Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text, His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume Me.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
John’s gospel is not as chronologically-oriented as, say, Matthew’s gospel. John’s gospel is more thematically- / theologically-oriented. So, when the text begins, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand,” John is probably implying more than just giving us the occasion for which Jesus went to Jerusalem.
The Passover of the Jews was historically when the lamb’s sacrifice and blood was the covering for the people, that death might pass over them as God delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh. But, far from simply being a remembrance of that day, God gave the Jews the Passover to point them forward, forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world… whose blood would cover God’s people as death passes over us. And so, for the Passover, all of God’s people were to gather at the temple, the meeting place between God and Man, that the blood of lambs might again pour forth to remind the children of God of the divine Lamb who was to come.
So then, the temple was ‘center-stage’ in all of this theology. It was center-stage not simply because it was an important building (the meeting place between God and man), but more specifically because what happened, what transpired and took place, what was communicated between God and Man in the temple was everything the children of God were taught by God Himself to hope in, to learn, to cherish and safeguard, by which to define their faith and life and salvation. (What good is a meeting place with God if our focus and hope is temporal and not faith, life, and salvation?)
So, when Jesus comes to the temple and sees that it has been turned into a market, a place to sell goods, a place to make a buck – no matter how noble the use – He cleans house, literally.
We’re not used to seeing Jesus upset. It’s simply not how he’s portrayed, especially in children’s Bible Stories and in TV movies. To think that Jesus could be angry – we confuse that with sin because we forget the righteous and holy anger of God Most High. As Christ is that God Most High enfleshed, we ought not be confused by his anger, but rather be called to attention and self-examination and repentance.
Our text, His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume Me.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
John’s gospel is not as chronologically-oriented as, say, Matthew’s gospel. John’s gospel is more thematically- / theologically-oriented. So, when the text begins, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand,” John is probably implying more than just giving us the occasion for which Jesus went to Jerusalem.
The Passover of the Jews was historically when the lamb’s sacrifice and blood was the covering for the people, that death might pass over them as God delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh. But, far from simply being a remembrance of that day, God gave the Jews the Passover to point them forward, forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world… whose blood would cover God’s people as death passes over us. And so, for the Passover, all of God’s people were to gather at the temple, the meeting place between God and Man, that the blood of lambs might again pour forth to remind the children of God of the divine Lamb who was to come.
So then, the temple was ‘center-stage’ in all of this theology. It was center-stage not simply because it was an important building (the meeting place between God and man), but more specifically because what happened, what transpired and took place, what was communicated between God and Man in the temple was everything the children of God were taught by God Himself to hope in, to learn, to cherish and safeguard, by which to define their faith and life and salvation. (What good is a meeting place with God if our focus and hope is temporal and not faith, life, and salvation?)
So, when Jesus comes to the temple and sees that it has been turned into a market, a place to sell goods, a place to make a buck – no matter how noble the use – He cleans house, literally.
We’re not used to seeing Jesus upset. It’s simply not how he’s portrayed, especially in children’s Bible Stories and in TV movies. To think that Jesus could be angry – we confuse that with sin because we forget the righteous and holy anger of God Most High. As Christ is that God Most High enfleshed, we ought not be confused by his anger, but rather be called to attention and self-examination and repentance.
Last week, we heard Jesus lay it on the line with his disciples and the crowds, saying quite plainly that whoever would be ashamed of him and his words, of that person he would be ashamed in His glory.
Now again, today, another righteous rage – a zeal – the psalm says… and that word “zeal” (zelos) was derived from a term meant to sound like the sizzling, boiling over of water. Yes, God – even in the flesh – is angry with our sin. And He’s specifically angry because He sees how we view His house… and not just his house as a building (though He doesn’t totally disregard His building, even as we prayed, “For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise”), but rather how our dealings with that building hint at our view/attitude regarding our God’s dealings with us.
Remember a few months ago, our text was the boy Jesus in this same temple. And the boy desired to be there in that temple, cherished being there, because – as He told Mary and Joseph – “I must be about my Father’s business.” It wasn’t so much about the building itself as much as it was about the heavenly business happening therein.
