John 2:13-25 on January 18th, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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There's this thing that happens to church people, pastors included, that when a familiar text comes up, such as the Good Samaritan feeding the five thousands or Jesus flipping over tables in the temple, we don't actually pay attention to the story, because we know it. We know what happens, we know what it says, we know what it means. Now, by me starting out the sermon saying that you were probably getting the hint that there's something more to this temple scene than what we already know. And what's different here is really shaped by the story that John wants to tell.
See, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus' cleansing of the temple comes at the end of his ministry. Those gospel accounts tell us about Jesus' one Passover celebration in Jerusalem, the same one during which he shares his last meal with his disciples. Everything happens during that one trip, the triumphal entry cleansing the temple, last supper, betrayal, crucifixion, death. This scene is at the beginning of the climactic ending of those stories. John, however, tells Jesus' story differently. And John, there are actually three trips that Jesus takes to Jerusalem. And this is the first one of them. But John doesn't put this story early to grab our interest with an action-packed opening or to challenge our ideas on how nice Jesus really is. Rather, he starts here because he wants to make a very clear and theological point about where God is.
John is already bringing together a lot of threads in this episode of Jesus' ministry, at Passover and disrupting the temple. So first, let's remember that Passover is a very important festival in the Jewish tradition. It commemorates God's deliverance, God's salvation of Israel from Egyptian oppression. When the blood of the lamb was spread on the doorposts so that death would pass over the Hebrew homes. And already in this gospel story, we have heard John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And this Passover lamb imagery will come back into play during the crucifixion, but we're getting our head of ourselves there. Suffice it to say that the Passover celebration and the symbols associated with it do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to John's theology and the story that he shares about Jesus.
So we have Jesus entering the temple at Passover, a holy time when people would come to make their sacrifices to God. And Jesus goes in and he drives out the animals, pours out the coins and overturns the tables. We get caught up in the table flipping, but Jesus is softer here than in the other accounts. He doesn't accuse the money changers of making the temple a din of robbers. Instead, they've made it a marketplace. And he's right, they have. But do you know why? Because they had to. In order to sacrifice according to the law, people needed to be able to buy animals. Yet they couldn't use Roman coins in the temple and engraved with Caesar and proclaiming him the Son of God. So they had to exchange currency so they could buy the proper animal to sacrifice. All to keep the law, to honor God and to be in that place where heaven and earth come together and meet. But Jesus' actions now make that impossible. No sacrifices, no animals, no temple entry.
And when asked, why are you doing this? What sign can you show us? Jesus answered us by saying, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up. Excuse us. We've been working on this temple for over 40 years. And this misunderstanding is something that John uses a lot in his story. It's something that we will encounter again in the coming weeks. People interpret Jesus' declarations literally. That this temple that Jesus is talking about is the same temple in which they are standing. We find out, however, that Jesus is talking not about bricks and mortar, but about the temple of his body. They ask for a sign and he points to the resurrection, which kind of spoils the ending, but Jesus is allowed to do that.
But also to dig a little deeper into Jesus' actions and response, he's also saying that the temple is not ultimate and that sacrifice is not what finally gives life. God's desire has always been for people to draw near. So the temple sacrifices, the law, they were all set up to do just that. Allow people to get close to God. But the old system can't ultimately deliver what it was supposed to. Even the best religious systems can't give the life that God gives. See, when Jesus, the word made flesh comes, everything changes. Now, instead of us drawing toward a God, when Jesus, God draws near to us, no need to sacrifice, no need for the temple as the temple was, in Jesus, God comes. And God will interact with God's people in a whole new way. Because of Jesus, God is no longer something that we work our way toward. God comes to us, not after we get it right, not after we bring the right offering, not after the prescriptive process. God comes to us in flesh and blood and grace and mercy in a person who gives himself away.
So for John, this incident isn't really about corruption in the temple, it's about revelation, it's about where God chooses to be. God is not locked inside a building or contained by a system waiting for us to come and approach. God is present in Jesus, in Jesus, the God of the temple, the God of all time and all space, the God that we call Father comes near and makes love, grace and presence known. God is interacting with God's people in a new way and in that way, it no longer requires sacrifice at the temple because Jesus, the Lamb of God, has come to give us God's unimaginable love and unexpected grace. And that doesn't mean that the temple or the church no longer matter. It's quite the opposite. God still meets us here in word and water and bread and wine and prayer and community and the words that we hear and the forgiveness that we receive. We come to church not to summon God or earn God's presence but because God has already come to us and here God promises to meet us again, giving to us what we cannot give for ourselves.
So in the end, the story isn't really about tables or our temples. It's about where God shows up and God shows up in Jesus. God does not wait for us to be faithful enough, pure enough or ready enough. God comes, God draws near, God chooses presence over perfultery. In Jesus, God comes to you in flesh and blood and grace and mercy, meeting you exactly where you are. That is who God is. That is how God saves. And this, this is the good news. The good news that we think we already know but we need to hear it every single week. That God comes to you in Jesus Christ. You are beloved, you are welcomed, you are saved forever. And nothing, nothing in heaven and earth, nothing will separate you from God's love and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.