A Sermon for Lent 3, Year B

originally preached on March 28, 2000

John 2:13-22

If, during this season of Lent, you’re asking the question, “Why was Jesus executed?”, here is what the gospelwriters indicate is the precipitating cause. While there are many gospel stories about Jesus being on the outs with the religious leadership of his day, this story – about turning the tables in the temple – is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Jesus, if you look back over his life, had a rather tumultuous relationship with organized religion. You’ll remember how, as a young child, Jesus went with his family to Jerusalem for the high holy days and, while there, engaged the theologians in such hot debate that he forgot to go home – much to the chagrin of Mary and Joseph, his parents. Later, as a young man, Jesus preached in his own hometown synagogue – in Nazareth – and his revolutionary message was so upsetting, the people tried to throw him off a cliff, but he managed to escape.

And now, in about the thirty-third year of his life, Jesus once again clashes with the religious system. But this time, there will be no escape. His angry tirade at the moneylenders and sacrifice-sellers in the temple courtyard will blunt any remaining goodwill felt toward him. And while his claim that, if the temple is destroyed he will raise it up again in three days, may be a reference to his own death and resurrection, in the real-time of the moment, it comes across to those who are there that day as nothing less than a threat to destroy the most sacred of all their holy places. The gospelwriters tell us that, after this outburst, the decision is made. Jesus must be destroyed.

Now, if you want to get down inside this passage, it is important to note that Jesus’ revolutionary ministry of grace was always controversial. And yet, until now, it didn’t result in capital punishment. When he offered forgiveness to sinners, there were questions about whether he had authority to forgive sins. But they didn’t kill him for it. When he healed on the Sabbath, there were complaints that he was violating the Sabbath laws. But they didn’t kill him for it. When Jesus cast out demons from those troubled souls whose lives were tormented by evil, some whispered that he must be caught up in the darkness of the occult. But they didn’t kill him for it.

No, they didn’t kill Jesus out in Galilee where he unlawfully ate with tax collectors and sinners. And they didn’t kill Jesus over in Samaria where he unlawfully conversed with a Samaritan woman. They didn’t kill Jesus in Bethany where he raised Lazarus from the dead. And they didn’t kill Jesus in Simon’s house where the prostitute poured oil over his feet and then tearfully wiped them with her hair.

Do you see? Jesus was not killed in any of the many varied places or settings or situations where he violated all the social or religious conventions.

Oh no, it wasn’t until he brought his gospel to church that Jesus was killed.

I love to listen to people tell stories about their faith. About how God touched their lives in redemptive and transforming ways. There are some of us here today who are walking miracles. God powerfully and personally intervened in our lives in very direct ways.

Carl Thrasher talks about being comatose after suffering what should have been a life-ending stroke. All the signs pointed in the wrong direction. And yet, Carl has a vivid memory of feeling like he was laying helplessly in a deep, dark cave, unable to move or to speak. But it was there that a presence came to him. And Carl knows it was the presence of God. And God lifted him up, and carried him out of the cave, into the daylight. And that’s the moment when Carl’s miraculous recovery began. Praise God!

And how I love to hear Bob Hanna talk about the truly miraculous ways God often provides for the needs of our local Habitat For Humanity. Others in our midst share true-life stories of receiving forgiveness and being set free from destructive lifestyles. Of moments when some supernatural strength was received to face up to an otherwise impossible challenge. Of precious times when Jesus became real, and it seemed like our spirits were reborn, and God became more than just a word to us.

What wonderful experiences of God’s redemptive love are told in this community! Real-life stories of how our lives have been intruded upon by the Lord!

And yet, today’s reading from John shows us that there is a still deeper level of faith to which we must travel. You see, it is one thing to let God into the secular experiences of our own lives and needs. But it is quite another to let Jesus intrude into the realm of what we hold most sacred. Yes, the people of his day – like we in ours – responded with joy when Jesus, with his healing power, stepped into their diseases, forgave their sins, and cast out their demons.

But when Jesus stepped into their church…they killed him.

I wonder what would happen if Jesus came to ours?

Frankly, I think it would be a fantastic experience! I’d be willing to bet that Jesus would start the day with Sunday School! And I don’t think he’d go to an adult class, but probably to Joyce Peterson’s junior and senior high class. They have those blow-up chairs in there, and I can just picture Jesus spread out on one of those, listening to rock music on the boombox, and laughing with the kids as they talk about things like dating and learning how to drive a car, and how to live like Christians in the middle of it all. I can picture Jesus coming over to the sanctuary here and asking Rachel Holloway to teach him how to be an acolyte and to show him how to walk so elegantly down the aisle as she does. I think Jesus would sing the opening hymn at the top of his lungs, causing people around him to say, “So THAT”S how hymns are supposed to be sung!” And when we prayed for forgiveness, I think Jesus would stand up at the end of the prayer and say, “You really ARE forgiven! Now take it and run with it!” And Jesus, I’m pretty sure, would go individually to each person here who is sick and suffering, and touch them in some life-giving way. To each person here who is lonely, and befriend them. To each person here who is weak, and strengthen them for the challenges they must face when they go home today.