In the same way, turning the temple – the house of God – into a marketplace (or, as the Greek says it, an “emporium”)… the offense isn’t harm done to the physical building, it’s what it said about the Jews as the descendants of Abraham and the children of God – about their changing views, understanding, and attitude toward what the building was all about! For Abraham, years before the temple, he had faith God would deal with His faithful people in the ways He promised. But, for them (the children of Abraham), the building was no longer about God dealing with His people in the ways He promised, but in ways that most pleased them.
We struggle with the same sin, don’t we? That sinful old Adam convinces us that God’s dealings with man are tantamount to a checklist to see if you’ve been to church each week. And, as long as we are here, we can do whatever we please, however we please, so long as we show God we love Him. We might not have tables set up for trade, but we treat God’s forgiveness as if it can be purchased with our gold and silver, our works and merits and righteousness. “Who needs Jesus to give meaning to the temple, when I can?” We begin to grow weary of learning and contemplating the great Old Testament truths that teach us God’s intentions… truths of the temple, a bloody sacrifice, temple “washing and cleansing” rituals, tables of the bread of God’s presence … all these age-old truths teaching us God’s plans for us now, plans that He long had established blueprints for in heaven itself. Of these things we tire; we find it difficult to believe that this hour (what’s happening here) is anything more than symbolism, difficult to believe that this is actually God dealing with us here and now, and find it much easier to base this house and this congregation on our own desires, our own customs, our own traditions grounded in 40 years in this sanctuary and 60 years in this congregation rather than in 4000 years of God’s detailed promises and dealings with His people.
And because of our sinful shortsightedness, we actually are offended by Christ when He calls us to repent of our man-centered plans for the Church, to be replaced by Christ-centered plans for His Church. We are offended by it, so that we might even think to ourselves or say aloud (as those in our text): “By what authority… what right do you have, Jesus… to tell us pious people that we can’t use the house of God whatever way we want?”
And Jesus reminds us, this isn’t about a building; it’s about the dealings between God and Man. And so, he attaches it all to his own body. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” He attaches it to his own body because in the body of Jesus we see God’s intended dealings with Man. In the body of Jesus we see the prophetic purpose of the Passover, we see the reason for (fulfillment of) centuries of bloody altars and sacrificed lambs. In the body of Jesus, in His wounds, His thorn-crowned head, his pierced side, we see how God wants to deal with man…deal with you. We see the holiness of His Law focused upon you and your sins, and we see the consuming wrath upon the Substitute in your place, and the abundance of His love and forgiveness for you… the sufficiency of His gospel for you. We understand that Christ took the place of that Temple and all of the sins carried there by the faithful hoping God would be merciful. Jesus was zealous for the temple, because he was zealous to carry the sins the faithful once brought to the temple. As our Introit began, “For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you (that’s us and our despising / hatred of him, us and our sins!) … [those reproaches] have fallen on me,” Jesus says. He’s cleared the temple of our vain efforts of appeasement, and He’s taken it all upon himself!
How does that define our view of God’s dealings with man? Does it not prove Him to be a God of mercy, compassion, self-sacrifice, grace… to cleanse the temples that are our bodies and grant us His Holy Spirit?
And therefore how does that define our zeal for his house? Will we not protect his house from all of man’s vain pursuits… from a pursuit of money other than firstfruits thankofferings given in faith that God is our source of provision?... from false doctrine that seeks to change this house of God into a place where the dealings between God and Man depend on Man’s righteousness and not God’s? … (Will we not protect this house from) an unwillingness to trust the Law and Gospel of God or call sinners to repentance or forgive and strengthen the penitent? … (Protect it from) being deserted by those who in weakness forget what it is they here receive… and so we will go to them and call them back to this place that it might serve God’s purposes for their eternal benefit? Protect it from being ignored by a world that wants to meet with God in different ways, and so will we not invite them to come and here meet with God according to His ways? Will we not protect this house from a casual irreverence that sees the sanctuary as no more than a staging area for an earthly gathering of people with similar interests?... (protect it from) an indifference that cares not what theology this holy house conveys and confesses to the eye of every person who enters it?
