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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. With session going on right now in the Capitol, there is always this saying floating around the halls there, the devil is in the details, the devil is in the details. And it’s a statement that sums up what may seem simple and clear from the first blush or first look at it is really much more complex, tangled, and convoluted.
Upon hearing the Ten Commandments, we can think to ourselves, yes, Lord, we’ve got this. We’ve got this. We can please you by our obedience to these Ten Commandments. And as we begin to lead our lives according to those Ten Commandments, we find ourselves to be confronted with, with the aforementioned maxim, the devil is in the details. Or really, it should be said, Satan and our sin are in the details. Because what seems simple and clear, those Ten Commandments, are much more complex and tangled with Satan and our sin in the mix.
We can look at them and think, well, I’ve not killed anybody. And yet, Jesus has described hating our brother in his heart. Or malice toward him is killing him. We may think, well, I’ve not had any kind of a relation sexually with anyone outside of my marriage. And yet Jesus has made it clear that not only sex before marriage and with someone else after marriage, but lusting after someone in your heart is adultery. So sin and Satan are definitely in the details. This law challenges us and confronts us with the reality that we can’t fulfill those Ten Commandments.
Now, either we can accept that and ask for forgiveness, or we can justify ourselves. But wait a second. Now, wait a second. In this morning’s Gospel reading, an event happened, and we have been told that Jesus was obedient in all things at all times in his life. And yet, in this morning’s Gospel reading, it seemed as if our Lord lost his temper. As if he overreacted rather than reacting righteously. Did he? Did he not? The devil’s in the details, isn’t it? Or better yet, sin and Satan are in the details.
Not only did Jesus cleanse this temple, this earthly edifice that was built of magnificence in Jerusalem, early in his ministry, which is what the Gospel of John tells us about this morning, he did it twice. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have the account of him doing it right after he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. So he cleansed the temple twice. Now, both times, he handled it in the same manner and cleansed it. And yet, after the first time of cleansing, what happened? They set up shop again, didn’t they? And after he cleansed it the second time, what happened? They came back and set up shop again.
Well… at least for a few more years. Because at 70 AD the Romans came in and completely, totally, utterly disintegrated the temple. Not one stone on top of another. Never again to be rebuilt. So even though we see our Lord acting in this manner of cleansing the temple, not just once but twice, are we allowed to do the same? And the answer is no. So then why did our Lord cleanse the temple? He did not sin. He did not sin. But the answer is in the details, along with Satan and your sin.
Both times he cleansed the temple, and yet the temple remained inwardly dead. Both times he cleansed the temple outwardly, and yet the people who continued in that practice remained blind and enemies of God. He said, my father’s house shall not be defiled with man’s compromises, in other words. You… shall not be defiled by your compromises. And there is where Satan and sin is in the details.
As we reflect upon those Ten Commandments, it cannot leave us at any point in any day thinking anything other than, Woe unto me. Woe unto me, O Lord, that you should require such perfection. Woe unto me, O Lord, for I have not been as you have desired. These two cannot coexist. Either we will love the one and hate the other, or we will love the other and hate the one. Either way, they cannot both coexist within our hearts. No different than that temple, built to be the place of holiness, set-apartness, and worship, was being used for worshiping something totally other than our Lord Jesus.
The only way you can get rid of this compromise is to kill one or the other. And sin and Satan are in the details. Because that’s where the answer lies, in those details. In the intro and in the text of the gospel, it said, zeal for your house shall consume me. That Greek word for consume has an even stronger term, shall eat me up. Eat me up. And that magnificent edifice would be eaten up at 70 AD, as I mentioned. But that’s really not the main… For the house that consumed Jesus, zeal for that house which ate up Jesus, was himself. He said, destroy this temple, meaning himself, and I will rebuild it in three days. And he was referring to himself.
And the Apostle Paul clarifies these details. For the Apostle Paul talks about you being built into his body himself, the church. So these words become even more clear. Zeal for your house shall eat me up or consume me. You are his body. You are his church. Zeal for you will kill him. Either the one must die or the other. Either the one must die, you or the other, our Lord Jesus. He made the decision. You did not. He chose to die, not you. It was zeal for you that ate him up because he is the presence of God.
He is the detail where sin and Satan are found lingering. It’s not just a simple happy death on the cross that we can look at and are so familiar with having heard it since we were children. And that’s all that it is. It is the detail of your sin in him. The compromise that you and I live with daily in him. And either it is crucified in you and damned in you, or it is crucified in him and damned in him. For he must be consumed by your sin so that you may become his house, his place, his holy place set apart.
Paul, in this morning’s epistle reading, talked about this preaching that we’re talking about, this zeal for your house that Jesus spoke of, how it is folly to those who are perishing, meaning those who don’t believe, and yet this truth is the wisdom of God. Because your Lord’s consummation with your sin eats him up so that you can be consumed by him. Your Lord’s sin is your sin. And your sin was consummated in Christ so that you will be consumed in his body. That he may dwell in you. Not outside of you, not apart from you, not at a distance away from you, but in you. You are his temple. You are his dwelling place.
And it was your Lord’s resurrection of the true temple in three days, as he spoke about in this text, which is your consummation with him in your resurrection, cleansing you inwardly. Making you a place set apart that he may dwell in you. No longer is he in an abstract place, but he is in some place that you can see, touch, and feel. God dwells in you. Paul said it another way. He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
And again, Paul said, you are not your own. You were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body. You are his place for prayer. You now are a place of receiving his gifts. You are a place where foolishness of this world is looked upon as seeing as it is foolishness and not wisdom. And yet you are a place of holiness and a set-apartness for himself.
He is the source of your wisdom. He is the source of your righteousness. He is the source of your sanctification. He is the source of your redemption. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Therefore let him who boasts… boast in the Lord whose love for you consumed him, ate him up, and raised him from the dead for you. Such zeal is humbling.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
