Lent 3
Today’s Gospel puts us toward the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry when He makes a trip to Jerusalem for the Passover: The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. This was His inaugural visit to Jerusalem after entering His public ministry and set the tone for who He is and what He would do. And here He enters Jerusalem and the temple and as it were, presented Himself publicly to the people as the long awaited Savior sent from God. But what does Jesus find when He comes to the temple, the place of the worship of God, the place where outwardly at least the worship of the true God was taking place? In the temple courts [Jesus] found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. The buying and selling of animals for sacrifice was allowed in the Law [Dt.14.24 ff.], but over time it became more “convenient” for the markets to be opened up in the actual temple courts itself. And here Jesus comes in judgment. He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those selling doves He said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a place of business!” With that whip of cords Jesus doesn’t so much intend to strike anyone but as a symbol of judgment. The Messiah would not only save but He would also check and curb all that is unholy and ungodly among the people.
The Jews recognized that Jesus was making a claim, so they demanded a sign from Jesus as proof that He had authority over the temple, that He was the Messiah. So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” The Jews said, “It took 46 years to build this temple! And You are going to raise it in three days?” But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. Jesus was very aware and very much certain of Who He was and what He had come to do.
And this is brought out by that little detail: Jesus drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. If it were just the rank commercialism that Jesus here condemns then why drive out also the sheep and oxen? What were they doing wrong? It wasn’t their fault they were brought there by greedy businessmen. But by driving out the sheep and the oxen, isn’t Jesus also by that act proclaiming that with His coming, that these things would no longer be necessary? Isn’t Jesus that perfect once for all sacrifice that all the OT animal sacrifices pointed forward to? –And now He’s here! There’s no need for them. As Jesus points out here: His body is that temple in which that perfect once for all sacrifice for sin would be made; His holy, sinless body is that perfect once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world; He is as St. John the Baptizer proclaims [Jn 1.29]: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The old has passed away; the new has come! So by what authority did Jesus do what he did? –The very fact that He is the Messiah, the true God; and as the Messiah, He is the perfect, holy Lamb of God who by His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world! –And the proof of that? His death and resurrection: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” And so vital was this sign of the cleansing of the temple that Jesus repeated it again a few years later on Palm Sunday, a few days before His suffering and death on the cross.
“What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” This idea of a “sign” also comes up in today’s epistle. Yes, Jews ask for signs, Greeks desire wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Just like Jesus gave the Jews the “sign” of His death and resurrection—“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again” –so also the Church has that one and the same sign that we point to today: Jesus’ death and resurrection. That’s the only “sign” that is needed for the truth of Jesus’ and His Church’s claims —Jesus, the One crucified, rose from the dead as Victor over sin, death, devil and hell. And that’s what we preach because the cross—Christ crucified and risen—is God’s sign that we are saved by grace through faith!
And, in fact, the sign of the cross—that we are saved by grace through faith—is the only way that we can be saved. Look at our text: Indeed, since the world through its wisdom did not know God, God in His wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message. Notice what St. Paul writes here: the world through its wisdom did not know God. Although wisdom and reason are great gifts of God to us and are one of the things that elevate us above brute beasts, our wisdom does not save/ cannot save us. It cannot lead us back to God. Wisdom/ reason can tell us that there is a God—but not who that God is. St. Paul writes in another place [Rm. 1.20]: For since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. That is, because of the world and the creation around us, because we are here, we can reason out that there has to have been Someone who made all this for it to exist. We can even reason out that the One who made it is powerful, almighty; we can reason out that He is wise because He made everything just right—the earth the right distance from the sun for example; we can reason out that He is a God of beauty because He has given us beauty in the creation. We can reason out that there must be Someone in control of and working out history as St. Paul tells the people of Athens of God [Ac 17.26]: And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation... But to know that there is a God—that’s what reason does—is a different thing than knowing Who that God is and what His thoughts and intentions toward us are. So, yes, reason is a good gift of God and one we must use and treasure—even when it comes to the things of God—but it has its limits; it can only go so far!