Friends, we ought have a holy zeal for the house of God, not because of the building itself, but because here in this place, we have access to the divine temple of God, which is the person of Jesus. Here in this place, the God who raised up His enfleshed temple in three days has designed to deal with us according to that temple. He gathers His children together in faith toward him and love toward one another, and He gathers us to conduct heavenly business with us… to approach our unholiness in his holiness, to approach our humility in his glory, to instruct us with His Wisdom, and to consume our sins with His mercy and forgiveness. We ought have a holy zeal for the house of God because it is in itself a visual reminder that we may with certainty and joy believe the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken, that He would raise up His temple in three days.
This building (our sanctuary) stands for one reason and one reason only: because Christ is risen. This building is a testament to us and to this community that Christ is risen and always ready to serve His people. If Jesus’ body (the enfleshed temple) – if Jesus in his body stands as the Lamb of God upon the altar, then this house ought stand with all eyes fixed upon the altar that faith might there see Jesus (“Come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus”). If Jesus’ body stands arrayed in heaven’s glory, then this sanctuary ought stand arrayed in glory that evokes the thoughts of heaven. If Jesus’ body stands in resurrected glory to be fed to God’s people, then this sanctuary ought stand to feed God’s people Christ’s temple. If from Jesus’ own body (own mouth) comes forth His Word, then from this body (you and me as the mystical body of Christ) that Word ought be carried forth and shared with all nations, for His body was given into death for them all.
And, if we desire Jesus, if we desire His gifts, if we desire Him to deal mercifully with us, if we desire to cling to His body as did Mary at the tomb, then we ought cherish running to this temple, for here God pours out for us the water and blood that poured from the side of Jesus… here the Lord stewards to us the mysteries of Word and Sacrament… here Jesus in holy zeal unlocks for us the gates of heaven and continues in the business of the Father – to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation.
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Prayers for the week of March 8, 2015
Most Holy God, Yours is a house of grace wherein you make that which is unholy to be holy, cleansing it from all corruption of sin. We pray that You would uphold the sanctity of Your house, here and in all places. Where Your Church is in error, reform it; where it has fallen, restore it; and where it rightly confesses the truth of Your Word, confirm it, strengthen it, and embolden it, that Christ and Him crucified may be proclaimed throughout the world. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord…Amen.
“The word of the cross I folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart’.” Mark 8:31
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A Prayer based on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer...“Hallowed be Thy Name”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Lord, Whose name is certainly holy in itself, we sinners pray that Your name may be kept holy among us also. Your Name is kept holy when your Word is taught in truth and purity and we, as children who call on You as ‘Our Father’ lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this in all situations of life, O Lord. To that end, lend your fatherly ear to my petitions:
Now again, today, another righteous rage – a zeal – the psalm says… and that word “zeal” (zelos) was derived from a term meant to sound like the sizzling, boiling over of water. Yes, God – even in the flesh – is angry with our sin. And He’s specifically angry because He sees how we view His house… and not just his house as a building (though He doesn’t totally disregard His building, even as we prayed, “For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise”), but rather how our dealings with that building hint at our view/attitude regarding our God’s dealings with us.
Remember a few months ago, our text was the boy Jesus in this same temple. And the boy desired to be there in that temple, cherished being there, because – as He told Mary and Joseph – “I must be about my Father’s business.” It wasn’t so much about the building itself as much as it was about the heavenly business happening therein.
In the same way, turning the temple – the house of God – into a marketplace (or, as the Greek says it, an “emporium”)… the offense isn’t harm done to the physical building, it’s what it said about the Jews as the descendants of Abraham and the children of God – about their changing views, understanding, and attitude toward what the building was all about! For Abraham, years before the temple, he had faith God would deal with His faithful people in the ways He promised. But, for them (the children of Abraham), the building was no longer about God dealing with His people in the ways He promised, but in ways that most pleased them.
We struggle with the same sin, don’t we? That sinful old Adam convinces us that God’s dealings with man are tantamount to a checklist to see if you’ve been to church each week. And, as long as we are here, we can do whatever we please, however we please, so long as we show God we love Him. We might not have tables set up for trade, but we treat God’s forgiveness as if it can be purchased with our gold and silver, our works and merits and righteousness. “Who needs Jesus to give meaning to the temple, when I can?” We begin to grow weary of learning and contemplating the great Old Testament truths that teach us God’s intentions… truths of the temple, a bloody sacrifice, temple “washing and cleansing” rituals, tables of the bread of God’s presence … all these age-old truths teaching us God’s plans for us now, plans that He long had established blueprints for in heaven itself. Of these things we tire; we find it difficult to believe that this hour (what’s happening here) is anything more than symbolism, difficult to believe that this is actually God dealing with us here and now, and find it much easier to base this house and this congregation on our own desires, our own customs, our own traditions grounded in 40 years in this sanctuary and 60 years in this congregation rather than in 4000 years of God’s detailed promises and dealings with His people.
