January 22, 2017

John 2:12-22: No Second-Class Citizens

Preacher: Josh Tancordo Series: The Gospel of John: That You May Believe Scripture: John 2:12–22

John 2:12-22: No Second-Class Citizens

This past Monday, we celebrated an important holiday known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Of course, I’m sure we all know that Dr. King was the foremost civil rights leader of the twentieth century and how he tirelessly campaigned to end the racial discrimination being directed against black Americans, especially in the South. And one of the most notable features of his efforts was his strict adherence to a nonviolent form of protest. He gave speeches, he led marches, he organized boycotts—all with the goal of ending racial inequality. He did everything he could to prevent black Americans from being treated as second-class citizens. 

And interestingly, in our main text this morning, Jesus had a very similar concern. So please turn with me to John chapter 2. If you’re using the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 736. We’ve been going through the Gospel of John passage by passage, and this is simply the next passage we come to in our series. John 2:12-22: “After this he [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore 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 think we can all agree that this is certainly an interesting passage. Jesus takes some cords, makes a whip out of them, and starts driving people out of the temple courtyard. I would imagine a stunt like that would definitely earn him a place on the evening news. After all, what in the world was he doing? As we’ll see in a moment, the reason Jesus reacted to the scene in the temple courtyard the way he did was because he was deeply concerned and even indignant that a group of people were being excluded from temple worship. So he goes all Rambo on the vendors and moneychangers in the temple courtyard in order to make the point very memorably that in God’s Kingdom, there are no second-class citizens. That’s the main thing to get from this episode. In God’s Kingdom—in God’s family—there are no second-class citizens. That shouldn’t have been the case back in Jesus’ day, and it definitely shouldn’t be the case in our day. So as we look at this text, I think it would be helpful to draw out two things we need to do to make sure our church doesn’t have a system of second-class citizenship. And those two things are seeing through the eyes of Jesus and dedicating ourselves to the mission of Jesus. Seeing through the eyes of Jesus and dedicating ourselves to the mission of Jesus.

Seeing through the Eyes of Jesus

First, seeing through the eyes of Jesus. Seeing things the way Jesus sees them. He saw something happening at this Passover feast that really bothered him. Various vendors and moneychangers had set up shop in the courtyard of the temple. The passage says they were selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons, and others were changing money. And here’s why they were doing that. They were in the middle of celebrating a special Jewish holiday called the Passover. The Passover was a time in Israel’s history when they were enslaved in the nation of Egypt and God rescued them in a very miraculous way from their bondage. And so, every year, the Israelites would celebrate that rescue with a huge feast in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 16 required the attendance of every Jewish male who was 12 years old and older. So Jews from all over the Roman Empire would travel great distances to attend this feast. And one of the rules was that everybody had to have a sacrifice to offer God at the temple. And of course, if you were traveling a long distance to this feast, it would be very burdensome if not impossible to carry an animal with you to sacrifice. So, as a service to the visitors as well as an opportunity to make some money, Jewish businessmen in Jerusalem would sell sacrifices in the outer court of the temple. That’s why the text says they were “selling oxen and sheep and pigeons.”  People who were traveling a long distance and couldn’t bring an animal could just bring their money and purchase an animal on the spot. 

The text also records that there were “money-changers” there.  This was for people to pay the temple tax.  Every year, each Jewish man was required to pay a half-shekel tax for the maintenance of the temple building.  And the only currency the Jewish leaders would accept was what was called “Tyrian” currency because it was more stable than other currencies.  So Jews who came from distant lands needed to trade whatever currency they had for Tyrian currency in order to pay this temple tax. So that’s what was going on in Jerusalem in this text. 

And here’s why that bothered him so much. The temple courtyard that the vendors and moneychangers had set up shop in was supposed to be reserved for the Gentiles—people who were not Jews. Gentiles weren’t allowed to go into the temple itself or even the inner courtyards of the temple. That outermost courtyard was the only part of the temple complex the Gentiles were allowed to go into, so it was called very appropriately the “Court of the Gentiles.” It was the only place they had to pray and worship God. However, unfortunately for them, their prayer space had been turned by the Jews into a bustling market place. I mean, think about what it must have been like. People were selling all these animals like oxen and sheep and pigeons. The place was a barnyard. There were animal sounds and animal smells and people probably trying to negotiate with the vendors to get a good deal. Imagine trying to get some time alone with God and read the Bible and pray in a place like that. I have trouble concentrating if someone’s clicking their pen or tapping their foot repeatedly. So I’m pretty sure the Gentiles weren’t able to concentrate very well either. 