It can only go so far because of sin. Sin has corrupted our reason. Because of sin people became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened, as St. Paul writes in another place [Rm 1.21]. In other words, left to ourselves we would not and could not come to know God rightly and so love and trust in Him. That’s why St. Paul’s statement in our text: Indeed […] the world through its wisdom did not know God.
And that is why God’s grace and mercy are necessary to us. Although we have reason and many other gifts and blessings from the Lord, there is nothing in us that will lead us to/ bring us peace and salvation. But God does not leave us in the lurch. That’s why after writing, Indeed, since the world through its wisdom did not know God, St. Paul continues with: God in His wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message. God did not just say “Too bad!” Instead it pleased Him, it was His delight; it was His pleasure, to save us from our sin, guilt and damnation through His Word, through the foolishness of the preached message. That’s grace! God wants to draw us to Himself and convert us; He wants to give us new life and a new birth; He wants to make us holy. And He does this through the foolishness of the preached message. What we can’t do for ourselves God does for us. That’s the sign of the cross: we are saved by His grace—not by anything in ourselves
And what is that word? What is the foolishness of the preached message? It’s all about God’s love toward us sinners—which is something we, left to ourselves, would never know; at best it could be a hope or dream but no more than that. The simple fact is: love begets love. First there is God’s love of us—and He acted on it and showed us that love in Jesus. The holy apostles are clear [1 Jn 4.10; Rm. 5.8]: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; and In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins. Where or how does God reveal this to us—since we don’t come to it of ourselves? –Through the foolishness of the preached message.
Foolishness! That’s how the world views it. That’s why God’s grace, the sign of the cross, is more often than not rejected. Yes, Jews ask for signs, Greeks desire wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. People still want grand, glorious signs for the truth of Christianity. They look for things like great outward success. But the Church does offer a sign—“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again” –the same one Jesus did in today’s Gospel: the cross of Christ! People still want to judge God’s word and gifts according to reason alone— Greeks desire wisdom—does it make sense that one Man dying a miserable death on a cross reconciles the whole sinful human race to the one holy God. In all these things, the grace of God is being rejected. People want to look for something other than God’s grace and the work of Jesus for their salvation. But the more they look elsewhere—in the wrong places—the more confused and hopeless they become. Let each of us today look to the sign of the holy cross, to Jesus’ suffering and death; let us hear and believe the foolish message of Christ crucified because that’s the message of God’s grace!
It is through faith in that foolishness of the preached message that we are saved. Faith receives Jesus and His gifts of forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace with God, etc. In grace, God has Christ crucified preached to us; He gives us the sign of the cross. Not only does the sign of the cross preach God’s grace to us—us who cannot save ourselves—but it also calls on us for faith! –Faith that the foolishness of the preached message has the ability to work in us; faith which is a gift of God. The sign of the cross is also a sign that we are saved not by our works but through faith, faith that believes that message of Christ crucified, the foolishness of the preached message.
But we preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. God’s foolish way of saving us—through Jesus and His suffering and death—is indeed a great mystery! Jesus conquered death precisely by dying; by yielding up His spirit, death was swallowed up. God’s ways do seem foolish to those who do not understand them. But in them, in Christ, is both God’s power and wisdom. Jesus’ suffering and death paid for the sins of the whole world, overcame death and the devil and carried out the counsel of God. Human reason doesn’t come to that on its own; a helpless Man hanging on the cross is not a show of power and might; it is offensive; but yet this is God’s sign that shows that He is gracious to us and wants to save us in Jesus. It’s a sign that our salvation is not because of anything we do but all because of what God has done for us in Christ. Because the sign of the cross is foolishness and offensive, it shows that it does not and cannot come from us but from God—we’d never have come up with it! But because of the foolishness of the preached message to us, the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in that foolish word to create faith in our hearts to believe and receive it; to know the true God rightly and our Savior, Jesus Christ! He gathers us into Christ’s Church, He enlightens our spiritual blindness and preserves and protects us leading us safely through trials to heaven
“What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” We have God’s sign: the cross! It is a sign that shows us that we are saved by grace through faith. Jesus’ cross! It restores to us immortality and stirs up in us the desire for the things of heaven. + INJ Amen