Saturday, March 6, 2021

Lent 3

 

Lent 3
March 7, 2021
John 2:18-19
The message of the cross cleanses the heart

A man sleeps in death. So sad his passing. What crime had he committed? He stirred up the people. He questioned those in authority. He exposed their hypocrisy. His message could not be tolerated. What was so offensive; the word he spoke?

A man sleeps in death. So sad his passing. Cut down in his prime. So prematurely. Was it necessary? Why all this fuss? 

Could there not have been a compromise?


A man sleeps in death. Itinerant. A loner. A poor man. His only possession was his garments – which were auctioned off; by the guard, to the winner, in a game of dice.

A man sleeps in death. In love a friend steps forward; but secretly, for fear of the authorities. There is a tomb nearby in which no one had been laid. The final tribute of an acquaintance who wishes to remain anonymous.

A man sleeps in death. A holy day is coming. Time is passing. In hast he is buried. It will do for now. After the observance, they shall return. Then, they can bring more spices to anoint his body and remember his life. And mourn their loss. So unfair. So useless. So sad his passing. Was it all necessary? Why?

Lord Jesus, You slept in death only to rise to new life. Without Your resurrection, Your death has no purpose. Only in Your rising can we understand Your passion.[1]

Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:18-19

The cross is the chief and central symbol of the Christian. Jesus gave the cross as the only sign given to men as to His identity and His work.

Christians live, worship, and work under the sign of the cross; for the way of the cross includes cleansing the heart.

The sign of the cross is

I.        The sign of authority – to drive out the traders.  To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” John 2:16

A. Jesus exposes religious pretension. Some inadvertently cheapen the Gospel through marketing – Bart Simpson famously once said: “take the latest hip teenage rage into the church just to make it relative!

Jesus is not a brand. And people are not objects by which we treat them as customers. Rather, they are ones for whom Christ suffered, died and rose again.

The leadership of Jesus’ day forgot all that.  No wonder Jesus was so passionate. “He had come to assert the claims of God upon his own nation, and he keenly felt the spiritual indifference which had turned worship into a means of profit.”[2]

B.     Jesus calls the Temple “My Father’s house.

Jesus was not always a nice or polite person. “Niceness” is neither a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), nor a character trait of Jesus. Jesus was tremendously kind and gracious to most people; especially the oppressed.

But he scornfully denounced the religious leaders as hypocrites who stubbornly refused to believe Jesus’ true identity as the Messiah, who were burdening the people with unnecessary rigorous, religious rules.

Because we can never truly be certain about the inner heart of a person and their circumstances; open rebuke is rarely something we should engage in. (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:4).

Jesus knew the true heart of the people around him; especially those who opposed him. (John 2:24).

While we are called to be loving, kind and gentle, we are also called to be strong and courageous. Allowing unbelief, ignorance, injustice, and evil to go unchecked, where we can make a difference, is not love. Rather it is a sin of omission.

Not only did Jesus’ act of clearing the temple reveal his passion for the things of God, it also revealed his authority. “Jesus’ act in cleansing the temple presupposed authority as the representative of God.” (Tenney 1976:84)

Transition: John writes that while watching this impressive spectacle, the disciples were reminded of Psalm 69:9 which says: “Zeal for your house has consumed me!”

II.     The sign of cleansing – clean up the commercial interests.  Then his disciples remembered that it is written:   Zeal for your house will consume me.” John 2:17

A. These words come from where the Psalmist is lamenting the suffering that has resulted from his faithfulness to the Lord. Later, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples will finally understand that it was the Father’s plan that Jesus’ zeal would alienate the religious leaders and lead to his crucifixion.

B.  The Savior’s words beg the question; have we lost a sense of awe or reverence? There should be solemnity sincerity and seriousness to our worship. Zeal for the Divine consumed Jesus. As Christ’s followers we must follow suit.

Jesus is not anti-temple, but anti-exploitation. He acknowledges the temple as his Father’s house. He insists that it be treated with the reverence due the house of the Lord.

III.   The sign of healing – by the cross the broken relationship with God is healed. Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:18-19

The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate authentication that he is who he says he is. Jesus says, “You want proof that I have the right to condemn religious pretension? Just wait until you kill me and then I raise myself up in three days.”

The real question for all of us is whether the resurrection really happened or not. Pay attention to this question. If it did, then we need to pay attention to Jesus.

 If Jesus really did come back from the dead as he said here, we need to pay attention to him, because he is no ordinary man.

That’s what we learn here. Jesus condemns religious pretension, and he replaces it with himself. Jesus is the alternate to the ritual of religion. Jesus is the way of connecting with God. And he gave his life willingly for you so that you could be in communion with God. Jesus is the way of connecting with the Father.

The prophet Isaiah announced; “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Yet by his cross and his victory over the grave the Savior reconciles us to the Father and to each other.

The solution to the problem of religious pretention is the cross where the price of disobedience was paid and where perfect obedience to God was demonstrated. Since Christ has fulfilled the demands of the Law, believers in Christ are now free from the curse of the Law as a means of finding favor with God. There is not deceit or deception by Jesus’ words and actions. He cleared the temple to make way for you to worship God in sincerity and truth.

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Words- 1,215

Passive Sentences- 6%

Readability-72.3 %

Reading Level- 5.7

 



[1] Parish Devotional posted 20 March, 2009

[2] Tenney, Merrill C., JOHN: The Gospel of Belief – An Analytic Study of the Text, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976.

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