Scripture/Sermon of the Day

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I. Recently, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be stepping away from the board of the Weight Watchers brand and divesting her 10 percent share in the company. This is big news for millions of people who have followed Oprah’s fluctuations in weight since the 1980’s. She has run MARATHONS and gone on LIQUID-ONLY DIETS, and VEGAN diets also. And we’ve been fascinated through it all. Oprah’s weight is headline news and many will continue to gaze at her body and follow her health journey especially since, this year, she has turned 70!

II. Maybe you wonder what this has to do with today’s reading where Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple. If you asked me yesterday, I would have said — Oprah’s fluctuating body-size has nothing to do with Jesus and the temple. But now I see a connection.

III. This happens a lot — an old passage is read, but a new message comes out of it. Because the Bible is a living book. It’s God’s word spoken to us every time we read it — or every time we listen to the words. Each encounter is new — and we may hear today something we haven’t heard before. That’s what happened to me this morning. I read these passages, and Oprah popped into my mind, and weight watchers. What’s the connection?

IV. Here’s the connection — right here (point to self). We all have it — it’s our body. We are the temple! Right? The temple is right here!

Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

V. Look how the movement changed from Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple — driving out the moneychangers — to the Temple being his body.

Three days ago the Scripture of the Day was from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He said to them:

“You are God’s house. Take care to build on the foundation — there is only one foundation — the one already laid — Jesus Christ. Take special care in picking out your building materials. Eventually, there’s going to be an inspection. If you’re using inferior materials, your part of the building will be torn out — and started over.”

Then Paul says: “You realize, don’t you, THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND GOD IS PRESENT IN YOU. No one will get away with vandalizing God’s temple — God’s temple is sacred. AND YOU, REMEMBER, ARE THE TEMPLE.”

VI. Jesus was a reform-movement in Judaism, the religion he was born into and practiced. The moneychangers in the temple are a story about how we misuse religion. THE ELITE of Jesus’ society used religion to control people and become wealthy. THE COMMON PEOPLE believed they could use religion to negotiate with God — if they made the right sacrifices — if they followed the laws — God would bless them.

But Jesus said a big NO to both sides. Religion isn’t about getting rich or about following laws and rituals. IT’S ABOIUT CHANGING our hearts and minds to loving our neighbor, our enemy and creation.

Oprah and weight watchers can’t do this for us — can’t change our hearts and souls into Jesus Christ. They might help the outer appearance of our “temple” — but what’s inside? Moneychangers? Angry thoughts? A desire for revenge? Hate. Gossip that tears-down other people? Bad religion that divides and judges people. These are the moneychangers that Jesus drives out of the temple that we are, the moneychangers that would take over our minds, the false-religion that makes us feel good but doesn’t change us.