For Christ Jesus to replace the Temple with His own Body of Flesh and Blood, crucified and risen, as He reveals in this Holy Gospel, belongs to His fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures, all the Law and the Prophets. For He brings to completion, fulfills, and supersedes the entire Old Testament by His Incarnation, His Cross and Passion, His Resurrection from the dead, His Ascension to the Father, and His ongoing Ministry of the Gospel within His Church on earth to the close of the age.
The Scriptures were ever and always about Him. To Him they pointed from the start, and in Him they find their rest. He is the very heart and center of the Holy Scriptures and the fulfillment of all God’s promises, because He is the Word-of-God-made-Flesh. He is the manifest presence of God in the midst of His people, in whom the Name and Glory of God are found, in much the way that God dwelt with His people in the Tabernacle and the Temple — but ever so much more so.
Like the Ten Commandments and God’s Covenant with Israel, the significance of the Temple began with God and His activity in the Exodus — the Lord’s rescue of His people, not only from slavery in Egypt, but from sin, death, and the power of the devil. It was by His merciful choosing, and by His mighty arm and outstretched hand, that they were His people, and He was their God.
That they might be and live as His people, the Lord first gave them the Liturgy of the Passover — a sacrificial meal of remembrance, in which the Israelites of each new generation would become participants in the Exodus from Egypt and recipients of the Lord’s Salvation. The body of a lamb was their meal of deliverance, its blood covered them from death; and all who ate that Passover Feast, in accordance with the Word and promises of Yahweh, were delivered from their bondage.
From out of Egypt the Lord called His chosen people to Himself, and He established His Covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. It is within that Covenant, sealed with the blood of sacrifice, that He gave the Ten Commandments. As He bound Himself to them — and as He bound them to Himself — He revealed the character and content of their life as members of His household and family.
So, what does this mean for you, baptized into the Exodus of Christ Jesus and fed at His Table with the Body and Blood of this true Passover Lamb? The Ten Commandments describe the life that you are given to live as a member of His Body and Bride, the Church, a beloved son or daughter of His God and Father. They guide your life within His household and family. At the same time, as a perfect summary of the Law that is written on man’s heart, the Ten Commandments also serve to curb and restrain the outright hostility and violence of sin, to keep it within bounds.
But on account of the deep-seated perversity of sin within the heart, mind, body, and soul of all the children of Adam & Eve, the first and foremost function of the Ten Commandments is to expose your sins for what they really are, and to demolish all your arrogant pride and self-reliance.
In this way, the Ten Commandments are always driving you back to the mercies of the Lord, to find your refuge and strength in Him alone, instead of in yourself or anyone else. The Law is thus a constant reminder of your need for Atonement, Redemption, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation.
In the Old Testament, all of these needs were provided in the sacrificial service of the Tabernacle, first of all, and then the Temple in Jerusalem, in the Liturgy of the Lord on behalf of His people. That priestly purpose was the true and great significance of the Holy Temple — which Jesus here cleanses with aggressive zeal and will soon replace with His own Body, sacrificed and glorified.
The Temple was the House of God, wherein He dwelt among His people with His Gospel and all His Means of Grace. There He caused His Name and His Glory to be found, so that His people might abide with Him and worship Him in peace. As that was not possible without the forgiveness of sins, the Temple was also the place of sacrifice and atonement, as provided by the Lord in the Law of Moses. It is where the people went to confess their sins, in order to hear and receive the forgiveness of the Lord, in connection with those sacrifices. It is where the Lord was actively present and at work, according to His Word and promise, to share His Life with His people.
All of this is now accomplished, established, and provided in the Body of Christ Jesus — crucified and risen from the dead, now present for you, given and poured out for you, in His Holy Supper.
As St. John indicates already in the first chapter of his Gospel, the only-begotten Son of God — the Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, who is God, by whom all things are made — He has become true Man, flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood, and He tabernacles with us in His own Body of Flesh and Blood as the One who reveals God the Father to us. Already in His Incarnation, He thus begins to take the place of the Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple.
As the true and perfect Man, as the one true God in human Flesh, He has satisfied the entire Law of God on your behalf, in your stead, and for your benefit. In this way He has established and sealed the New Covenant between Yahweh and His people in His own Body and with His own Blood. He is both the Priest and the Sacrifice, as well as the Temple of God. And as both God and Man, He has done for you and all people what you and all the children of man have failed to do (and never could have done). He has not only established the Covenant in Himself, but He has fulfilled it and lived it in His Body, in accordance with the good and acceptable Will of God, in steadfast faith and in perfect love for His Father and for you and all His neighbors.
As your merciful and great High Priest, He sympathizes with you in your weakness, for He has suffered and been tempted in every way that you are, save only without sin. And not only has He preserved Himself from doing wrong, He has also persevered in doing what is good and right.
Thus, for example, in His fear, love, and trust of His Father above all things, your dear Lord Jesus Christ does not murder, but He gives you life; He does not steal, but He gives you all good things; He does not testify against you, but He defends you and forgives you all of your offenses.