And because of our sinful shortsightedness, we actually are offended by Christ when He calls us to repent of our man-centered plans for the Church, to be replaced by Christ-centered plans for His Church. We are offended by it, so that we might even think to ourselves or say aloud (as those in our text): “By what authority… what right do you have, Jesus… to tell us pious people that we can’t use the house of God whatever way we want?”
And Jesus reminds us, this isn’t about a building; it’s about the dealings between God and Man. And so, he attaches it all to his own body. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” He attaches it to his own body because in the body of Jesus we see God’s intended dealings with Man. In the body of Jesus we see the prophetic purpose of the Passover, we see the reason for (fulfillment of) centuries of bloody altars and sacrificed lambs. In the body of Jesus, in His wounds, His thorn-crowned head, his pierced side, we see how God wants to deal with man…deal with you. We see the holiness of His Law focused upon you and your sins, and we see the consuming wrath upon the Substitute in your place, and the abundance of His love and forgiveness for you… the sufficiency of His gospel for you. We understand that Christ took the place of that Temple and all of the sins carried there by the faithful hoping God would be merciful. Jesus was zealous for the temple, because he was zealous to carry the sins the faithful once brought to the temple. As our Introit began, “For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you (that’s us and our despising / hatred of him, us and our sins!) … [those reproaches] have fallen on me,” Jesus says. He’s cleared the temple of our vain efforts of appeasement, and He’s taken it all upon himself!
How does that define our view of God’s dealings with man? Does it not prove Him to be a God of mercy, compassion, self-sacrifice, grace… to cleanse the temples that are our bodies and grant us His Holy Spirit?
And therefore how does that define our zeal for his house? Will we not protect his house from all of man’s vain pursuits… from a pursuit of money other than firstfruits thankofferings given in faith that God is our source of provision?... from false doctrine that seeks to change this house of God into a place where the dealings between God and Man depend on Man’s righteousness and not God’s? … (Will we not protect this house from) an unwillingness to trust the Law and Gospel of God or call sinners to repentance or forgive and strengthen the penitent? … (Protect it from) being deserted by those who in weakness forget what it is they here receive… and so we will go to them and call them back to this place that it might serve God’s purposes for their eternal benefit? Protect it from being ignored by a world that wants to meet with God in different ways, and so will we not invite them to come and here meet with God according to His ways? Will we not protect this house from a casual irreverence that sees the sanctuary as no more than a staging area for an earthly gathering of people with similar interests?... (protect it from) an indifference that cares not what theology this holy house conveys and confesses to the eye of every person who enters it?
Friends, we ought have a holy zeal for the house of God, not because of the building itself, but because here in this place, we have access to the divine temple of God, which is the person of Jesus. Here in this place, the God who raised up His enfleshed temple in three days has designed to deal with us according to that temple. He gathers His children together in faith toward him and love toward one another, and He gathers us to conduct heavenly business with us… to approach our unholiness in his holiness, to approach our humility in his glory, to instruct us with His Wisdom, and to consume our sins with His mercy and forgiveness. We ought have a holy zeal for the house of God because it is in itself a visual reminder that we may with certainty and joy believe the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken, that He would raise up His temple in three days.
This building (our sanctuary) stands for one reason and one reason only: because Christ is risen. This building is a testament to us and to this community that Christ is risen and always ready to serve His people. If Jesus’ body (the enfleshed temple) – if Jesus in his body stands as the Lamb of God upon the altar, then this house ought stand with all eyes fixed upon the altar that faith might there see Jesus (“Come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus”). If Jesus’ body stands arrayed in heaven’s glory, then this sanctuary ought stand arrayed in glory that evokes the thoughts of heaven. If Jesus’ body stands in resurrected glory to be fed to God’s people, then this sanctuary ought stand to feed God’s people Christ’s temple. If from Jesus’ own body (own mouth) comes forth His Word, then from this body (you and me as the mystical body of Christ) that Word ought be carried forth and shared with all nations, for His body was given into death for them all.
