of the house.  In particular, they are searching the house for any bit of leaven that might be lying around because, in accordance with God’s command, it’s all to be gotten rid of before the festivities begin.  And just to be sure it’s all gone – even down to the last bread crumb – everything in the house is scrubbed from top to bottom. So, while this frantic cleaning is going on in all the households in Jerusalem, Jesus goes to his Father’s house to make sure it’s clean and tidy for the feast.  The mess he finds there, however, makes him furious.

            And to understand this, it will be helpful to know how the Temple and its courts were actually laid out.  You see, the Temple itself was a fairly small building, and very little in the way of actual worship went on in there.  It was God’s house – it’s where his abiding presence dwelt in the midst of the people – and only specially chosen priests at certain fxed times could go in there to minister before the Lord.  Other than that, no one really went into the Temple proper.  The rest of the Temple complex was laid out in a graduated series of courts.  It was in these courts where most of the activity at the Temple took place.  Surrounding the Temple building was the court of the priests.  This is where all the sacrifices were offered and burned on the altar – the altar which surprisingly, sat outside the Temple building.  But that makes sense because it was used to burn up sacrifices all the time.  You wouldn’t want all that smoke inside the Temple building.  Anyway, only Levitical priests could go onto that court.  The idea was that they stood between the people and God.  Okay, then outside the court of the priests you had the court of Jewish men.  The idea was that they functioned as the priests of their own families.  Beyond that court was the court of Jewish women. This was as close as women and boys who had not yet reached the age of majority could get to the Temple.  Finally, the outermost court was called the court of the Gentiles.  It was for non-Jewish converts.  That’s where anyone who wasn’t a Jew could pray and receive instruction in the faith.

            And there were two important concepts being reinforced by this general layout of the Temple and its grounds.  One was the absolute holiness of God.  Sinful humans couldn’t just walk up into his presence.  No, he could only be approached through sacrifice and the mediation of his chosen spokespersons.  The other concept was the duty and responsibility of each circle of chosen spokespersons to direct their ministry outward toward those who had to stand farther off.  So the priests had a duty to represent God and his Word to their fellow Jews.  Each man was to do that for his family.  The Jews collectively were supposed to do that for the world at large – all the Gentile nations.   In this way God’s chosen people were to minister to the world so that God’s house would truly be a house of prayer for all people.

            That was the idea, anyway; unfortunately, it didn’t work out that well in actual practice.  The heart of man is desperately sinful and full of pride.  So, instead of seeing their relative proximity to God and his Temple as a ministry of service to those farther out, most folks thought of it in terms of status and favor with God.  So the priests thought they got to be closest to the Temple because in the Lord’s eyes they were better than the rest of the Jews; Jewish men thought they were better than the women; and all the Jews together imagined that they were better than those Gentile dogs who could come no closer to God than the outermost court.

            It was on this outermost court that Jesus found the horrible mess that upset him so.  Instead of being a place where Gentiles could worship and hear God’s Word, it had pretty much been taken over by merchants who sold sacrificial animals and who exchanged the coins of worshippers from common currency to the Temple coins, which were the only ones allowed to be used to pay the required Temple tax.  And to be fair, these merchants performed an important service.  Jews came from all over the Roman Empire to worship in Jerusalem, and it was very convenient not to have to bring your animals for sacrifice the whole way.  The other advantage was that the animals you bought from these merchants had been pre-approved by the Temple authorities.  They were certified to be animals without spot or blemish as the law required.  If you brought one from home, it might flunk the test – and there you’d be in Jerusalem with an animal you couldn’t sacrifice.  So, like I said, these merchants performed a helpful service.

            The problem was with where they were doing it.  The Temple itself was to be a place of worship and prayer, not a marketplace for doing business.  And I’m sure that the Jews knew that – at least at first.  When they first built the Temple and laid out its courts, no one would have imagined using the outer court for selling merchandise.  They would have thought it sacrilegious.  So all such business would have taken place beyond the Temple precincts.  Ah, but you know how things go over time.  Businessmen would have wanted to set up shop as close to the Temple gate as possible for greater convenience of their customers and therefore the best sales.  After a while, an enterprising seller of goats in an unfavorable location might hire a kid to go beyond the gate and walk around inside with a one of his goats on a leash.  “Hey, mister:  Wanna buy a goat?  I’ll make you a special deal.”  When they figured out what was going on, the competition would have followed suit, of course.  Pretty soon you’d have any number of under-the-table sales going on in the Temple. Worshippers inside the gate might see what’s going on and think, “Oh, that’s not right!” but few would have had the chutzpah to report it – besides, it was only going on in the court of the Gentiles; it’s not like it was interfering with their worship.  Of course, sooner or later somebody in authority would figure out what was going on and they’d put the kibosh on it for a while; but once the heat was off, the merchants would be back to their old tricks.  Before long, they’d have certain corners staked out as their own areas of operation – and then somebody would get the bright idea to grease the palm of the authorities to look the other way and let this illicit selling go on. From there it’s but a small step to full blown market stalls and tables in the Temple court itself.  But again, it was only on the court of the Gentiles; and who really cared about them?

