Jesu Juva
“Tremendously Comforting”
Text: John 2:13-22; 1
Corinthians 1:18-31; Exodus 20:1-17
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
What a tremendously comforting account is
told us in the Holy Gospel today. If you didn’t hear it that way, that’s okay.
I’ll explain. Because I don’t think most hear it that way. Many people are
puzzled by this side of Jesus we hear about today, so used to the kind,
compassionate, tender, healing Jesus are we. But by clearing out the Temple of
those selling animals and exchanging money, Jesus is showing the same zeal for
us and for our salvation as always. For He drives out demons, He drives out
sicknesses and diseases, and He drives out those who make [His] Father’s
house a house of trade.
And there’s this too: Jesus knew these actions
were going to get Him killed. Zeal for your house will consume me,
the psalmist wrote of Jesus so many years before. Meaning not so much that this
zeal was going to well up in Him and take control of Him and make Him fly into
a rage, but that this zeal was going to have Him consumed; it was going to have
Him hunted down and destroyed. That is what we’re moving toward again this
season of Lent - to the cross of Jesus. But He didn’t care. He didn’t care that
this was going to have Him hunted down and killed because He cares about you so
much. So He wouldn’t stop . . . and that’s tremendously comforting.
Tremendously comforting for people like you and
me who don’t care so much. No, I take that back - we do care . . .
just mostly about ourselves. For we heard the verses containing the
Commandments from Exodus and doing those things won’t get us killed,
they are just maybe an inconvenience at best - yet how ya’
doing with those?
Not hurt or harm our neighbor and to help him in
his need;
not speak poorly of him but
to speak well of him and encourage him;
not take what is his and
help him to improve what he has;
honor marriage and sexual
purity and not tempt those around us;
not lie or gossip or hurt
anyone’s reputation;
honor, respect, and obey our
parents and other authorities;
not allow the sinful urges
and impulses of our hearts to dictate our actions;
honor God above all else, to
hear His Word regularly and often,
and regard His Name as
sacred and use it in prayer.
How ya’ doing with all
that? Maybe sometimes we do some of that . . . but not enough. Truth is, our
zeal for others and for God often runs cold or dries up altogether in the face
of opposition, fear, or just plain laziness and selfishness.
That’s why Lent is a good time to examine
ourselves and take a good, hard look not only at our actions, but at our
priorities, at our loves, at our desires, and
all that is twisted and out of whack in us, and repent. To
turn us away from ourselves again and to God in faith and to our neighbor in
love.
But even more that we sinners hear the tremendously
comforting word of Jesus again. The word of all that He
has done for us. Which is why St. Paul said we
preach Christ crucified. And why He insisted on it. This is the
word we need. This is the word we cannot do without. We preach Christ
crucified, we means we don’t preach ourselves, we don’t preach what we can do,
we don’t preach about how to have a better life, we don’t preach a message of
self-help or feel-good theology, because all of that really doesn’t matter.
What matters is this man, this God-man, who cared about us so much that He laid
down His life to the most horrible death then invented by man - and maybe ever
invented by man - for you. That it wouldn’t happen to you. That
though you die, yet you will live because of Him. And nothing was going to stop
Him.
So when Jesus finds out that the Temple has been
turned into something it was never meant to be, He acts. And when challenged
does not back down but doubles down: Not only will He clear out those selling
animals and exchanging money, but Jesus answered them, “Destroy this [whole]
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has
taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three
days?” Impossible, you mad man!
Now, for comparison, imagine if Jesus went to the
National Cathedral just over the river there in DC and started throwing down
and throwing out everything that doesn’t belong in a Church - like the gargoyle
of Darth Vader, or the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, or the stained glass window
dedicated to man’s space exploration instead of the Creator of space, and
everything else there that honors man and not God. How upset would people be?
And then imagine that when challenged, He says: Destroy this whole building
and in three days I will raise it up. This building that took 83 years to
construct, is 30 stories tall, weighs 150,000 tons, and then even almost four
years after an earthquake did some damage to the building and it still
hasn’t been fixed - and you’re going to rebuild the whole thing in three days? Right. Mad man!
So, to those in the Temple that day - the
Jerusalem Temple that compared to the National Cathedral was a bit smaller in
size, equal in grandeur, but of greater importance to the nation - Jesus,
you’re worse than mad, you’re stupid and dangerous. You have to be dealt with.
You have to be silenced. You have to be killed.
And thus they fulfilled Jesus’ words. Not only
that zeal for His Father’s house would be the cause of His being hunted down
and destroyed, but that they did destroy the Temple of God. Because,
John tells us, He wasn’t really talking about the building, but about His Body.
He was the new Temple of God. He was the new dwelling place of God with man.
And so really, those who valued and revered the Temple so highly were the very
ones who would bring about its end.
And then Jesus would fulfill His words. He would raise
it up in three days. Which was no less a miracle than if He had rebuilt
the Temple that took them 46 years to build in three days. It was actually even
greater. That one who was slaughtered and butchered
and killed and thrown into a hole in a rock, would rise back to life in three
days. And He wouldn’t come out of that tomb the same battered and abused person
that went in, but completely whole and healed and perfect again. All sin, all death, all evil completely gone, and a new life begun.
For you. You see, Jesus didn’t
rise for Himself because He didn’t die for Himself. He did it all for you, that
you too rise to a new life. And not just on the Last Day, but even now. And
that’s what your Baptism does. You who are born dead in your trespasses and
sins are raised with Jesus to a new life. You who are battered and abused by
sin and evil - coming both from yourself and from
others - are healed and raised in the forgiveness of Jesus. In Baptism, you are
whole and healed and perfected in Jesus. And the same is true when your baptismal
promises are reapplied to you in the Absolution and you are washed and cleansed
and raised again. Your sin and evil and death sentence gone,
and a new life begun.
Tremendously comforting words indeed.
And so again, as St. Paul said, we preach
Christ crucified. A stumbling block to some and folly
to others . . . but Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. This
is how God shows His power, in weakness. This is how God shows His wisdom, in
what men consider foolishness. Then and still today. In Jesus and now
in His Word and Sacraments. They don’t look like much. It’s easy to
doubt and disbelieve. It’s easy to ignore the Word and not live as we ought
because it’s not getting us anywhere; there’s nothing in it for me. Those who
are evil seem to prosper, while the faithful struggle, endure persecution, and
are now days even being beheaded.
But this is exactly why a dying and rising Saviour is then exactly what we need. A Saviour not just to save us from the things of this world
and life, but more - to save us from death and for a life that is
eternal. To give Himself for us on the cross, to give
Himself to us now in preaching and in the Supper, and to give Himself to us
forever. And so a Saviour that is still
zealous and still not stopping - still working for you and for all people, for
salvation, for life, and for a good and a future that has no end.
So don’t be fooled. Let the Word of God overturn
the tables of your hearts and drive
out all that does not belong - all the sin and evil and unbelief - that it be
His Temple, His dwelling. That we now, like the disciples, believe
not the opinions and truth of the world, but the scripture
and the word that Jesus had spoken. His Word
to you of forgiveness and life.
Tremendously comforting words indeed.
In the Name of the
Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.