John 2:13-22
John tells us Jesus was filled with zeal. Which might or might not include anger.
You do not worship the church itself. You worship Christ. He was angry at what was being done to the temple. He knew that He, too, would be beaten and abused. When we trust in and focus on Jesus. Our lives can be used. For their true purpose. Service to Him. And our neighbor.
We pray…Collect for Lent 3— O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways. Bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, on Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen [2]
It doesn’t feel too good, Do you know who else might understand? Jesus. Today> We learn about a time when Jesus went into God’s house, and He discovered that people were using the temple for the wrong reason.
They had turned it into a marketplace. And they were selling things. For a profit. You see, people needed animals to sacrifice to God. But the sellers were charging crazy high prices for the animals. And forcing the poor people to pay the high prices just so they could worship.
That doesn’t sound like what should be going on in a church, does it? Jesus sure didn’t think so.
He got so upset that He made a whip out of some rope. And He went into the temple and turned the tables over!
He told the people that they were abusing and misusing God’s house.
Well, some of the people there weren’t too happy. Since Jesus was disrupting their money-making scheme. They asked Jesus where He got the authority to tell them what to do.
Jesus told them to tear down the temple, and He would re-build it in three days. Well, that sounded pretty crazy to them. Because it had taken years and years to build the temple.
But Jesus wasn’t talking about the building of the temple. He was talking about Himself.
He knew that He was going to get abused and mistreated. But He also knew that He would come back to life. And do all of that to give us new life. He wanted to clean out the temple so that people could worship properly in it.
But ultimately, He wanted to replace the temple. To provide a new and better temple. That anyone and everyone could access. Without having to pay for animal sacrifices.
He was the ultimate sacrifice. As He died to give us a new and better way to worship.
You see, we were made to worship. The LORD has made us to love and serve Him. Our bodies. In a way, are like temples. Because they are where the Holy Spirit can dwell. And they are tools to worship the Lord.
Through Christ’s death and resurrection. They are cleaned out again!
Because we have new life in Him. We want to worship Him with all that we are.
We make mistakes still. At times we might become angry. or upset. or cross.
But we know Jesus promises to forgive and renew.. When we focus our lives on loving and serving Jesus. We are doing what He has made us for.
We fulfill our purpose. It isn’t always easy. But we can pray and we know that through the grace of God, He helps us every time.
LORD. Thank you for making us. And for creating us to worship you. Please help us focus on living for you.
And using our lives for the right purposes. Thank you for your love and care. [1]
[1] https://ministry-to-children.com/jesus-cleans-temple-sermon-for-kids/
[2] Collect for Lent 3, Lutheran Service Book copyright 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
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