Lent 3: Clearing the temple

 Lent 3: John 2: 13-22

Very soon now the building of Crundale Chapel will go on the market for sale. I notice that RK Lucas, who will be marketing it, have at least two other small churches for sale at the moment, and we can probably all think of churches or chapels we know which are struggling. 

These are not easy times to be the church.

 

So it’s time for me to tell you something said to me by a very wise teacher of mine, about 20 years ago. Helen Cameron is a member of the Salvation Army and a wonderful theologian and teacher. As we were discussing the difference between the form of the church (the way we do things) and the essence of the church (who we are) she said “the way we do things may change, but the church of God is indestructible”.

 

I think our Gospel reading today tells us about Jesus demonstrating that very thing : the church of God is indestructible.

 

Today’s story of the overturning of the tables in the temple might feel familiar, but we might be surprised by John’s version of events, and where in the story of Jesus he places them. We are only in the second chapter of John – we are nowhere near the final triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week, which is where the other gospel writers place this story. 

 

In John’s telling of the story, Jesus has just performed his first sign to show his disciples who he is – turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana.

Then he goes to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, and enters the temple. Jesus sees, in the temple precincts, the dealers in cattle, sheep and pigeons and the money-changers seated at their tables. He drives them out – people and animals together; he upsets the tables of the money-changers, coins rolling everywhere; then he tells the dealers in pigeons to take them out, warning “do not turn my Father’s house into a market”.

In the other gospels, Jesus criticises the dealers for turning the temple into a “bandits’ cave” – but John relates Jesus telling them not that they were dishonest, but that they were in the wrong place.

 

We might see what Jesus is doing as a prophetic action, or a demonstration. Like the ‘sign’ of who he is, shown by Jesus turning water into wine; this is a sign to everyone who sees it that the activities in the temple are not the best way of getting closer to God.

 

I said this is not an easy time for us to be the church – but maybe it’s not the worst time either, and John was writing his gospel at a particularly bad time.

 

According to the Jewish historian Josephus the temple in Jerualem was completed in AD 66. But in AD 70 – just three years after its final completion – the temple was destroyed by the Roman army to quell rebellion in the region. With battering rams, catapults and finally fire, the mighty temple was gone, never to be rebuilt.

John was writing his gospel after the fall of the temple – he knew that the people he was telling about the life, death & resurrection of Jesus would hear that story in the light of their knowledge that the temple, however impressive it had been, had gone forever.

 

So when Jesus is challenged “What sign can you show us to justify your action?”.

Jesus’ answer is a challenge to them “If you destroy this temple, in three days I will raise it up again”.

His hearers misunderstand “This temple has taken 46 years to build – can you raise it up again in three days?” – but John lets us into the secret ‘the temple he was speaking of was his body’.

There is a clue in the language Jesus uses. Those who challenge him use the term for the whole building of the temple – including the precincts which Jesus has just cleared – ‘hieron’. But when Jesus talks about ‘this temple’ he uses the word ‘naon’ – which means the sanctuary, the holiest, central part of the temple where the priests would meet with God. 

I almost wonder whether Jesus might have indicated (perhaps with his hand on his chest) if you destroy this temple, this sanctuary, I will raise it up again in 3 days.

 

Even the disciples don’t get what Jesus means, until after the resurrection. John helps us to understand by reminding us of what is to come in Jesus’ ministry – his death and his resurrection, to understand the demonstration Jesus is making.

 

Jesus certainly creates quite a stir – driving out people and animals, overturning tables of money, giving order to dealers of pigeons. And all to show people this: the form of things is going to change – this whole building could be gone.

But Jesus then says - the real sanctuary is here – in me – if you want to come close to God you have to come closer to me. And to prove that I am the real place where God is found, the real essence of God;s house - go ahead and kill me, and three days later my resurrection will prove that I am who I say I am.

I have seen what is left of the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus walked. Even the ruins – the area around the Western wall – are incredibly impressive. I have never seen such huge blocks of stone anywhere else in my life. – about 5 feet high, 6 or 7 feet wide, several feet deep. They weigh up to 400 tons. 

It is unimaginable how they were put in place without the sort of pneumatic cranes we would use today. 

Even now, those stones shine in the sunshine. The completed temple must have been amazing, and I have sympathy with those who thought it was indestructible.

But I wasn’t – no building is indestructible, but Jesus declares that the presence of God in the flesh in him is more real, sure and eternal than any edifice of stone.

 

To those who had looked to the temple as a place where the glory of God might be revealed, John in his gospel tells them of all the signs which point to Jesus as the Son of God, the Word become flesh, full of grace and truth. 

 

In John’s telling of the clearing of the temple, Jesus states that he, and not the temple, is the ultimate sign of God’s presence, God’s grace, and ultimately God’s power over death and destruction.

This is Jesus’ demonstration that day in Jerusalem.

 

Week by week, in Lent, we draw further long to Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem – closer to the cross – nearer to Easter.

We hear Gospel accounts of events involving Jesus, and we wonder how they help us prepare for the new, resurrection life we are promised at the end of this journey.

 

What brings us close to God? 

We might love our chapel, know this building inside out, have wonderful memories of times past and all the things we have done here.

There might be other places of worship, too, where we have felt God’s presence or felt our spirits soar.

Church and chapel buildings are places of memories, they help people realise where a community of Christians might be found, they can be useful, beautiful, inspiring, comforting…

But even if all of that was taken from us; even if every Christian building fell to dust tomorrow, we have this demonstration from Jesus. His presence, his love, his grace are the vital signs of God’s love for the world. We can know the love of the living Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the connection they give us to God the Father and God’s love can never be taken from us.

 

And how might we help other people to draw close to God?

We are used to describing the church as the ‘body of Christ’. This can help us remember that we are here to be a sign of God’s presence, just as Jesus’ body was a sign of God’s grace for the people in the temple of Jerusalem that day, and to the first generation of Christians, to whom John writes. who had seen the destruction of the Temple.

 

The commandments, which we were reminded of earlier, were given to God’s people to help them live as those who knew God, and knew that their lives must reflect the presence of God.

We, too, live by them and try, through them, to love God and love our neighbour because we know God’s love for us.

 

We are here to embody God’s love, as Jesus did; 

to demonstrate the Good News in every way we can; 

and to walk with (& remember through bread and wine) the living Jesus, who was raised from death to life eternal.

When we do that, the church of God is indestructible, and lives to proclaim the glory of God.

Amen.