John 2: 13-22

The temple was not meant to be a marketplace. The religious asked him what authority Jesus had to fashion a whip from cords and drive the sheep and cattle out of the temple and pour the coins of the money changers onto the ground and overturned their tables. He told them, “Destroy this temple, and I’ll raise it up in three days.” He meant his own body. Jesus was asked for a sign and he gave the ultimate and final sign, his death and resurrection. The contrast is painfully clear. A temple built as a witness to God and as a means of drawing persons near to God, is now an object of adoration, an end in itself.

As mentioned last week, there is divine thinking and earthly thinking. Jesus expressed a divine perspective when he said if they destroy this temple, he will raise it up in three days. The temple keepers reacted by stating that temple had been under construction for forty six years. How could he raise it up, reconstruct it in three days? Jesus clearly was speaking from a divine perspective about his own death and resurrection while the temple keepers reacted with an earthly perspective.

The one phrase that captivates me in this passage is the quote from Psalm 68 employed here to add understanding from what his disciples witnessed in the cleansing of the temple, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Zeal is defined as eager desire, enthusiastic diligence. An easterner who walked into a western saloon was amazed to see a dog sitting at a table playing poker with three men. He asked. “Can that dog really play cards?” One of the men answered, “Yeah, but he ain’t much of a player. Whenever he gets a good hand he wags his tail.

In the wake of the cleansing of the temple, John and the disciples recalled that phrase from Psalm 68. What the temple had meant to be, a means of drawing people to God, became a center of transactions, a marketplace. It angered Jesus. Anger can be understood as an emotion signifying something being wrong. That building and property was devoted to the worship and presence of God. Something else was going on there.

Again, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The temple keepers were zealous, zealous to maintain the transactional system of selling livestock for sacrifices on temple property. The temple was not a place of prayer for all people. It was the center of religious observance focused on the insistence of blood sacrifices being a sufficient measurement of faithfulness. As the random Jew was coerced into buying temple approved livestock to cover their sins for another year, his relationship with God was believed to be understood only in light of how faithful they’ve been to sacrifice at the temple. What if the father of the family couldn’t afford to buy a pure white sheep from the temple to cover the sins of he and the family that year? Maybe they’d lose their zeal for the temple, the priesthood and the priest’s religion. Then there’s Jesus overturning tables and chasing the livestock out of the temple, jeopardizing the whole transactional system.

Zeal for his Father’s house consumed Jesus. It was meant to be a place of reverence, prayer and worship. It was meant to be a place unlike anywhere else in Judea. There was meant to be a singular focus of celebrating God’s faithfulness to individuals, families and the nation. It became a place of commerce instead of a place of devote worship, confession, repentance and renewal.

Where is our zeal and for whom is it focused? For the temple or for Jesus? If it were for the temple in these days, our zeal, our enthusiastic diligence, would defend the forms of religion our zeal would cherish most while we deny our religion’s power to save and revive. Salvation and deliverance is found in Jesus Christ alone. A zealousness for any created religious expression that maneuvers to an exalted place wants that expression to be primary, certainly above the name of Jesus.

Were our zeal for Christ first, our passions and divine enthusiasm would not be for brick and mortar, but for his body, blood and name. We wouldn’t kill or destroy for his glory, but we’d heal, feed, clothe and deliver to his glory and out of love for the lost and forgotten. Brick and mortar, form and fashion are fine in themselves but best when devoted to trumpet the Lord’s glory and tell his wonderful story of grace and truth. Ah, we’re brought to a choice again. The temple or our Christ?

(Some reflections while in quarantine on the third Sunday in Lent, 3-7-21)