And then, after meeting all our deep human needs, I think Jesus would overturn our tables! He would go to the things we hold most sacred in life – our deepest religious values, our most strongly held convictions about God, and Jesus would expose them as inadequate, and perhaps even fraudulent. And, like on that day long ago, Jesus would turn our sense of the sacred on its holy head!

And we would probably want to kill him.

After all, it’s one thing to receive a miraculous healing. But it’s quite another to learn that, all your life, you’ve been wrong about God. And still another to learn that, even after you’ve experienced God’s love, you’re still wrong about God!

I believe that this unredeemed sense of the sacred is what causes us Christians to be the scandalous people we are. Bishop Desmond Tutu, recently speaking in Atlanta, correctly noted, “It was Christians, not pagans, who were responsible for the Holocaust. It was Christians, not pagans, who lynched people here in the south. It was Christians, not pagans, who burned people at the stake, and in the name of Jesus Christ.” What kind of sacred value causes such demonic behavior?

Our sense of the sacred, what we most deeply believe about God, makes all the difference in how we live our lives. So here comes Jesus, charging into the places we hold most sacred. He challenges our old ideas about God. He shows us another way. He introduces us to an experience of the sacred that is far different than the one we’ve built our lives upon. Jesus shows us a God we’ve not met before. I wonder if you’ll be willing to come and catch a glimpse or two of this God in the few moments we have remaining?

In this setting of the Temple in Jerusalem where sacrifices are required to obtain forgiveness, we learn from Hosea that God does not desire us to offer sacrifices to him, but rather to offer mercy to others. “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, says the Lord.”

What an amazing claim! All our lives, we’ve been told that God requires pay-back for sin! That’s why the animals are being sold in the Temple, you know! That’s why the money is being exchanged! To provide an appropriate pay-back to God for sins. But here comes Jesus and he overturns these tables!

God, Jesus shows us, doesn’t want pay-back. God wants mercy. God wants to give mercy to you, and freely forgive you for all your sins. And God wants you to give mercy to others.

And that’s the role of the Church in society. We are not here to judge people. We are not here to point out what’s wrong. We are not here in this world to be an isolated island of righteousness in the midst of a sea of sin. We are not here to complain about the inability of humankind to live up to the standards of God, and to warn them that pay-back time is coming!

Oh no, we are here to dispense God’s mercy.

So the role of the Church is to open its arms to people of all kinds, and most especially to those who are lost to God. Our job is to tell people – in word and deed – that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”

A second glimpse of God in this temple setting is when Mark reports Jesus saying that his father’s house is not to be a marketplace selling forgiveness, but rather a house of prayer!

Just the other day, a few of us went over to the home of one of our church members who has cancer. He asked us to come to anoint him with oil and to pray for healing. And we did. It was a very moving experience, and what especially touched me was the realization that a group of fellow believers assembled around our dear friend for no other reason than to advocate for him before God. What a beautiful thing when friends cry for each other. When brothers and sisters seek the best for another person.

One of my deepest hopes is that our church will increasingly become a house of prayer – a setting within which people of faith – convinced of God’s love for everyone – will exhaust themselves advocating for the well-being of others. How different the world would be if the voice of the Christian Church spoke not in the language of judgment, but in the language of prayer seeking good for others.

God desires us to be a house of prayer.

And Mark further tells us that we are to be a house of prayer for all nations.

Were you as moved as I was this week to watch Pope John Paul II visit in Jerusalem with survivors of the holocaust? The image of the Pope, tears streaming down his cheeks, standing among those whose wounds are so deep, was very powerful. And I remember one Jewish person on television saying that his view of Christians changed when he saw Pope John Paul II cry.

God’s mercy, God’s prayers, and God’s tears are for everyone. Doesn’t matter what nationality. Doesn’t matter what religion, if any religion at all. Doesn’t matter what ethnicity. The Church is to be an agency that brings together the nations, embracing them in the love of God.

So our work is to build bridges, not to erect walls. And to do that, we have to learn to listen, and to understand others, and to identify with their humanity, and to learn from them, and to weep with those who weep, and laugh with those who laugh. Just like God does!

For God’s dream is to gather all the nations in his beautiful house of prayer.

Oh, Jesus Christ is turning the tables on all those who believe. For faith is deeper than just receiving God’s grace. Faith requires us to let Jesus step into the most sacred places of our hearts, and teach us to believe in God all over again!

So let Jesus come to our church!

Pat Ouderkirk, our church office manager, tells me it happened once before! Back in the days before Carl Burke retired, when he was still serving as pastor of our church. Bob Puckett came running into the office one day. Out of breath and very upset, Bob exclaimed, “Carl! You won’t believe it! Jesus is here! I just saw him pull into the parking lot, and now he’s coming to the door! What should we do?”

Without even looking up from his desk, Carl said, “Look busy!”

And that’s a grand idea!

Go into the world this week, and get busy dispensing mercy, advocating for others, and building bridges between people. For, in our day, something miraculously wonderful has happened. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have become God’s temple.

May we become a merciful house of prayer for all nations!