The Third Sunday in Lent

March 3, 2024

John 2:13-22

Rethinking Religion—

Rethinking the Worth of Worship!

13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Imagine that you have three friends that you know very well because you have known them for a very long time. Unfortunately, all three of these friends have a perspective on church that is very different from your own. One friend never goes to church. Over the course of the years you have invited them to come to church with you on many occasions, but they always say no thanks. You know each other well enough that they share with you that they do not see a need to go to church. Their life is going along very well and even if they were open to going to church they simply do not have the time. They are already very busy with various activities.

The second friend— whom you have also known for many years— is a member of the same church that you attend, but it’s very obvious (at least to you!) that they do not pay attention to what is going on during the worship service. They’re always looking around during the service. They’re fidgeting with the bulletin. But when you ask them something about the sermon they waffle and say something like, “Sorry, but I must have missed that part.”

The third friend is also a member of your congregation. They attend on a semi-regular basis. But when you try to talk to them about church they very candidly say that the main reason they go to church is because a number of the members are also customers at their business and church is a good place to keep in touch— and maybe even get a few referrals along the way.

Which one of these friends is worse off? Instead of debating the point, let’s just admit that none of them understand the true worth of worship. And that is exactly what Satan wants! Many people think that the worship service should be focused on us. In reality, it is the other way around. Worship is focusing on God and what He does for us. As we gather around God’s holy Word and Sacrament the Holy Spirit motivates us to love and trust in God above all things. Moved by the cross of Christ (Pointing to the cross) we bow before the Almighty God of heaven and earth. Motivated by the cross of Christ we draw near to God so that we can commune with Him. And that’s exactly what God wants!

The portion of Scripture that we have before us today reveals a very different side of Jesus, doesn’t it. We don’t see a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. We don’t see a young boy “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46). He is not turning water into wine, or healing the blind, or cleansing the lepers, or raising anyone from the dead. We don’t hear Him teaching an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. No, my friends, today we see and hear Jesus near the beginning of His ministry as He cleanses the Temple in Jerusalem— something He would need to do again near the end of His ministry. Today we see and hear how Jesus emphasizes the worth of true worship. Today we see and hear Jesus encouraging us to: Rethink the worth that we place on worship.

The setting of our text is very familiar to us. Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. As soon as He entered the Temple courts “He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.” On the surface someone might say that these men were only trying to help the people who came long distances to celebrate the Passover. Many times it was impractical if not impossible for people to drag a sheep or a bull all the way to Jerusalem. And let’s not forget that God’s people were not allowed to sacrifice just any animal to the Lord their God. The quality of their animal had to be checked by a qualified inspector to make sure it was acceptable to the Lord. Every man over the age of 20 was also required to pay the “temple tax”— which was a half shekel, which was equivalent to two Roman drachmas. The worshipers who came from other parts of the Empire needed to have someone who could exchange their foreign currency for the local currency they needed to pay that “temple tax.”

So what was the problem here? The problem was that these merchants had set up shop “in the temple courts” — specifically the outer court of the Temple, which was known as the Court of the Gentiles. Picture that scene in your mind. A Jewish worshiper had to go through the outer Court of the Gentiles in order to get to the inner courts where they could worship the Lord. As they made their way through the Court of the Gentiles they were confronted by the sounds and the stench of all those animals. They were overwhelmed by the sound of all those people bargaining and bickering over the cost of the animals and the rates of exchange.

Now put yourself into the sandals of the Gentiles who came to the Temple to worship the Lord. The outer court of the Temple was the only place within the Temple grounds where they were allowed to gather together for worship. Imagine trying to offer up your prayers to God, imagine trying to sing a psalm of praise to the Lord with all the chaos and all the stench of this marketplace all around you! I can’t imagine a worse atmosphere for worshiping the one true God.

This is what confronted Jesus as He entered into His heavenly Father’s house! So what did Jesus do? Look at verses fifteen and sixteen of our text. In righteous anger He took some of the ropes that were laying around, made a whip and drove out all the animals and all the people who were desecrating His heavenly Father’s house. He overturned the tables and scattered the coins of the money-changers. He forced the cages filled with birds into their sellers’ hands and drove all of them out too!

And did you notice that all of this was done without any recorded objections by the people who were being driven out of the Temple? The only response that is recorded for us is in verse eighteen, “Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’” They were not questioning the propriety of what Jesus had done. They wanted Jesus to prove that He had the authority to do what He had done! Jesus answered their question with a challenge and a prophecy. He said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” Notice that Jesus did not say that He would destroy this Temple— which was one of the false charges that were leveled against Him as He stood before the Sanhedrin. (See Mark 14:58; Matthew 27:39-40) He challenged the Jews to “destroy” the Temple of His body— which they did when they nailed Him to the cross. (Pointing to the cross) Then He prophesied that He will “raise” the Temple of His Body— which He did on Easter Sunday. Whether the religious leaders understood this prophecy at this time we are not told. We are told, however, that on Good Friday they did understand exactly what Jesus was promising. That’s why they went to Pilate and asked to make Jesus’ tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

So how does Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple give us an opportunity to rethink the worth of worship? Let’s go back to our three hypothetical friends and see how they help us to answer that question.

The simple fact that you are here today indicates that there are no parallels between you and hypothetical friend #1. While you may know people who have no time for going to worship because their life is going along just fine and/or they see no worth, no value, in worship, you recognize the powerful impact that perspective can have on their eternity. So you keep them in your prayers and whenever the opportunity arises you keep inviting them to come to church with you so that they too can worship the Lord.

Hypothetical friend #2 is the friend who does go to church, but they don’t pay much attention to what is going on in the worship service. This reminds us that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the central purpose of the worship service is precisely that— worship! The worship service is not designed to put the focus on us. The worship service is not designed to help us “feel good” about ourselves. The worship service is not designed to give us an “emotional high.” No, my friends, the worship service is designed to give us an opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet on a regular basis so that we can grow in our understanding of Who He is and so that we can grow in our appreciation for what He has done for us. (Pointing to the cross) When we understand what the purpose of the worship service is and what it is not, then we have an opportunity to rethink the worth that we place on worship.

Hypothetical friend #3 is the friend who does go to church at least now and then but for them the worth of the worship service centers on maintaining contact with their friends or networking for their own personal benefit. While we certainly do not want to say that it’s “wrong” to interact with our friends at church and while we certainly do not want to say that it’s “unacceptable” to discuss worldly matters with the people at church— if that is the main reason or the only reason why we come to church then we would do well to rethink the “worth” that we put on worship.

Before I close today I want to share with you a quotation I came across as I was studying our text. A man by the name of Ylvisaker wrote, “The uncleanness in the temple portrayed the corruption of the people and was an image of the impurity in their hearts. The conditions existing in the temple are therefore a testimony against the people. Jesus’ blows with the whip struck at their hearts. And the cleansing is a picture of what must occur with the people to make it a holy nation acceptable to God. And what is more, this must be made to apply to the individual. The house of the heart must be cleansed if it is to be the temple of God.”

During the season of Lent our Lord calls on us to recognize that there are sinful tables in our own lives that need overturning. There are things in our own sinful minds and our own sinful hearts that need to be driven out. There are things in our world that interfere with worshiping faithfully in our heavenly Father’s house.

My prayer this morning is that the account of Jesus cleansing His Father’s house in Jerusalem will remind us that this same Jesus encourages us to look into our hearts and look into our lives, and rethink the worth, the value, that we put on worship and where necessary do a little Lenten housecleaning.

“Then his disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” May God grant that these words will accurately describe the “worth” that we place on worship!

To God be the glory!

Amen