Summer Series – Jesus the Disrupter
Preacher: Phil Swain Readings: John 2:13-25
This Sunday we continue our Summer Series journeying through the Gospel of John. We will turn to one of its most confronting and thought-provoking moments — Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2:13–25). Placed right at the beginning of John’s gospel, this story invites us to see Jesus not only as a source of comfort and hope, but also as one who challenges the status quo and calls us to rethink what truly matters in our relationship with God. Together we’ll reflect on why John tells this story when he does, what it reveals about who Jesus is, and how it speaks into our own life of faith and worship today.
Sermon Text
On Christmas Day our Bible reading was John chapter 1, and I said then that this was the beginning of a nearly three-month journey through the gospel of John. Each Sunday we are going to hear a little more of John’s story of Jesus. Since then Kevin has preached on the second half of chapter 1, and last week Daniel explored the first half of John chapter 2 — the wedding at Cana. Today we come to the rest of chapter 2, the cleansing of the Temple.
But before we get into that passage, I want to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. If we’re going to spend the next three months in John, it’s worth slowing down early and asking: What kind of gospel is this? Because John is doing something quite different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If we understand that difference, it will help us hear today’s reading — and the whole gospel — more deeply. Sound okay?
The gospel of John is an extraordinary book. It has often been called the beloved gospel. And if I asked you to name your favourite Bible verse, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them came from John.
- John 3:16, “For God so loved the world …”
- John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life”
- John 14:2 “In my father’s house are many rooms”
- John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life”
- John 15:4 “Abide in me”
We often turn to these verses in life’s difficult moments. We love John and yet John is not the easiest of gospel to read. It’s poetic, symbolic, sometimes confusing, and raises theological questions. And still — people keep coming back to it. Why?
John actually tells us why he wrote his gospel. Near the end he says: “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:32)
That’s John’s goal. Not just to inform us about Jesus, but to draw us into belief. Not belief as an idea, but belief that leads to life.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are wonderful historians and storytellers. Luke even tells us that he carefully investigated everything and wrote an orderly account. Like a good reporter, he wanted the facts straight.
John’s approach is different. He is not primarily arranging events in chronological order. He is crafting a theological story. He uses imagery, symbolism, repetition, irony, and drama — all so that we might see who Jesus truly is.
Let me explain with an illustration.
There once was a man who had no work. Because he was very hungry, he stole a sheep and ate it. The owner of the sheep and several policemen approached the man to confront him, but fearing the consequences, the man jumped into a nearby river and drowned.
Now listen to this:
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree…
Same event. Very different telling. The first paragraph tells us what happened. The second uses imagery, poetry, and imagination to shape how we experience the story. That’s a bit like the difference between John and the other three gospels. John isn’t careless with history — but he is purposeful with storytelling. John is less interested in simply telling us what happened, and more interested in helping us see what it means.
Another interesting insight is that over 90 percent of John’s gospel is unique to John (ie not in Matthew, Mark or Luke). The wedding at Cana. Nicodemus at night. The woman at the well. The raising of Lazarus. The washing of the disciples’ feet. The long farewell discourse. Breakfast on the beach after the resurrection.
And there are things the other gospels include that John leaves out — Jesus’ birth, the temptation, most parables, Jesus welcoming the children. John is selective. And he is deliberate.
If you track Jesus’ movements in the first six chapters of John, they look almost chaotic — Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Samaria, back and forth again and again. It’s not because John doesn’t care. It’s because geography isn’t the point. Meaning is the point.
It’s as if John has laid all the stories out on a table and asked: Which ones best reveal who Jesus is? Then he arranges them to make that truth unmistakable.
One classic example is the miraculous catch of fish. In Luke (and to some extent Matthew and Mark) it happens at the beginning, when the disciples are called. In John it happens at the very end, after the resurrection. Did it happen twice? Possibly. Or John may be placing the story where it most clearly proclaims that the risen Jesus is Lord.
And then there’s today’s reading — the cleansing of the Temple.
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke this happens during Holy Week. It’s one of the final sparks that leads to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
In John, it happens right near the beginning.
So the question becomes: why?
Let’s take a closer look at our bible reading for today.
Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for Passover and enters the Temple courts. He finds animals for sale and money changers at their tables. Cattle, sheep, doves. Coins being exchanged. Then he makes a whip of cords, drives out the animals, overturns tables, and scatters coins.
