2024-03-03 Lent 3B

The speaker discusses the prophecy in Malachi about the Lord coming into his temple and purifying it. They then analyze the story in John chapter 2 where Jesus drives out the sellers and moneychangers from the temple. The speaker explains that the problem was not the transactions themselves, but the dishonesty and greed in people's hearts. They emphasize the need for repentance and a change of heart. The speaker also mentions that Jesus referred to himself as God's son and predicted the destruction and resurrection of the temple. The conversation highlights the importance of faith in Christ, rather than seeking signs or wisdom. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears, for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Malachi chapter 3. This prophecy recorded for us is the last chapter of the Old Testament. The promise is simple. The Lord himself will appear suddenly, unexpectedly, and one of his first steps will be to come into his temple. But what will he find when he goes there? Will he find it acceptable, or would he, like the text says, need to refine it and purify it and cleanse it? Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. The words recorded for us in John chapter 2 happen just after the Lord's first miracle. They bring to us fulfillment of that which Malachi wrote about several hundred years before. There was the Lord himself, Yahweh in the flesh, in his temple, and doing so in the temple or the tent of our human flesh. Here again is what happens. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the temple. He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the moneychangers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away and do not make my Father's house a house of trade. That's a bit odd. Jesus' reaction is odd because there doesn't seem to be, at face value, any problem with what he sees going on. People were selling sheep. How dare they? People were selling oxen and pigeons. These things were necessary for sacrifice, many of which were prescribed to the people of Israel in the Old Testament through Moses. You need a sheep, but how dare you buy one? It doesn't make sense. You need animals in order to sacrifice, and in fact, our Lord himself was redeemed in a temple, according to Luke, with a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons, Luke 2. As for the moneychangers, these too were necessary because there were a lot of people fluttering about, a lot of different systems of coins, etc., coming from all over for this feast, the Feast of Passover. And so the pilgrims would come, the pilgrims would have to buy, the pilgrims would have to change their money in order to buy stuff for the sacrifice. So what's the problem? What's the big deal, Jesus? What is it that angered you so much in John 2 that you reacted this way, such that he drove out the people with a whip and overturned the tables like a madman? The problem was not the money. The problem was not the critters. The problem was not the business transactions. The problem, like you and me, the problem is in the hearts. The problem of their heart was twofold. First, there was no reason to doubt that the moneychangers were better off because they tipped the scale in their own favor, favoring the ones levying the tax that people would have to pay at the temple, cheating many people out, especially the poor and the vulnerable. Malachi, what I quoted earlier, continues actually thusly, Then I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, against the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says Yahweh of Hos, Yahweh It's the widowed and the fatherless and the poor that the Lord is trying to look out for, that He is concerned about. These people, Malachi will go on to say, are guilty of robbing God. Robbing God, because they're dishonest in how they conduct business, and being dishonest therefore in what they present to the Lord. And it's no, Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun. And neither is this problem new under the sun. Jesus accused them of having a stony heart. Jeremiah already did that too. They thought they could get away with it. Jeremiah convicted or accused Israel of having a stony heart, both against the poor in the land and those you need to watch out for, and against God Himself. I'll just sacrifice to the Lord and I'll be fine. Sin, then I'll sacrifice. Then I can sin again, then I'll sacrifice. Then I can sin again, then I'll sacrifice again to the Lord in His temple. Not giving any two hoods care about what God actually says is my problem in my heart. The problem is that the sacrifice accompanies repentance, or that at least must. Jeremiah puts it this way. Will you steal? Will you murder? Will you commit adultery? Will you swear falsely? Will you make offerings to Baal? Will you go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say we are delivered, only to go on doing all those abominations? Does this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord." In other words, knock it off! Knock it off. Do not do church for an hour a week and live your life like a heathen for the rest of the time. Knock it off. Knock it off. Sinners to this day are guilty of the same. We offer our sacrifice to God in His temple only to sacrifice much more to our fails, our idols, our fools in which we cast our trust and hope and assurity and confidence and conviction. And we too, like the idols, we sacrifice to become foolish and dead. And we, our hearts are dishonest and greedy and selfish, and we always look out for number one and me alone. Jesus admitted that in the end of our gospel text, He doesn't need our sacrifice. He doesn't need our sacrifice. He knows what it's worth. When Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing, but Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them because He knew all people. And He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man. Now John doesn't tell us, but we can infer based on the rest of 66 books of Holy Scripture, that it ain't a good thing. It ain't a good thing. Jeremiah would eventually say, the heart is wickedly deceitful above all things. Who can trust it? Moses quipped two places, both before and after the flood, that God saw the wickedness of man on the earth, that it was very great. And even after the flood, with the eight people that He saved through the flood, even these He observes in chapter 8, verse 21, never again will I destroy the earth with a flood because of the sin of man, because even though every inclination of his heart is wicked from his youth. Every inclination of his heart is wicked from his youth. It is for this reason that we must kill our own sinful nature, that we must drown him in the flood of baptism, and then be born from above with a new heart and with a new spirit that strives to do God's will and to please Him and to do