“The Zeal Of The Lord” John
Intro.: Sometimes people can be so rude. They just won’t be quiet in the theater and
let you watch the movie you paid good money to see. They stand out in the street in the middle of
the night yelling and carrying on. Maybe
they even raise their voice to you in a harsh way in a public situation. Some of us don’t appreciate these
things. We like decorum, peace and quiet.
Sometimes, though, what appears to be rude
and totally inappropriate may simply be an outburst of strong conviction or
heartfelt concern. People see a
miscarriage of justice, or something totally wrong taking place and they just
can’t remain silent and polite about it.
Conviction and concern for the well being of others sometimes demands
dramatic, applecart-upsetting actions.
And in today’s Gospel Jesus really upsets
the applecart, doesn’t he? He creates a
horrible scene and offends a lot of people.
Was he being rude? Some of the
people certainly thought so, but the evangelist tells us that it was something
else. When Jesus entered the temple
courts and witnessed the abuse of His Father’s House He was appalled. There was so much wrong with what was going
on, that simply clearing his throat, raising his hand, and politely uttering,
“Excuse me!” would not suffice. The severity
of the sin and the spiritual peril for those involved was too great to play it
cool. Zeal consumed him and moved Him to
immediate and wild action.
I.
A Zeal For The
A. For centuries the festival of Passover had
served the people as the supreme revelation of God’s zealous love for sinners,
and the ultimate prophetic celebration of His plan to save us all through the
blood of the Paschal Lamb. The Passover
marked the climax of the plagues by which God brought His people out of their
slavery in
Unfortunately when Jesus arrived he was horrified
by the abuses surrounding the sacred Passover.
The sins against the people, against the temple, and against His Father
which destroyed the celebration for many and obscured the true meaning of the
Passover for all consumed and inflamed Him.
What were the temple officials, the merchants, and the money changers
doing to this sacred place and this festival of God’s pure grace.
The focus of the people who were in the
temple was all wrong and their ideas about worship were warped. Instead of approaching the Holy God with
reverence to receive His gifts of mercy in the Passover, and to offer the
sacrifices of thanksgiving which would be like sweet incense to the Lord, they had
turned the sacred temple into a stinking feed lot, and the sacred festival into
a common swap meet.
When
Jesus came into the court of the Gentiles, the place which was intended to indicate
that this was to be a house of prayer for all nations, he found it filled with
the stench and filth of penned sheep and oxen, and cages of doves piled high. The words of the priests and the prayers of
the people could not be heard over the cries of the merchants bartering and
bargaining. He saw the money changers
sitting at their coin covered tables; their eyes twinkling with the lust of
dishonest gain. He was angry because they
were defiling His Father’s house, and disrupting the true worship which God
desired for His people.
Their focus was on what they could get, how
they could use this holy place to satisfy their needs, and perhaps turn a profit,
rather than on the promise of the true Lamb of God who would come to His temple
to take away the sins of the world.
Their worship was chaotic. It was
all about the sacrifices they were buying, selling, and bringing to the Lord,
rather than true spiritual worship in which they would come to be marked by the
blood of the Lamb, so that the wages of their sin which is death, would pass
over them.
Jesus was zealous for a cleansing not only
of the temple but of the hearts of His people.
He was set on restoring to the temple, right and God-pleasing
worship. So the public ministry of Jesus
began with an act of holy wrath and indignation. The Son cleansed His Father’s house with a
whip which he had tied together from some of the ropes the merchants used. It was not only the animals but the money
changers and merchants he whipped. He
kicked over the low tables on which their coins were laid. And to all of them he said, “Get these out of here! How dare turn My Father’s house into a
market!”
B. That temple in
We forget that these bodies and minds, these
hearts and hands, have been consecrated to the Lord’s purpose, to be living
sacrifices as our acceptable worship to the Lord. Instead we degrade them with wicked deeds and
evil thoughts - with selfish desires and unholy works. For the greatest part of most every day our
lives have lost their proper focus. We
do not set our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross for us, but instead
we get caught up in the great swap meet of life and our tables of coin.