So think about what the Jews were doing.  They were effectively excluding the Gentiles from worshipping God.  They could have set up shop somewhere else, but they didn’t. They set up shop right in the middle of the Court of the Gentiles. The Old Testament says they were supposed to be reaching out to the Gentiles and encouraging them to worship Yahweh, but here they were excluding and insulting the Gentiles who came to worship.  One commentator even calls what’s going here a “nationalist stronghold.” And here’s the thing: I bet many of the Jews didn’t even think much of it. It probably wasn’t even on their radar. But Jesus looked at what was happening, felt a righteous indignation, and was moved to do something about it. And if we’re going to the kind of people and the kind of church God wants us to be, we have to learn to see through the eyes of Jesus when it comes to things like this. 

I wonder if we can often be blind to the prejudice and exclusiveness in our culture just like many of the Jews were blind to it in theirs. There was a time not too long ago, probably only four or five years, when I didn’t think racism really existed in America. I put it in the same category as the boogey man or something like that. Maybe there were a few racists left—mostly in the deep South—but they didn’t amount to much of anything. I assumed that the accusation of racism was nothing more than a political tool politicians would use to advance their political agenda. But I slowly became aware that that may not be entirely accurate. For example, one of my classmates in seminary’s PhD program was black man named Curtis. And Curtis was extremely intelligent and well-read and articulate. In conversation, I sometimes had to ask him the meaning of some of the words he used. He was an exceptional student in many ways and also happened to hold pretty prominent position in the state’s Baptist convention. There were even news articles published when he was appointed to that position. And yet, he also carried himself in a very humble way. He was relatively soft-spoken and gentle and just an all-around nice guy. And one a day, we got to talking about racism in class and whether racism existed, and Curtis shared with us some very moving stories of experiences he had with racism. Of course, it’s not like he was imprisoned for using the wrong water fountain or something, but things happened on a fairly regular basis that were very hurtful to him. One night, we was leaving the gym after working out, and a lady saw him in the parking lot and hurried to her car and locked the door. Things like that. And what I took away from that conversation was that just racism can often be very subtle, that doesn’t mean the emotional wounds it inflicts are any less hurtful. Feeling inferior and like you just don’t belong can be a very hurtful thing. 

Here’s what the Bible tells us to do for one another as Christians, including our black brothers and sisters. Romans 12:15 says to “Rejoice with those who rejoice,[and] weep with those who weep.” Also, 1 Corinthians 12:26 says that “If one member suffers, all suffer together.” If a black brother or sister says they’ve been made to feel like a second-class citizen, you don’t quiz them or fact check them. I mean, for the married men in this room, think about how you respond to your wife when she tells you about an emotionally hurtful incident she experienced. How do you respond to her? Do you quiz her about the details or try to fact-check her to see if the experience can be legitimately be labeled as hurtful? Hopefully you don’t. If you do, you’re probably also sleeping on the couch a lot. That’s not how you respond to someone who’s hurting. And by the way, nothing I’m saying right now has anything to do with politics. I’m not suggesting that anyone should identify with a different political party or support a particular piece of legislation or anything like that. I’m just saying that we, as Christians, should simply be empathetic. The next time a black person or other racial minority tells you about experiencing racism, be open to the fact that they may have a point in a way you’re just not able to understand.

Also, there are other ways prejudice and exclusiveness can be present besides just racism. Think about the ways some people often look down their nose at others. Maybe it’s because of a lower income level or a lower educational level or their physical appearance or something else that makes them different. And again, it can be very subtle, but it’s not uncommon for some people to act in a condescending way toward others because of these things, maybe by looking at them in a certain way or by implying certain things about then in conversation or by not making much of an effort to even have a conversation with them. Again, just because it’s subtle, doesn’t mean it’s any less hurtful. And if those individuals pick up on cues like that from people in our church, they don’t really want to be a part of it, and we’ve just in effect excluded them from our fellowship. So ask God to help you see things through the eyes of Jesus and possess the empathy he possessed and even feel the righteous indignation he felt. 

Dedicating Ourselves to the Mission of Jesus

However, it’s not enough just to see through the eyes of Jesus or feel the things he felt. We have to actually do something about it. So our second point is dedicating ourselves to the mission of Jesus. Having seen through his eyes, we have to dedicate ourselves to his mission. Look what Jesus did, beginning in verse 15: “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Of course, I’m not suggesting we should try something similar to this like go downtown and start driving people out of Market Square with a BB gun. If you do that, I promise you that I will deny any affiliation with you. But here’s what I mean by dedicating ourselves to the mission of Jesus. Jesus’ mission in this text is to abolish Jewish prejudice and let the Jews know that instead of hindering the Gentiles from worshiping God, the Jews should actually be encouraging them to worship and helping them discover the God of Israel. After all, when God first made his covenant with Abraham, the father of the Israelite nation, he told him in Genesis 12:3 that “in your all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” That promise is then repeated in Genesis 22:18, where God says, “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” And he then promises that exact same thing again in Genesis 26:4. So the reason God chose Israel wasn’t just so the Israelites themselves could be blessed but so they could turn around a be a blessing to the rest of the world by leading them to the one true God. And that would ultimately happen through the Messiah who would act as the Savior of the world. That’s why Isaiah 49:6 says this: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” And that was Jesus’ mission: to be a light for everyone—to pursue the outsiders and welcome them in. 