Why did Jesus do this? If you read Matthew, Mark or Luke, they suggest that Jesus is angry because of corruption – that they were making the temple a making it ‘a den of robbers.’ (Matt 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:26). But Jesus in John’s gospel uses a different phrase. “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
For John, the issue was not about corruption or ripping people off, but that the temple market system itself had become a barrier rather than a doorway to God.
As one commentator helpfully summarised – The problem is not simply corruption. The problem is what faith had slowly become.
Somewhere along the way, worship had become transactional. Access to God was managed. Forgiveness was processed. Devotion was streamlined.
And Jesus came along and disrupts it. Not because Jesus hates worship — but because he loves it too much to let it lose its heart.
This suddenly becomes more confronting for us. When the issue was about the corrupt selling of animals in worship, we could say … we don’t have that problem.
If the issue is about how worship has got offtrack and has become unhelpful to our relationship with God … hmmm isn’t this one of the issues that got raised in our mission planning process last year?
One of the goals for the first half of this year was to spend some time “reimagining” what our approach to worship is. We’re not saying our current approach is wrong — many of us experience it as rich and life-giving — but maybe we have been doing the same thing for a long time that worship has slowly become not as helpful as it could be.
Maybe if Jesus walked into one of our worship services, he might not have to overturn tables or drive out animals, but I wonder if Jesus still might bring a level of disruption. Of wanting to push against the status quo and get us to question why we do what we do. Jesus is the disrupter. Not because Jesus likes chaos but because Jesus wants us to re-centering worship on what it is meant to be.
I think that this is one of the reasons why John moved the story of Jesus in the temple to the beginning of his gospel – because it gives us an insight into one of the key pillars of Jesus’ ministry … to disrupt anything that is unhelpful in our relationship with God and to help us refocus on the things that bring us life.
Back to our reading, when Jesus is challenged about his authority to do this, Jesus says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
John is helpful here and explains that Jesus is not meaning the literal temple but “He was speaking of the temple of his body.”
This is the moment John wants us to see clearly: Jesus is not just reforming Temple worship. He is pointing beyond the building and re-centering worship on himself.
Can you remember back to my Christmas Day sermon … remember the key verse in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his home among us.” That word dwelt or home literally means tabernacled. God pitched a tent among the people again.
Worship is not about acknowledging a distant God but coming close and meeting with God. And Jesus is saying that God’s presence is no longer confined to a building.
God is encountered in Jesus.
Forgiveness flows through Jesus.
Worship is re-centred on Jesus.
John puts this story right at the beginning of the gospel because he wants us to know early on: Jesus does not simply improve religion. He redefines how we meet God.
There is another layer to this story that matters for understanding John. When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, obviously the Temple is still standing. It was the centre of religious life.
But when John writes his gospel — around fifty or sixty years later — the Temple has been destroyed. In 66 AD there was a Jewish rebellion against Rome and the Romans were kicked out of Jerusalem. Rome responded decisively, returned with an army and attacked the city … burning down and completely destroying the temple. The whole Jewish religious system has collapsed. For John’s community, this was not abstract theology. It was lived loss. The question facing everyone is: How do we worship now? How do we remain faithful without the Temple?
John’s gospel answers that question. The true meeting place between God and humanity is no longer a building. It is a person.
Jesus is the Temple. The Word who tabernacles among us. God’s presence made flesh. So this story isn’t just about one dramatic day in Jerusalem. It’s also John helping his community understand that God has not disappeared with the destruction of the Temple. God has come closer.
Can you see how John is more than just retelling the facts of Jesus … there is nearly always a deeper meaning in the gospel of John – there is insight and wisdom to be found to help us see more and more who Jesus is.
So what do we do with this story then? If we turning the mirror toward us, what questions does the cleansing of the temple raise for us? Or as I asked earlier … where might Jesus be disruptive in our lives or in our church?
Where has faith become habit rather than hunger?
Where have we confused tradition with truth?
Where are we more invested in maintaining systems than in making room for God to move?
Where might Jesus be inviting us into trust, rather than certainty
Jesus is a disrupter and I have this feeling that this year could be a time of some disruption … not because Jesus is angry with us, but because Jesus loves us too deeply to leave things as they are.
Do you remember the reason why John wrote his gospel?
“These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:32)
Maybe we are being invited us to let go of some things to make room of the new thing that God is doing – so that we might experience life in Jesus name!
The question John leaves us with is not whether Jesus disrupts.
The question is whether we are willing to trust and follow him when he does.
Amen.