Hello and welcome to Monday’s Foundations podcast. A huge thank you to Tom for last week’s reflections. My name is James and we will be continuing to look at the Gospel of John together this week.

For me it has been fantastic to be preparing these short thoughts in the lead up to this week. Most helpfully because on Sunday (which would have been yesterday) I got to share about John 4 with the evening gathering. So I’m chuffed really knowing this hard work has dovetailed nicely with that opportunity.

I just hope these podcasts are helpful to us all listening throughout the week as we look to grow and develop as learners of Jesus.

REFLECTION:

So today we have the story of Jesus clearing the temple courts. This story is a funny one. By that I mean it’s so strange how many people know about this particular story but so little of the rest of the Bible. In a day and age where people have access to so much information about God… but very little Bible literacy. This story, this one, has planted itself firmly in the minds of the majority of people. Certainly in the conversations that I have with my friends.

So, what is it about this story that is SO memorable?

Do we truly understand what is going on?

What does it tell us about Jesus?

Well, I think people remember this story not just because of the dramatic language (and it will be read in full at the end of this podcast). Not just because of the vivid picture it creates but because it challenges some presumptions we may have made about Jesus – it leaves us with a contradiction – I thought Jesus was about kindness and yet he scolds these businessmen.

It’s true, Jesus’ ministry is majorly marked by mercy and kindness. Christians, you and I, are called to show mercy and kindness AND YET this incident just stands out against the grain. Almost as if Jesus had slipped up and ‘accidentally’ got angry. Almost like behind the scenes footage. This story becomes so memorable partly because we are very good at remembering each other’s flaws, well at least I certainly find myself doing that, and so this goes ‘in the back pocket’ as a counter claim to Jesus being perfect. That has certainly been my experience of talking about this story when I’ve been talking with friends about Jesus.

So what is going on here? Is it a mistake?

Let me read the first 4 verses.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.  So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”  His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Other gospels put this story at the end of Jesus’ ministry… as he enters Jerusalem for the last time. Here in John we have it at the start. The reason that is important is a symbolic one. At the start of this book, it is being communicated to us that Jesus is bringing change. The way of the Old Covenant is done once and for all… the new thing has started.

Back in the olden days, in the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant – we can read all about it towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy and the first half of Leviticus in the Old Testament – cattle, sheep and doves are necessary for people to make themselves right with God. People profiting off people’s sin is an issue; but a bigger thing is going on here than bad business alone.

Jesus is driving out all of the animals and all of the lenders to show us the old way has been displaced. Replaced. By the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.