"Modern-Day Moneychangers"

Scripture: John 2:13-22
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: March 19, 2006

Although we took last week off from our continuing series, today we look at the most clear definition of the Kingdom of God.   It is Jesus...specifically, Jesus as the Temple, the focal point of God.   Revelation speaks about the fullness of time when God's people gather around His throne.   It is interesting to note that the Temple is gone (Revelation 21:22).   All we see in the picture of the future is that the throne of God and of the Lamb are the center of all things.   From them flow the river of life and around them worship God's people.   Jesus said that when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, He would rebuild it (speaking of His body being the temple).   Everyone thought He was speaking about the physical building that took the builders more than 46 years to build at that point, though its construction continued another 30 years.

Imagine, for a moment, being in Jerusalem during the time of our story.   As you walked through Jerusalem, knowing that the greatest festival, the Passover, was approaching, you would see people preparing themselves.   Everyone would be concerned about getting their lives holy before God.   The physical temple and the priests were ready to help people receive forgiveness.   250,000 lambs were prepared.   All of them would be sacrificed and their blood would be poured upon the altar.   In this way, God forgave sins.   "Without the shedding of blood", the Scriptures say, there is no forgiveness of sins."(Hebrews 9:22)

Jerusalem was a bloody place.   It had the aroma of blood and death.   Little did anyone know that the Lamb of God had entered this time to pour out His blood on the eternal altar of God.   His sacrifice would cleanse everyone from sin.   But in His death, the end of sacrifices would be accomplished.   No more would anyone need another innocent lamb to slaughter.   No more would one need a building/temple made by human hands.

"Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it!"   No one understood that Jesus was speaking of Himself.   But in the end of days, everyone, you and me, will see the temple was indeed destroyed and Jesus was built up three days after His death to be the center and holder together of the Kingdom of God.

But up to that time, there was a physical temple.   It was set up by God as a way for everyone, even all the nations, to enter and worship.   In fact, God stated that the Temple's purpose was for the nations.   But those who enjoyed it, the Jewish leaders, found that it provided them with something to claim as their own.   They had become so good at the business of the temple that they controlled all the activities.   They controlled the law of the land, the politics of Israel and the worship of Yahweh.   It was all done in the name of God.   But the law wasn't followed as God had laid it out.   The letter of the law was strained legalistically while the spirit of the law was neglected.   The politics...well, the politics of the land honored the "haves" and not the "have nots".   The worship had become obscene.   No one, except a man of the "good old boys" club, could really worship there.  

So exclusive was the temple that all who had membership kept themselves from the commoners.   Archaeology has now found that from the temple there were bridges built above the streets so that the priests, the Pharisees and the other privileged never had to walk on regular paths where the sinners were.

But look down!   There was Jesus on the streets.   He interacted with the regular people.   He healed the sick.   He preached to the poor.   He loved the common folk.   And He, the real temple had come to the people.   Can you see why Jesus was a threat?    People didn't have to go to the temple.   The Temple, Jesus, came to them.   His fame spread throughout the land.   He was a recognized prophet, teacher and priest.   But He didn't use the bridges. Someone like that could ruin the whole system!

A confrontation with the temple was inevitable.  

And even further, those religious leaders of Jesus' day found that they could control the temple in such a way to make millions of dollars every year.   They created a system where they could control the trade.   In the court of the Gentiles, where all the nations were supposed to worship, they set up their trade.   They packed in there.   Now, instead of hearing the silence of the wind or the chanting of prayer, all anyone could hear was the sound of the bleating of the sheep, the cooing of the doves and the money changers robbing the poor and innocent through their sales pitch.   Coins jingled.

When a farmer, poor and humble, came to Jerusalem because he wanted to give something good and let God know that he cared about living a righteous and good life, he was met with the moneychangers and sellers of goods, all stamped with approval from the priests who received their cut of the profits about to be made.   When the man arrived in the courtyard, he was informed that the money he brought could not enter such a religious place as the temple.   He had to take his common currency and exchange it for a temple coin.   Of course, there was fee to do so.   Then, when he exchanged his money and paid his fee, the lamb or dove he brought to the temple was inspected by a priest.   It was always the case that the animal brought was not good enough to be sacrificed.   Instead, for a fee, he could leave his animal with the priest and buy one of the priest's animals.   Meanwhile, the poor farmer's animal was put in another pen to be sold as a priest's animal to the next "sucker".

Was this what God intended?   Hadn't God called the Jewish leaders to integrity, justice and honor among all nations?   Can you feel the anger of Jesus as he saw this raping of God's people...right there on holy ground?

As far as the other nations, well, they weren't stricken with a great feeling about the Jewish religion being anything different than the temples to Diana where the prostitutes offered their services.   Instead of the Jewish nation standing out among the other nations, a sad picture was painted.   Who would want to worship Yahweh?   He's the same as the pagan gods!

Was this God's plan?   Hadn't God called the Jews to be different so that all nations could see the power of the Real, Living God?   Can you feel the anger of Jesus as he saw this raping of God's people...right there on holy ground?

HYPOCRISY!   Those whom God called to be holy; a light to the nations, had turned out to be darkness.

In the nineteenth century a painting hung in one of London's art museums.   It was a beautiful painting of a monk.   His head was bowed and his hands clasped tightly together.   Certainly this monk was a devout God-seeker.   But, as observers drew closer to the painting, they began to notice that the monk wasn't praying.   He was simply bowing his head and clasping his hands tightly together to squeeze a lemon, making lemon juice into a punch bowl.   Dwight Moody, the great nineteenth century preacher said of this very painting: "What a picture that is of the human heart!   Superficially examined, it is thought to be the seat of all that is good and noble and pleasing in a man; whereas in reality, until regenerated by the Holy Ghost, it is the seat of all corruption."