We do not worship him as he wants by fleeing
to His house to be marked by the blood of the Lamb Our zeal is often not like His, but more like
that of the people in the temple. Like
the temple officials we seek the glory and adulation of others. Like the merchants and the money changers we
come to make deals, to use the Lord to get our way, and to find justification
for the things we are doing. Many come
to worship wanting an ego-centered service of good feelings and emotional highs
rather than Christ-centered worship, where broken hearts and contrite spirits
receive mercy and offer true sacrifices of thanksgiving. Our thoughts wander while in worship,
distracting us more than any flock of sheep or herd of oxen ever could. We treat his Sacraments casually, perhaps
even moaning if we have to go to communion and endure a longer service.
What do you think? Is Jesus being rude when He interrupts our
lives with his unpleasant Word of law and whips us with His condemnation? Like
the temple officials, merchants, money changers, and false worshipers would we
prefer that he just leave us alone and let us go our own way? Do we
feel justified in what we are doing? Perhaps,
but thank God our Lord Jesus is consumed with zeal. He is zealous to cleanse and restore us to a
right worship. Today, through the words
of my mouth I pray that He is bursting into the temple courts of your heart
with whip in hand! I pray that you are
hearing him say of all the filth and stench which corrupts your heart, mind,
and life, “Get these out of here! How
dare you do this to my Father’s house!” And I pray that through the working of the
Holy Spirit in the Word and in the power of your baptism, that old filthy man
with all his false worship and sinful desires is being driven out, and in his
place a new man is coming forth within you to know not only the zeal of Christ
to cleanse you, but His…
II. Zeal For You To Know His Power To Save
You. (vv.
18-22)
A. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is
the Son of God and the Passover Lamb who has the power to cleanse you from your
sin and save you from your spiritual bondage to a new and eternal life. Not by your effort, nor by your choice, but
only by His grace and mercy and only by the power of the Holy Spirit you have
been delivered. You, like God’s people
of old have been marked, but you have been marked by Christ the true Paschal
Lamb and have washed your robes and made them white in His blood. Because Christ died for you, the wage of your
sin, which is death, has passed you over, and you have been delivered from
death to life. You have been justified
freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
B. The sign which Jesus gives you of His power
and authority to do this for you is His sacrificial death and glorious
resurrection.
In order to justify their actions and
label Jesus as being just plain rude, the Jews demanded that Jesus give them
some sign to prove that He had the power and authority to do what he had done. Jesus did not give them what they wanted, but
what they needed. It’s as our epistle
says: “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to
those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and
the wisdom of God.” (I Cor. 2:22-24)
Jesus offered them only one sign; a sign that the disciples did not fully
understand until after Jesus’ resurrection.
“Destroy this sanctuary,”
Jesus says, “and in three days I will
raise it up.” The word Jesus uses
here does not refer to the entire temple area but only to the sanctuary proper,
the
With these words Jesus expresses His zeal
to save His people. He knows that the temple
officials were determined to destroy the temple of His body, to reject and
condemn him, and to turn him over to be crucified. His own body offered in sacrifice and raised
again in glory was the testimony of His power and authority over the lesser temple. He was zealous for us all to know the power
of His death and resurrection to save us.
C. Sharing in the power of Christ’s death and
resurrection through baptism, zeal now consumes us, also. We are no longer held in bondage to Satan and
His evil ways, nor bound as slaves to fear and death. By the blood of the Lamb we have been set free
from sin and death - free to be the people of God. We are zealous to celebrate God’s grace in
our worship, and to know the love of God in Christ crucified which is the power
of God unto salvation. Amen
“The Zeal Of The Lord” John
I. A Zeal For Right Worship. (v. 13-16)
A. Jesus was appalled by the abuse of the
Passover celebration.
B. Jesus is appalled by our abuses.
II.
A Zeal For Us To Know His Power To Save. (vv. 18-22)
A. The people wanted to know how he could claim
such authority.
B. Jesus gave them the sign of salvation in His
body-temple.
C. Sharing in the power of His death and
resurrection, zeal consumes us.
“The Zeal Of The Lord” John
I. A Zeal For Right Worship. (v. 13-16)
A. Jesus was appalled by the abuse of the
Passover celebration.
B. Jesus is appalled by our abuses.
II.
A Zeal For Us To Know His Power To Save. (vv. 18-22)
A. The people wanted to know how he could claim
such authority.
B. Jesus gave them the sign of salvation in His
body-temple.
C. Sharing in the power of His death and
resurrection, zeal consumes us.