Episode 1410: I Will Raise It Up

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 410 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Brian Kreeger: Hi, I'm Brian Krieger. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to be a courageous Christian leader is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.

[00:00:30] the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:41] Scott Maderer: It doesn't necessarily have to be as obvious as what we're talking about with the money lenders. In fact, it usually isn't obvious, but we need to pay attention, especially here in the time of Lent, to what is distracting us from the truth [00:01:00] of Christ's resurrection and from being raised into relationship with him.

[00:01:06] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:38] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 2, verses 13 through 22. I share how we are challenged by Jesus to do worship the Right way, and I also share how Jesus seems to be focused on the distraction we have from the main thing. John chapter 2 verses 13 through 22 says, [00:02:00] The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

[00:02:05] In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, Take these things out of here.

[00:02:26] Stop making my father's house a marketplace. His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me. The Jews then said to him, What sign can you show us for doing this? And Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, This temple has been under construction for 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?

[00:02:53] But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said [00:03:00] this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

[00:03:06] At this beginning of the Lent season, it seems a little odd if you're paying attention. This is in John chapter 2. The way John orders his gospel is different than the way the other gospels are ordered. It may seem too early for Jesus to be running into the temple, throwing over the tables, and doing this angry thing.

[00:03:29] It's just now, early in John's gospel. There's a lot of things that haven't happened yet that haven't been explained yet. And while in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's a lot of insight and story into the ministry that Jesus does in Galilee, John seems to be in a hurry to get to Jerusalem. Ready or not, here we are.

[00:03:53] Cleansing the temple before there's ever anything about the teaching, or the healing, or the storytelling, or [00:04:00] many of the other parables that we love so much. It's almost as if, according to John's gospel, Jesus seems to have an agenda that begins with worship, or at least it begins with the right worship, not right in terms of form or structure.

[00:04:21] Not right in terms of genre or setting, not right in terms of the kind of music that's played, or whether or not there's a prayer before or after this event, or whether or not you do this or that, but right in the intention, right in the heart space, right in the presence. I think we spend a lot of time talking about and worrying about the songs we sing and the words we say when we design worship.

[00:04:49] That's fine. That is important stuff. It is things that impact our experience, but it seems to be here. Jesus is concerned with our hearts [00:05:00] when we come to worship. There's a lot of different opinions and debate about what was it that made Jesus so upset that he would throw over the tables in the temple?

[00:05:11] Is it the entire system that he's rebelling against? That we don't need animals to sacrifice anymore? That he's changing that relationship? Is it the injustice of the exchange and that the poor were suffering because they barely had enough to be giving what was pure enough to give? Or was it the graft or the system and the way it was set up and how the money changers and the system that was designed of which animals were worthy and which were not allowed people to take advantage of others?

[00:05:41] Was it the greed that has removed everything from what was the purpose behind making those sacrifices in the first place? But if you look at the words that Jesus uses, according to John, take these things out of here. Stop making my father's house a [00:06:00] marketplace. In other translations, it says a place of business, or a house of merchandise, or a shopping mall.

[00:06:08] Was it greed? Was it cheating the poor? Was it simply the transactional nature of the business? It doesn't matter in a way. But it does because think about it. We have this debate today in churches. Is it okay for the youth group to sell tickets to the spaghetti dinner in the sanctuary? How about if the mission team is offering an item to be bought to fund mission trips?

[00:06:37] Is that doing what Jesus is railing against here? Might seem, and at first glance, and I would argue there really isn't this clear dividing line. What might seem like sustaining ministry to one seems like a intrusion and transactional experience in the other. When Jesus was [00:07:00] challenged over what he did, there's an interesting response.

[00:07:06] It might be something that was reconstructed after the fact. It might be something that's paraphrased. We don't know, but the words that we have say that the Jewish leaders, that's what the Jews in the scripture means, the leaders here, not all Jews, but the leaders, had came forward and said, What sign can you show us for doing this?

[00:07:26] In other words, who are you to do this? Show us your credentials. It doesn't mean his name, it means what sign. What prophecy, what sort of divine spark do you have that can let you have the authority to do this? And Jesus answers with, destroy the temple and I'll raise it up in three days. But the Jews here, the leaders, seem to miss the point because he's standing in a physical Temple.

[00:07:56] But John, remember, has layers. John tends to have secret or [00:08:00] hidden knowledge that sort of is implied in there. And there's all sorts of stories, like Nicodemus or the Women at the where it's really Jesus is almost talking in code. And here he's standing in the physical temple, but the temple he seems to be referring to is the temple of his body.

[00:08:19] He moved from building to body, from structure to being. from that thing to this person. And maybe that's the key for us as well. Worship is about the person of Christ. It's about the resurrection of Christ. We're being raised up as we gather and sing and pray and commune and have liturgy and word and sacrament in all of these moments.

[00:08:48] When we do worship, we should be asking what will raise us up? What is honoring God first and lifting us, the people of God, into [00:09:00] the presence of the body of Christ? What is distracting? What is demeaning? Those things need to be avoided, but what is elevating and what is bringing us together needs to be focused on.

[00:09:14] We have to be alert to pay attention to the distractions. from the purpose of worshiping God and building up the body. It doesn't necessarily have to be as obvious as what we're talking about with the money lenders. In fact, it usually isn't obvious. But we need to pay attention, especially here in the time of Lent, to what is distracting us from the truth of Christ's resurrection and from being raised into relationship with Him.

[00:09:49] Thanks for listening.

[00:09:56] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. [00:10:00] As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook. com slash inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:10:38] Until next time, invest your time, Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.