In the same way, we’re called to dedicate ourselves to that mission. God help us if we allow any kind of second-class citizenship to develop in this church, regardless of how subtle it is. Instead, we should be doing everything we can to make this church the kind of spiritual family God wants it to be—a place for the outsider to be welcomed, a place for the outcast to be accepted, a place for the orphan to find a family, and a place for people who are alone to be surrounded by a community of people that loves them and cares about them. 

Because, you know what? That’s the way God’s acted toward us. There was a time when we were spiritual orphans. We were fatherless, destitute, and entirely powerless to rescue ourselves or do anything about our spiritual condition. But for those of us who have put our trust in Jesus, the Bible says that God has adopted us into his family. He loved us—even as orphans—and he welcomed us outsiders into his family. He adopted us. You see, the Bible teaches that our natural condition is one of separation and alienation from God. We’re cut off from God because of our sin. And sin necessitates a penalty—a very serious penalty for all eternity in hell. But was determined not to let that happen to us. And in an act of extraordinary love, he actually sent his own Son to suffer the penalty for our sins on the cross. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid the debt we couldn’t pay. And because he also resurrected from the dead, he made it possible for us to be reconciled to God and even—get this—be adopted into God’s family. Think about that. The gospel isn’t just a message of us escaping hell, although it certainly includes that. It’s the good news that we actually get to be adopted into God family. We simply have to turn away from our sins and put our trust in Jesus. Hopefully, this morning, you’ve done that. 

And for those who have, let me ask you this: How can we turn around after experiencing such adoption through Christ and tolerate any kind of prejudice or sense of superiority or exclusiveness either in our lives or in the fellowship of our church? God adopted us when we were spiritual orphans and welcomed us when we were outsiders, so shouldn’t we welcome all kinds of so-called “outsiders” into this church? Shouldn’t we even go out of our way to form meaningful relationships with people who, in many circles, would be passed over? My prayer for this church is that it would be the kind of place where a corporate executive and a janitor meet together for discipleship, and it’s not the corporate executive discipling or teaching the janitor but rather the janitor teaching the corporate executive. I hope I get to see that. 

Conclusion

The Bible teaches that God has designed the church to be an outpost of his heavenly Kingdom—a community of people that gives the world a snapshot and a foretaste of the things God’s planned for his people in the future. That’s actually part of the way we proclaim the gospel. Of course, we never stop proclaiming the gospel with our in the context of ordinary conversations with other people. But in addition to proclaiming the gospel verbally and individually in that way, we’re also called to proclaim the gospel visually and corporately as a community of believers. In other words, non-Christians should be able to look at our church and at the way we interact with one another, the way we talk to one another, the way we serve one another, the way we love one another, and what they see in us should function as a powerful confirmation that what we say about Jesus is true. They should be able to see heavenly realities, heavenly relationships, heavenly love and acceptance and harmony in our church and thereby be persuaded of the truth of the gospel. 

Not too long ago, I attended a training seminar in Atlanta sponsored by our Baptist denomination, and church planters—that is, pastors who start churches—from all over the country were there—probably between 150 and 200 of them. And one of the most striking things about the group that was there was how diverse it was. The most obvious aspect of diversity was racial—not just black and white but Hispanic and Asian and others as well. Actually, about half of those in attendance were racial minorities—many of them first generation Americans. But that was just the most obvious difference. I started listening to people speak and hearing about their different backgrounds and paying attention to their stories, and I was amazed. Because apart from Jesus, many of the men in that room would probably never hang out with each other. We were so different, and yet there we were, not just attending a conference but really getting to know each other, praying together, encouraging one another. There was such a unity among us—a unity of spirit, a unity of purpose, and a unity of identity as members of God’s family. 

That’s the kind of unity we want in this church—a unity that reaches across all kinds of barriers and reaches out to those on the outside and welcomes them in. It’s almost like our culture has already been prepped for a gospel witness like that since they already value inclusivity. So why not show them a kind of inclusivity and a depth of inclusivity that they’ve never seen before? As Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-16, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

other sermons in this series