Sermon: Wittenberg Academy - Feb 8

8 February 2022

Text: John  2:13-25

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Today’s reading is known as the “cleansing of the temple.”  John’s Gospel is more thematic than the other Gospels (which tend to be more chronological) – and John tells of this incident early on in his book rather than later on, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke do.  All the Evangelists see this event as important.  And for us in this day and age when Christians and non-Christians alike reduce Christianity to a mealy-mouthed ethical system of “niceness,” this is an eye-opener.  When haughty unbelievers tell us to “be better” and “be like Jesus,” I don’t think they mean we should make a whip out of cords, cast animals into the streets, and send coins flying from overturned tables.

Jesus did not come to teach us to “be nice.”  He did not come to be a new Lawgiver.  We don’t need God to come into our world in the flesh, be crucified, die, and rise again in order to wag a finger at us and tell us to “be better.”  And if we really could “be better” in the real sense of the world, that is the perfection that God actually requires, we wouldn’t need a Savior.  We should strive to keep the Law, and being nice is certainly ideal – most of the time, anyway – but Jesus is not a referee, nor is He an arbiter on etiquette.  He is our Savior.  He is the conqueror and victor over sin, death, and the devil.

Jesus saves us from the world of the devil and the demonic, from evil itself that blinds our eyes to what is really happening at the altar.  For evil fixes our eyes on ourselves (our good works, our “niceness,” the money we donate to the church), and on the world (making money for ourselves through trade) – rather than looking to the altar to see what the Father wishes to show us in His holy house, namely, the Son, who comes under our roof not merely to receive our praise, but to give us His free gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The demonic realm would rather us look to our own works, to our own wealth, and to our own security rather than to our Savior.

The true temple is not made with human hands, but is the very flesh and blood of Jesus, who is God, who is present with us at the altar, who is not a sheep or a pigeon offered for sale for a useless sacrifice. Rather, He is the one all-availing sacrifice, the true and terminal “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  His sacrificial flesh and atoning blood are given to you from the temple of our churches without price, and with no need of a moneychanger to turn a profit from the arbitrage between currencies.  You have already been bought and redeemed, “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”  And even though the temple of His flesh was seemingly destroyed by those who turned the Father’s house into a crass marketplace, Jesus Himself raised the temple of His body up again on the third day at His glorious resurrection. 

The Father’s house is not a “house of trade,” nor is it a currency exchange bureau.  For salvation is not for sale.  In the holy house of the church, we the redeemed “take the water of life without price.”  The blood and the water, the Supper and Baptism, testify to the word of the Word Made Flesh, cleansing the temples of our hearts and overturning Satan’s tables, bringing us to the richness of the banquet table at His gracious invitation for eternity!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.