The temple system looked holy, but it was a sham.   It was obscene.   And so Jesus said, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade!"   His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me." And they knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah.   Can you hear Jesus' anger?

Yes, Jesus was angry.   That's a part of God's temperament also.   We always think that to be divine means to be stoic.   I spoke to a Buddhist monk one time who informed me that Jesus failed in his life and ministry.   He was almost perfect.   But He became angry.   Therefore, He wasn't perfect.   Whose idea is it that anger is not a part of God's nature?   I would much rather have a relationship with a God who does get angry than a stoic, uncaring principle!   Anger is good...if it is righteous anger.   When the innocent get hurt, we should be angry.   When children are damaged, we should be angry.   When those who can't defend themselves need to be defended, we should be angry!   We, people of God, need to represent God.   When others hurt, we need to get angry!

But there is a difference in Jesus' anger.   We would do well to recognize that His anger is often different than ours!:

When I get angry, I often see reality from my own personal situation.  
When Jesus gets angry, He sees things from God's perspective.

When I get angry, I fly off the handle.           
When Jesus gets angry, he takes the time to make a whip, carefully blending the cords to drive out the moneychangers. (You did see that in the Scriptures, didn't you?   Jesus making a whip?   It speaks of righteous, controlled anger).

When I get angry, my actions change the future, sometimes for the bad.
When Jesus gets angry, his actions change the future, always for the good.

When I get angry I want to win and find my situation bettered.
When Jesus gets angry, He wants the poor and innocent to win, even when it means, for Him, the cross.

Oh, we need to be angry people...but with righteous anger.    We need to be angry at the moneychangers, those who keep people away from God; those who seek personal gain above the betterment of all people.   We need to be angry when God's name is defiled among the nations.   But then, if God's name is defiled, it usually comes from those to whom God has entrusted it to.

When I was a young child of about 5 years of age, I heard a children's sermon that changed my perspective on life.   The person giving the children's message asked us all to point our fingers at one another.   Then, when we did, she has us look at our hands.   There was one finger pointing out to the person we intended to blame but there were three pointing back at us.  

Sometimes we need to be angry at ourselves for being so complacent, selfish and self-centered.   When we begin to get angry at injustice in order to set things right, we might just find that we might not be all together innocent.   We just might be the moneychangers.   We are all guilty of crucifying the Son of God.   And the great reason why all of us are guilty is because our greed stands in the way of our relationship to our Creator, whom we were created to worship.   Jesus loves us too much to let those things keep us from knowing and experiencing His Father in Heaven.   And so He drives out, He cleanses the marketplace.   But I don't like it whenever He comes to drive out the things I enjoy; the systems I have in place; the business I have set up in MY temple.

The real reason Jesus was crucified was humanity's selfishness.   There are many reasons why Jesus was crucified.   The sign above His head on the cross read, "INRI" - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum.   It was written in three languages so everyone in Jerusalem would know His crime: Latin, Hebrew and Greek.   "Jesus Christ, King of the Jews".   No one is king but Caesar.   Jesus was crucified for being a king.

But I really have to say that even Pontius Pilate saw this as a joke.   This was the legal reason for His death warrant.   The real reason, I believe, is because Jesus upset the systems we humans put in place.   Just like the moneychangers in the temple, he ruined their business.   Jesus would not leave Jerusalem after this.   I know that John's Gospel places this story in the beginning of the book, but the writer puts it there to emphasis Jesus' identity.   It follows the water being changed into wine, a passage that shows Jesus to be God.   Now, in this passage, no one has the right to challenge and rebuke worship unless it is the One who began worship.   Only God can really cleanse the temple.

Whenever I picture myself in Jerusalem at the telling of this story, I am walking with Jesus into the temple and watching Him drive out the moneychangers.   But rarely do I ever place myself sitting at a booth, taking money from others to promote a corrupt system.   I am not suggesting that you and I are there. But this is the season of Lent; a season for self-examination.   Jesus came to destroy the systems that keep people away from God.   So the question I have to ask myself, and you, is this: Do I, by my actions, repel people from God, putting up blockades in the way of them experiencing true worship?   Are there things in my life or yours that have kept others from knowing God?   Are there things in my life that are keeping me from knowing God?   If not, good.   But examine your life!   I'll examine mine.   Sit alone, in silence, and be real with yourself before God, who knows all things.

One day the famous actor Robert Redford was walking through a hotel lobby. A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator. "Are you the real Robert Redford ?" she asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed, he replied, "Only when I am alone!"

Will you examine yourself this season of Lent?   When you find a moneychanger, will you allow Jesus to drive it out?   Will you sit alone at some point and ask the really hard questions of your life?

In the course of events, what happens after the cleansing, though evil, put in motion the wisdom of God which destroyed selfishness, self-centeredness and complacency. We call it good Friday for this reason.  

Jesus was crucified. "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it!"   It wasn't a challenge.   It was a prophecy.   And the religious leaders, all of us, played right into God's hand.   They destroyed the real Temple, Jesus, and He rebuilt it three days later on Easter.

Will you be real with God and ask Him to do what He needs to do to restore true worship in you and for others?   It is more costly for Him than for us...but He loves you so much He'll do anything to get your worship back.   He went to the cross to remove all barriers that stand in the way from knowing you.

Amen.