what He commands. Nicodemus will learn this truth in just a few short verses, chapter 3 of that first pericope. So make a change. You must do this because that which is presently there in your heart is unacceptable to God. They hate sin. Jesus said so. He told those who swallowed the pigeons, and that's not just to those who swallowed the pigeons, there's also the money changers and the sheep and the oxen, all these people transacting business in the church. Take these things away. Do not make my Father's house a house of trade. Here comes a similarity to what God spoke to Jeremiah, right? Jesus called God, My Father, and thus He was calling Himself God. This fact, coupled with the interruption of the economy from the stop of commerce by the Lord's show of force, these things are what led the Sadducees and the others to question Jesus and His authority. Remember Malachi said he would come in his temple suddenly. This Jesus, a carpenter from the middle of nowhere, now shows up, although he went there year after year since he was twelve, but here he shows up now, showing up doing outrageous things and making outrageous claims about himself. Who does this guy think he is? What's all this strange talk coming from his mouth? And that's why they said to him, what sign do you do or show us for doing these things? They hated him. They did not believe who he was. Meanwhile, the disciples who were with him at this time and who have witnessed the whole event unfold before their eyes, they were becoming afraid. They didn't know what was going to happen to Jesus. They thought he might have a death wish, that he was acting foolishly, crazy. And then they remembered Psalm 69. That's when he quotes, zeal for your house will consume me. And then it goes from bad to worse. Jesus confirms the disciples' worry, but then that eventually led to comfort. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Now that's an asinine statement there too. Destroy the temple and I'll raise it up in three days. The temple that first took years to build, then was destroyed and had to rebuild. The current renovation that was happening up to this point had been 46 years and would not be complete for another 30 something years. Complete just in time to stand for six years before being destroyed for good in the year 70. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. It's only true if he was speaking of the temple of his body. Now notice the implication of his conversation. The Jews wanted a sign. Jews seek sign, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ and him crucified. The Jews wanted a sign, they wanted a miracle, they wanted Jesus' credentials and authority for his bold move. But Jesus knows the truth. Jesus knows that they seek signs but for no purpose. They seek signs but Jesus knows that nothing will be good enough. Nothing will suffice, nothing will satisfy them. And so he resorts to the only one thing that they could never deny, his own death and resurrection. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Oddly enough, in Greek there are several words for temple, but this word wasn't the word for the whole building, for the whole complex. No, this was one of the specific words for temple. It was the place where God resides, the place where God hangs out, the place, the holy place, the holy of holies, where people weren't allowed to go in the Old Testament. This is what the Jews would destroy by crucifying the Lord himself. They would destroy the tabernacle of God. As John already pointed out in his first chapter, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. God is in his temple and that temple is our flesh. Here too, Jesus connects himself with the God of the Old Testament. He is claiming to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This God would eventually be tortured and killed by the hands of those who demand this sign. Zeal for your house has consumed me. That's quoting Psalm 69 later. Psalm 69 complains this way, My reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. It happened on the cross. It happened on the cross in the crucifixion experience where there would be no one to comfort the Lord. No one to comfort him when he suffered there, enduring the punishment of your sins. He would face it alone. Strike this shepherd and his sheep will be scattered, said Zechariah. He would have to endure the tremendous beatings, being slaughtered with different weapons, being beaten by a whip, just like the one he used to cleanse the temple. He would refuse gall, which was offered to him in large quantities. Gall is a poison, but in small amounts it's an anesthetic. It's a feel-good drug. Anesthesia. You under-meant what I said. Anesthesia. He can't feel the pain, but Jesus refused it because Jesus came to suffer, because Jesus came to die for you. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And that's when the sign was truly accomplished. The temple of our flesh, in which God himself dwelt, was completely destroyed by the hands of these sinful human beings, just like you and me. So much so that Isaiah predicted you wouldn't even recognize him as a man. But just God in the flesh rose on the third day to new life. And it's almost asked elsewhere, must I repay what I did not rob? Jesus had no sin of himself, but gladly satisfied your sin by his death at Golgotha. The perfect sacrifice, the acceptable sacrifice to God that was proved in his resurrection. Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. For the Jews it was a terrible sign. It was one of judgment. Because their beloved temple, the one they spoke of about 46 years to get them to that point, was destroyed by fire completely by the Romans in the year 80-70. It will never be built again. It's still not to this day. It's currently the site of the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim holy site. They will never again be allowed to do their vain sacrifices because there is only one sacrifice that makes the satisfaction for sin. That's the blood of Christ, your Savior. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up for the believer. It is a good thing. For the believer, they recognize and understand the true temple, the one that Solomon's temple pointed towards. The true temple was Jesus. He was at the same time both the temple and the sacrifice that would satisfy sin. And his resurrection proved just that. It is a sign that Jesus loves us and that our sins are forgiven by God in heaven. It is a sign that we can now offer acceptable sacrifices in response to God's gracious work that are pleasing to him, bringing to fulfillment what Malachi preached about. Remember, that's how he started with Malachi chapter 3. Here's the fourth verse. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. God grant it to us for Jesus' sake. Amen. May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior. Amen.