The Holy House of God

The Holy House of God
Rev. Alex Stevenson

Psalm 19:7-14 John 2:13-22

The Temple in Jerusalem was very important to the Jewish religion of Jesus' day. It was the center of religious activities. While the Scriptures were read and interpreted in local synagogues, it was in the temple that sacrifices were made to God. The temple was where God dwelt. In the holy of hollies in the center of the temple the spirit of God sat above the ark of the covenant. The temple quite literally was the house of God. It was a holy place.

In Hebrew the word for holy was Qadosh. It literally means set apart or separated. The opposite of holy is "profane" or "common." The temple was a holy place because it had been set aside as the dwelling place of God. It had been separated from the profane houses of the world. It was to be the place where God dwelt and nothing else.

Because it was holy, many worshippers of God took the time and expense to make a pilgrimage to the temple for Holy days, or as we would say holidays. Jesus and the disciples were no different. When the feast of Passover approached they made their way to Jerusalem. And eventually to the Temple, the house of the living God. It was Passover and they wanted to praise the God who caused the destroying angel to pass over the children of Israel and then led them out of captivity. So they journeyed to that holy place to worship God.

But when they entered the holy house of God Jesus did not like what he saw. He did not find what one would expect in a temple. One would expect to hear Psalms of praise and supplication being chanted or sung. One would expect to see teachers reading and expounding upon the Scriptures. One would expect to see people kneeling or bowing in prayer. One would expect to smell the incense and burnt offerings being offered up to God Almighty. One would think that the dwelling place of the one true God would be filled with people seeking God's will and praising God.

But that is not what Jesus found. Instead of Psalms and Prayers he heard the clanging of cow bells and the bleating of sheep and the clanking of coins. Instead of teachers and people kneeling in prayer he saw buying and selling, making deals and bartering. Instead of the pleasant smells of incense and burnt offerings Jesus found the foul smells of sweaty animal herders and of sheep and ox excrement. The sights, sounds and smells that Jesus encountered were those of the marketplace not of the temple. The marketplace has taken over the temple and the affairs of the world were conducted in the temple precincts. If it was no longer separated from the world, it was no longer holy.

This was more than Jesus could take. He had come to worship God. He came seeking a holy place. That place did not seem holy. So Jesus took it upon himself to clean it up and make it holy. He drove out the people selling animals and their animals. And he turned over the tables of the money changers. And he said, "You shall not make the house of my Father a house of trade."

What Jesus did was very significant, even revolutionary. Jesus had come into a place that most people believed was holy and said that it wasn't. People wondered, "Who is he to do that?" "What authority did he have to make that kind of a statement." "Only God could decide that the temple was no longer holy." "Is he God's prophet?"

So they asked him, "Show us a sign so that we will know if God has given you authority to do this thing." And Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." This amazed those who were listening. It had taken 46 years at that time to build the temple and it wasn't finished yet. How could he rebuild it in three days. Of course they misunderstood him.

The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed just as Jesus predicted. The Romans destroyed it, and it has not been rebuilt to this day. But as we all know Jesus' prediction came true. They destroyed the temple of his body just as he said they would, And three days later he was raised up. But Christ's death and resurrection changed everything. Followers of God no longer need to go to a temple to make sacrifices to God to atone for their sins. Christ's death was and is the only sacrifice ever needed for the sins of the world. Through his death and resurrection Christ replaced the temple with himself. He destroyed temple by making it obsolete. His death replaced the sacrifices of the temple. And he built a new temple by rising from the dead and becoming the presence of God in our midst.

We all need a holy place. A place set apart. A place away from the market places and cares of the world, where we can be in the presence of the living God. For some people that place is a sanctuary. For others it is the solitude of bible study. For some it is the communion of Christian fellowship and group prayer. No matter where it is, sometimes we need a place set aside just for communing with our Lord.

If we really want to be close to God. If we really seek a holy place separated from the marketplace and the business of the world. We need only seek Christ; that we may dwell in him and he in us. But for him to dwell in us our hearts must be holy places set aside for God alone. Most times they aren't; they are usually filled with the cares of this world and are set on this life's concerns.

Perhaps we need to let Christ come in and cleans our hearts like he did the temple. Allow him to come in and overturn the moneychanger's tables. And drive out the sellers of sheep and oxen. Then we can dwell in Christ and he in us and we will be walking talking breathing temples of the living God. And the holy of hollies where the spirit of the living God dwells will be in our hearts.

used by permission
Lectionary Sermons of Rev. Alex Stevenson