            And so I want you to see that all this business going on in the Temple court didn’t just happen overnight.  It was a case of gradual encroachment that probably took place over a period of many years.  As such, the opposition it should have provoked among God’s people never really materialized because the offense came just a little bit at a time.  It’s like the proverbial frog sitting in the water being slowly heated on the stove.  He doesn’t realize he’s in trouble until he’s already been cooked.  In the same way, the people who really should have known better became gradually accustomed to it, and said to themselves, “Yeah, well, it isn’t right; but it’s the way things are.  Besides, it’s not bothering me and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

            That laissez faire attitude, however, was not shared by our Lord Jesus.  He saw two glaring problems:  first that the sacred precincts were being used for non-sacred purposes; that the business of the world was taking precedence over the business of the Temple, which was hearing God’s Word, worship, and prayer.  Secondly, he saw the Gentiles were being crowded out of their only true access to God.  And when Jesus saw these things, it made his blood boil.  It’s interesting to me that Jesus’ behavior is nothing like what most modern Christians imagine it should be.  The Jesus of popular fantasy would gently walk over to the merchants and say something like, “Fellas, you know, we really appreciate what you do here and how much you help people; but some folks might think that what you’re doing here may be a bit inappropriate.  Would you mind very much moving it outside?”  No, instead he makes a whip of cords knotted together and he literally drives them out by brute force and the fury of his righteous indignation.  “Take this stuff and get out!  How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

            The disciples of Jesus see this stampede of terrified merchants and animals fleeing in every direction before him – everyone tripping over each other heading for the exits all at once.  The disciples are thinking, “Whoa!  We’ve never seen the boss so angry.”  And then, doubtlessly inspired by the Holy Spirit, they remember the passage of Scripture that reads, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  They see this passage come alive in Jesus and his passionate devotion to keeping the Temple the sacred place it’s supposed to be.  It is an attitude of jealousy – an appropriate kind of jealousy, like the Lord speaks of in the Old Testament lesson in which he says he is a jealous God. The idea is that he will not share the glory due his name with any other.  Nor will he, as we see in this case, allow that which is holy, that is, that which has been set aside for God and his sacred purposes to be used for unholy or common purposes.  No merely practical concerns or conveniences are to interfere or compete with God’s reaching out to all people with his Word and his invitation for them to come to him for his grace and forgiveness.

            As I look at this text, it makes me wonder about this house of God in which we worship.  It makes me wonder, what would Jesus drive out of here?  What offenses are our eyes so accustomed to seeing that we really don’t see as being a problem?  What compromises have we gradually made over the years that have made this place less what it’s really for in the name of being practical, or because it’s good business, or because we haven’t got the courage to stand up and say, “You know, this just isn’t right”?  In a sermon a few weeks back I mentioned a church that is planning to set up a Starbuck’s Coffee house within their building.  They’re doing it, they say, in order to attract people and make them feel more at home.  Newsflash: a church is not your home.  It’s God’s house.  As such it deserves to be treated with due reverence and respect. And it’s for his purposes, not ours. And while we might not imagine doing anything so crass as setting up a coffee shop in here, I wonder if we don’t sometimes feel we shouldn’t have our music, our brand of entertainment, our way – whatever it is – instead of his.  I wonder too in what ways we might be deliberately or even inadvertently misusing this space to keep the Gentiles at bay, by which I mean the very people we should, from our privileged position, be ministering to with God’s Word.

            But then, I’m only talking about a building – a building that will one day collapse in dust never to rise again.  Sure, this is holy ground, and we ought to treat it as such.  But even more important for our consideration this morning is the Temple of our bodies.  Through the working of the Holy Spirit each and every one of us who believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is also a Temple of God. The Lord lives in us.  And now, during the season of Lent in particular, we are to be about the task of spring cleaning.  Here’s the question:  as Jesus comes into you this day, what does he find that does not belong?  What would Jesus drive out of your heart and from your mind today?  What gradual compromises or corruption or prideful thoughts or unholy desires does he want to force out of you with a whip if need be, saying, “Get this out of here!  How dare you bring this into my Father’s house”?  In what ways have you allowed your personal affairs and interests to interfere with your ministry to the people God has given you to serve?  Since we see how zealous he was for a building of stone that was destroyed a few decades after his ascension never to rise again, how much more do you think he is zealous for you and your body that he now inhabits and that he will one day raise from the dust to be his Temple forever?

            His zeal for the Temple of your body consumes him – literally.  He didn’t shed his holy blood for a building in Jerusalem. Nailed to the cross he was raised up in agony and he was consumed – totally destroyed – by God’s wrath against sin for you.  That’s how zealous and passionate he is for his Temple which you are.  That’s what he did to make you his holy Temple, to cleanse you of all your sin, and to make you a vessel for his service through which he can minister his grace and forgiveness to others.  Today, as he comes into us he bids us to clean house, to see with his eyes what does not belong in here, and to act with his zeal to drive it out.  And today, to make that happen, he gives you himself again, his body and his blood to be consumed by you that you might be cleansed and re-consecrated as his holy Temple – a place of service for him in time and eternity.  May he give us the grace to hear and believe the Words he has spoken, that zealously cleaning his house we may be holy and useful Temples for him.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!