The Cleansing of the Temple made me cry - John 2.13-22

 

Watched various YouTube portrayals on Jesus' cleansing of the Temple (from John 2.13-22) and got  tearful. I think the power of the story hit me a bit in the gut this morning and winded me. Didn't see that coming! 

Perhaps it the sheer righteousness of Christ that is so compelling? Maybe it's His power and a sense within me that we as a species desperately need to know this power now? It could that I'm just a bit Covid knackered and want hide under the shadow of His wings.

The Franco Zeffirelli (1977) version with Robert Powell captures the emotion, though newer versions have better CGI etc.  I remember as a kid being spellbound by this scene (and many others).  I also recall when years later this was shown by RE teacher my classmates scorned me for my welling up.  

If this portrayal was a fraction of the man, I knew at the age of nine that for sure I needed to know Him. Zeffirelli made me a fire-up convert from then on.  "Zeal for your house will consume me." (John 2.17)  No half measures would do.  I appreciate that for some people this makes them stand back, perhaps even run. The only answer I have is that sometimes to know someone or something, you can only truly "know" when you offer your whole self. 

For me being a Christian is like going to Las Vegas and putting using all my chips on one single bet. In fact I would go further, I would compare it emptying my bank account and betting on one throw. 

I am betting my entire life on the same man who walked into the Temple with that message two thousand years ago.

 

I like NT Wright's old video on why the clearing of the Temple is significant. For the 9am Eucharist at Malborough, I may borrow some of his ideas.  

If that's of any help to anyone out there preparing a sermon then here is the link.   I like the way Wright compares Jesus to the Temple.  Jesus is what the Temple signifies.  The Temple is not bad per se, it's just that it has been corrupted. Jesus is the incorruptible Temple,  He is that which once destroyed will be raised after three days.  In Jesus we have the living Temple.  

I also liked Wright's quote from Josephus about the sacking of the Temple. 

The others then set fire to the house of Ananias the high-priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and Bernice: after which they carried the fire to the place where the archives were reposited, and made haste to burn the contracts belonging to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their obligations for paying their debts; and this was done in order to gain the multitude of those who had been debtors, and that they might persuade the poorer sort to join in their insurrection with safety against the more wealthy; so the keepers of the records fled away, and the rest set fire to them.   Book II, 17,v6.

In other words the money changers were but a small bit industry compared to the debts that the hierarchy held over people.  Sounds like Temple was acting as a religious bank.  In Josephus account (AD 70) ordinary folk join the Romans in the orgy of destruction and this is the first thing they go for. 

These two clips from YouTube which topped the polls.