What's Jesus So Angry About?

John 2:13-22

Lent 3

March 8, 2015

Jesus is angry here.

I mean we’ve seen him speak strongly to

people, to the disciples, to the Pharisees.

Jesus is Really Angry In the Temple
Dinah Roe Kemball 2002

but we don’t see Jesus acting out physically.

Actually, we don’t see it at all except here.

But this story is in all four gospels.

It’s obviously important.

But what is it about this particular situation

that makes Jesus so demonstrative?

Some people think it’s specifically about selling things in church

bake sales, sub sales, bingo games, rummage sales.

So some churches don’t allow sales of any kind

because of this story of Jesus.

I don’t know that Jesus anger is only about selling things though.

I think there’s more than that.

Now, the reason that they

were selling animals in the temple,

was so people could buy them to do sacrifices

which was the main element of Jewish worship at the time.

The original idea was that people worshipped God by giving

God back the best of what God had given them.

Most people would bring their own animals,

or they would trade what they produced for an animal to sacrifice.

But when the temple was built in Jerusalem,

people would to travel there to do their worship.

They couldn’t bring one of their own animals

or a bunch of other produce, people started to

sell animals in front of the temple for money.

And because you couldn’t use Roman money,

there were money changers, who would exchange

Roman money for Jewish tokens for a price.

It all made perfect sense. No one was doing anything particularly wrong.

All of these things were proscribed by religious law.

BUT…

The whole purpose of the temple

and the act of sacrifice was so that people

and communities would grow closer to God.

All this buying and selling was supposed serve a purpose,

to lead people in a deeper relationship with God and each other

so they could do what God required which is outlined in Micah 6:

“What does the Lord require of you,

To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

But as Jesus said, this courtyard in the temple was just a marketplace. 

People were not focused on getting back to God

they were focused on the buying and selling,

How could Jesus tell? Because there was no mercy,

there was no justice, and no one was walking humbly.

They were “doing temple”

but they weren’t doing God’s will.

The market had become their focus instead of God’s will.

It looked like temple things were happening,

but the purpose of the temple was not happening.

Does this ever happen to us?

Do we do ever find ourselves “doing church”

and then forget what we were “doing church” for?

Do we come here on a Sunday morning,

and just say, “Well I’m here, get this over with,

check this off the list.”

and never have it change us?

Do we go through our lives

just doing tasks, work, kids, housework,

friends, day in and day out and never

consider what the Spirit is telling us

Never asking what God’s will for us is.

Never feel God’s grace in our lives.

Or as a community,

We could be “doing church” in here just right.

We could say all the right words right,

sing the right songs, hit all the right notes,

have the most accurate budget, the nicest facility,

the best bible classes, the most learned children...

Churches can check every box off in the

“12 most important things for a successful church.”

but still not do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

And if we’re not doing it all for God’s vision for us

and for this world, what is it all for?

Of course we do, we do a little of all of these things.

There are times when each one of us just goes through the motions,

there are things that we have to do as people

and as members of a church that have to be done

and we just have to do them.

But no matter what we’re doing,

we should never forget what the point of all of it is.

A pastor, Francis Chan, wrote something very wise:

As a church, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure,

but of succeeding at things that don't really matter.”

Now, notice that Jesus didn’t just talk about this.

He didn’t even tell a parable, or ask a clever question,

For this one he flipped it all over.

He turned over a tradition that he had been a part of,

that his parents had been a part of,

in a religion that he loved and honored.

He turned it over. He disrupted everthing.

Now, we know that God loves us all even

when we’re just phoning it in.

When we’re just “doing church”.

But Jesus means to be disruptive in our lives.

Jesus doesn’t just want our tasks.

Jesus doesn’t want us to just do something

just to say that we’ve done it.

Jesus doesn’t want us just “doing church”.

Jesus doesn’t just want Sunday mornings

pretty songs, nice sermons, committees, prayers, and some cash.

Jesus wants followers.

Jesus wants all of us.

Our heart and our soul, bodies, our entire lives.

And Jesus is not just going to talk about.
Jesus intends to flip over our whole lives.

Walking with Jesus doesn’t mean just mean

calling ourselves Christians, it means putting everything

on that path with him and following.

It means trusting that the one who gave his whole life for us

will never lead us astray.