Let’s pray. Oh, Lord, I wonder how many of us paid attention to the words we just sang. It asked the question “Oh, Lord, why was I a guest?” Why are we here, when millions and billions in the work have never heard of Christ? Why are we here when hundreds of thousands of people in our city are sleeping, resting, mowing their lawn, getting ready for football? Why should you have worked in our hearts? Why should you bring us here? Perhaps with great anticipation or perhaps brought here even against our will, why should we have been a guest? We’re here, Lord, so feed us. Speak to us. Give us the meal, give us the wine that satisfies. We do not want to be filled with wasted religious activity, for we will see in just a moment how the Lord Jesus responds to wasted religious activity. Help us now as we gather around Your Word in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our text this morning comes from the Gospel according to John chapter 2, verses 13 through 22. John chapter 2, beginning at verse 13:
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’
So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking about the Temple of his body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
I wonder if you’ve had this experience, perhaps men you can relate. Every once in a while, maybe a few times a year, I’ll realize about half way through the day that my wife is really upset with me and I have no idea why. Have you ever been in that spot, husbands? It’s puzzling. It is very scary. If you know my wife, you know she is a kind, easygoing person, so when she’s upset, it’s unusual. And when I have no clue what I’ve done to cause the situation, there’s only one thing to do, and that is to find out as quickly as I can what I did so I can say “sorry.” Or, in fact, you may want to just do the opposite, just go right to the “sorry” and then find out why. I know I did something, and as soon as I find out what it is, I’m going to feel really bad about it. Because if you don’t find out your reason for being sorry, you will end up being very sorry.
When you know someone who is normally patient, gracious, eager to show love and tenderness, and then that person seems off-the-charts angry, you better pay attention. And if that is true with your wife, your husband, your friends, how much more urgent is the situation when the unusually surprisingly angry person is Jesus. If Jesus were to come into Christ Covenant and be as upset with us as He was on that day, I hope we would all be very desperate to learn why. So make no mistake — Jesus is angry. It doesn’t actually say in the text or in any of the Gospel accounts that He was angry, but that’s what He displays. He’s upset.
You know from the Bible there’s a difference between sinful anger, which is what most of us experience and show, and righteous anger, which is possible. Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry and do not sin.
