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Sermon - The Third Sunday in Lent (B) - 15th March 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: John 2:13-22
St Aidan’s West Epping
Worship is a unique activity. In one sense we could call worship a fellowship with the divine. There is a mystery in it, in that it can happen at all. But it is also simple in that it can be compared to any other relationship. With our friends we talk regularly, we thank them for their help, we praise them for what they have done for us. We call on them in our time of need. And worship is just like that. We speak openly and honestly with God, sharing our hopes and dreams, our worries and our cares, knowing that he hears us, he cares for us and he has the power to watch over us and he is with us in all circumstances. So worship is at the core of our relationship with God. When we meet together in worship, we engage in a corporate act as the people of God assembled before our creator. Worship is that wonderful moment where heaven and earth met.
So the Temple in Israel was of vital significance for Israel’s worship. It was believed the Temple was located on the very spot where Abraham was called on by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on an altar. But then God intervened and provided a ram instead. On this same location King David had built Israel’s first Temple about 1,000 years before. And now we have the new Temple built by King Herod. This was the grandest temple of all. Up until that time the Temple had been under construction for 46 years. We know it took another thirty three years before it was completed. So all up it took about 80 years to build. But sadly it only survived for 7 years before it was torn down by the Romans in 70AD. Yet so grand was that Temple that much of its remains survive today including the famous wailing wall. Even today tourists can admire the massive stones that make up the foundations, weighing 100’s of tonnes. King Herod was no doubt one of the greatest builders of the ancient world. And if this Temple had been left alone by the Romans it would easily have rivalled the Parthenon or the Colosseum today.
And so it was to this magnificent building that Jesus came in John 2, significant in being the Temple of God, the place where heaven and earth met, and significant in its sheer magnificence as a building. But what did Jesus find there? The Temple had become a market place – selling cattle and sheep – others at tables changing money. Now some of this was necessary. People came to the Temple in order to sacrifice. If you were a farmer you had no problems. But if you lived in the city you had to get an animal to sacrifice from somewhere. Also concession were made for the poor. If you couldn’t afford to sacrifice a sheep you could replace it with a dove which only cost a few pennies. But the catch was, you couldn’t use Roman money. Roman money bore the image of the Emperor. That was idolatry so it had to be exchanged for acceptable Temple coinage. However, the problem was there was always a significant mark-up. Temple business had been turned into big business.
What’s more, Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. Passover recalled the time when God rescued the Israelites from Egypt. It was God’s great act of rescue under Moses leadership. Passover was so important for Israel that it can be compared to our Easter. And it is not surprising when we note that Jesus was crucified at the time of the celebration of the Passover.
So you can imagine that at such a significant time of the year Jerusalem was full of pilgrims, just like Jesus, coming to the Temple to celebrate the Passover. But what do they find? They had turned the place into a market. Instead of coming to pray, Jesus made a whip and drove out the animals and overturned the tables of the money changers. Then the Jews were horrified. They wanted to know what authority Jesus had to do this. They recognised that he was criticising the way the Temple was being run, but what right did he have to correct them? What authority did he have or could he produce some miracle which could justify his actions?
His answer was, “Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The idea of destroying the Temple was inconceivable. It was magnificent. But, of course, even more impossible would be the idea of raising it again in three days. The Jess later used these words at Jesus’ trial. They claimed he was speaking against the Temple. But no two witnesses could agree on what he had actually said. Later, of course the disciples were to understand that Jesus was talking about his own body.And here is a profound teaching from Jesus. Until this point the connection between heaven and earth had been the Temple. Before that, it had been the Ark of the Covenant. But when the Temple was built the Ark was place in the Temple and the key meeting point of God with his people had been the Holy of Holies. There the High priest could stand before God, but only once a year. Though the Temple was the meeting point between heaven and earth, it could only be one man, once a year who could enter the most Holy place. But, of course, we remember that on the night of Jesus’ crucifixion the veil, which hid the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom, demonstrating that access to God was now available to all, but not through the Temple and more but through God’s son. Jesus himself replaces the Temple.
The implications of this were graphically played out in 70AD when Roman armies surrounded the city. The inhabitants were told they were free to leave. The Christians left because they knew Jesus was with them wherever they went. The Jews would not leave because they could not abandon their Temple. And they suffered the consequences. But now we are free to meet with God wherever we are. For convenience we build churches as gathering places. But if we lose those buildings we know we are not cut off from God. Access to God is no different wherever we are because the Spirit of Jesus is with us everywhere. Of course, there are times and places in our lives which are of greater significance to us, more encouraging to us in our devotional lives. That will always be true. But we know that wherever we go, we are never alone.
I remember the story of Corrie Ten Boom who ended up in a concentration camp during the Second World War. Other prisoners criticized her for her faith. They said, “what kind of God would allow her to come to a place like that?” Her answer was that there was no place she could go and God was with her always. But there will be times where we go to those places of abandonment, whether in the hospital bed or by a grave side. We will feel lost and alone. Then our prayer too will be “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” But those nights of darkness will pass and in the morning, as we see the sun rise on a new day, we realize the truth that we are never alone, never abandoned. Because of that first Easter, the way to God is now opened for ever. Forever we have access to the Father and we have the promise of Jesus, “I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.