But what about coveting, or jealousy? For the Lord Himself declares that He is a jealous God. And as the Lord Jesus aggressively cleanses the Temple in this Holy Gospel, the disciples observe that He is consumed with zeal. But “zeal” is simply another translation of the word for jealousy.
Indeed, Jesus is jealous for His Father’s House — in reverence for His Father, first of all, because the House of God is not to be profaned — but likewise for the sake of His people, for whom the Temple of the Lord was the Means of Grace, the presence of God in their midst for their salvation.
It is by and for their salvation that Christ Jesus is “consumed” or “eaten up,” even to the point of His Crucifixion. He gives His entire Body and Life into death for you and your salvation. So, too, He now gives His Body and His Blood for you to consume, to eat and drink, for your salvation.
All of this He does for you, that you might live and abide as a member of His Bride, the Church. From heaven He came to seek her out, to cleanse and redeem her, to sanctify her by His Blood, to take her as His very own: to love and to cherish, to have and to hold, unto Life everlasting in Him.
Hence His zeal — His jealousy — for that House which was the visible Church on earth, His “Body” in the midst of His people. As her true and heavenly Bridegroom, He jealously guards and protects His beloved holy Bride, as surely as God the Lord is likewise “jealous” of His people’s affections, loyalty, and faithfulness, in His Covenant or “Marriage Contract” with them.
For you, that divine and holy Marriage has been joined in the waters of your Baptism, in which you were united with Christ Jesus in His Cross and Resurrection. And your marriage to Christ Jesus is consummated (so to speak) each time you are joined again so intimately with Him, with your body in the flesh, in the eating of His very Body and the drinking of His holy and precious Blood.
So the Lord is rightly “jealous” for your affections, for your loyalty and faithfulness to Him alone. You are to have no other gods, no other husbands, no other fathers but Him. So, the command that you shall not commit adultery applies — not only in but also beyond your earthly human marriage — to your holy Matrimony with Christ Jesus, which even death shall not be able to put asunder.
It is with that righteous jealousy of a Husband for His Wife that Jesus “cleans house,” removing all the clutter and distractions from your heart and life, because your body is the temple of His Holy Spirit, and commanding your undivided attention to His Word, to His Cross, to His Body and His Blood. Whatever it is that competes with Him in your heart, mind, body, and soul, He must drive it out; not for His benefit, but for the sake of your life and salvation, which are in Him alone.
The temple of your body and life is not cleansed by your own good intentions or sincere efforts. You cannot cleanse or heal yourself, nor can you forgive your own sins and failings. Neither is your temple cleansed by the force of the Law, which can only serve to expose the clutter of your sins and the idolatry of your affairs. By itself the Law drives you further away from Christ, as it condemns you along with your sins, as it scatters your pride and overturns your self-confidence.
But your heavenly Bridegroom does not cast you out of His House forever. He rather woos you back to Himself, reconciled and forgiven by His Gospel. It is thus with compassion and grace that He wins your heart and reunites you with Himself. He does not punish you, as you deserve, but He has taken all your punishment upon Himself; He has suffered and died in your stead; He has allowed the Temple of His Body to be destroyed, that He might raise you up in and with Himself.
So has He become again your Lord and God, your Savior and Redeemer, who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, into the Promised Land of Paradise, into the House of God.
Just so, He who is the true Passover Lamb of God has mercy upon you and grants you His peace, because He has already taken upon Himself and taken away the sin of the World. As He has been sacrificed for you and for all, He now also feeds you with the Flesh of His own Body, which is your Meat indeed; and with His Blood He seals and strengthens His Covenant with you and covers you with His Righteousness, guarding you against all the assaults of sin, death, the devil, and hell.
This sacred Supper of your Lord Jesus is the true Holy of Holies, in which and by which you come boldly into the presence of the Holy Triune God, to stand before the Throne of Grace in the Body of the Son — to find divine mercy, to receive help in every need, and to abide in perfect peace.
The central importance and fundamental significance of the Lord’s Supper is revealed in His Word to you this morning: “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.“ But He said this concerning the Temple of His Body, which has superseded the old Temple of Jerusalem as the gracious presence of the one true God at the very heart and center of the Christian faith and life. And if you then also consider the zeal of Christ Jesus for His Father’s House, you will begin to understand the zeal of your pastor for the administration of Jesus’ Body in this Holy Sacrament.
It was in and with the same Body of Flesh and Blood that He was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification. That is the Body which is given for you here in this House of God — which is the House of God because of His Body, present according to His Word and promise.
The same Lord is here for you in the significance of your Holy Baptism, which is your crossing of the Red Sea out of Egypt with Him. He is here for you in His Word of Holy Absolution, His forgiving of your sins, whereby you come into His presence in faith and with thanksgiving, without fear. He is here for you in the reading and preaching of His Holy Scriptures, which are fulfilled in Him — in His Body — for your Salvation. And so is He also here for you in His own Flesh and Blood, in His crucified and risen Body, which is the true Temple of God, that He might live in you, and you in Him, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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