John 2:13-22

 

 

•           worship turned into a shopping mall – in this lesson, Jesus comes “to his own” (1:11) in Jerusalem, the geographical and spiritual center of Jewish faith.  One interpreter sees Jesus’ disruption of the temple cult as a resolve to overthrow the old order.   Authority clashes with authority as he drives out not only sacrificial animals, but also the merchants.[1]

•           why so disruptive? – This is a daring act.  But when did it happen?  In the Synoptics, the cleansing of the temple occurs during the passion, but in John the event occurs near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  While the synoptic tradition is more historically reliable, this temple cleansing in John is symbolic and completes the event that began in Cana.   While the first miracle reveals the grace and glory of Jesus and the new quality of life that Jesus offers, the second miracle intensifies the threat that such new life poses to the existing order.[2]

•           do what? – Verses 18-20 is a Johannine strategy that parallels the literal with a spiritual truth.  Here the misunderstanding centers on the destruction and rebuilding of the temple.  Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  “Do what?” his questioners seem to ask.  The exchange reveals that they understand only the surface meaning of Jesus’ words while Jesus speaks at a symbolic level of meaning by using the verb e?e???, “(I) raise,” a word used when speaking of his resurrection (2:22, 5:21; 12:1, 9, 17; 21:14). [3] 

•           Describe the different emotions associated with anger—simmering vis-à-vis outburst; outrage vis-à-vis peevishness; objective vis-à-vis subjective. 

•           When have you experienced a personal outrage about something you feel very strongly about?   How was that outrage felt/expressed?

•           You may not think that this is our problem, but how might we in the institutional church come close to the situation that outrages Jesus on this occasion? 

•           block #1 – Why not begin with your worst car-shopping story?  Or perhaps your trip to an exotic country where merchants lined a narrow street hawking their ware?    Or yet, a church bazaar or antiquing show or flea market. 

•           block #2 – Not conflate such an activity with a worship service; better, do you have a story that has merchandising and gospel juxtaposed together in an awkward arrangement?  Describe the incongruity of such a scenario.

•           block #3 – Now shift to the gospel lesson and describe the scene and move to the church to share how we must be careful on one hand to be clear about what worship is about and on the other hand to be clear about our willingness to engage the marketplace—yet not in a mutual, symbiotic way.

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[1] R.H. Lightfoot, St. John’s Gospel (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), page 112.

[2] The New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 543.

[3] NIB, page 544.