And, if we desire Jesus, if we desire His gifts, if we desire Him to deal mercifully with us, if we desire to cling to His body as did Mary at the tomb, then we ought cherish running to this temple, for here God pours out for us the water and blood that poured from the side of Jesus… here the Lord stewards to us the mysteries of Word and Sacrament… here Jesus in holy zeal unlocks for us the gates of heaven and continues in the business of the Father – to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation.
=====================================================================
Prayers for the week of March 8, 2015
Most Holy God, Yours is a house of grace wherein you make that which is unholy to be holy, cleansing it from all corruption of sin. We pray that You would uphold the sanctity of Your house, here and in all places. Where Your Church is in error, reform it; where it has fallen, restore it; and where it rightly confesses the truth of Your Word, confirm it, strengthen it, and embolden it, that Christ and Him crucified may be proclaimed throughout the world. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord…Amen.
“The word of the cross I folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart’.” Mark 8:31
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A Prayer based on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer...“Hallowed be Thy Name”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Lord, Whose name is certainly holy in itself, we sinners pray that Your name may be kept holy among us also. Your Name is kept holy when your Word is taught in truth and purity and we, as children who call on You as ‘Our Father’ lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this in all situations of life, O Lord. To that end, lend your fatherly ear to my petitions:
* For the ill, suffering, injured: O Lord, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that You have the power to heal the sick, bring relief to the suffering, mend the injured. Hear my prayer on behalf of Wally Bartels*, Connie Block*, Diane Mautone*’s mother-Geraldine and also her father, Debbie Taylor, Sue Ail, and all those who bear their crosses of physical infirmity that they would live patiently according to that Word, not despising Your promises, but faithfully waiting Your promised temporal or eternal deliverance.
* For the anxious, lonely: O God, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that we cannot add to the length of our days by worrying, nor need we – for our good is in the hands of You who care even for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Hear my prayer on behalf of Myrtle Stade, Betty Wear. Fern Weddle, Bruce Morecraft, and Alice Breneman and all Widows and Widowers of Calvary that they would be granted your peace in anticipating that which lies ahead and thus dwell in Christian confidence according to Your Word.
* For the mourning: O Lord, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that You alone give and You alone take away… that, though the devil meant our death for ill, through the atoning death of Christ Crucified, the Christian’s death is but an entrance into life everlasting. Hear my prayer on behalf of the family of Rose Zarth*, at her death- and all those who mourn that they would live in the joy of the Christian, even in the hour of sorrow, not despising Your promises regarding the resurrection, but holding to Your Word, which declares: “Death is swallowed up in victory… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
* For the rejoicing: O Lord, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that You are the source of every blessing. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving with and on behalf of those who attended Calvary's bowling outing. Grant us thankful hearts, that we may rejoice in your Name at all times and desire to live according to Your Word and walk in your ways to the glory of Your Holy Name.
Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, who has taught us to hallow Your Name by praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
* For the anxious, lonely: O God, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that we cannot add to the length of our days by worrying, nor need we – for our good is in the hands of You who care even for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Hear my prayer on behalf of Myrtle Stade, Betty Wear. Fern Weddle, Bruce Morecraft, and Alice Breneman and all Widows and Widowers of Calvary that they would be granted your peace in anticipating that which lies ahead and thus dwell in Christian confidence according to Your Word.
* For the mourning: O Lord, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that You alone give and You alone take away… that, though the devil meant our death for ill, through the atoning death of Christ Crucified, the Christian’s death is but an entrance into life everlasting. Hear my prayer on behalf of the family of Rose Zarth*, at her death- and all those who mourn that they would live in the joy of the Christian, even in the hour of sorrow, not despising Your promises regarding the resurrection, but holding to Your Word, which declares: “Death is swallowed up in victory… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
* For the rejoicing: O Lord, Your Word teaches in truth and purity that You are the source of every blessing. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving with and on behalf of those who attended Calvary's bowling outing. Grant us thankful hearts, that we may rejoice in your Name at all times and desire to live according to Your Word and walk in your ways to the glory of Your Holy Name.
Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, who has taught us to hallow Your Name by praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
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