Hearing about Jesus throwing a Temple tantrum makes me just a little uneasy.  If I had my druthers, I’d just as soon stick with the Jesus who turns water to wine than be confronted by this side of Jesus.  Seems to me, the Jesus we encounter in today’s Gospel, could benefit from a small dose of the chill pill.
Why just a couple of verses ago, Jesus was much more manageable.  Yes, he gets a little punchy at the wedding when his mom complains there’s no more wine. 
Still, Jesus hops to action and voila!  We’ve got wine from water. 
The steward takes one sip and can’t get over the exotic plum notes and the oaky finish.  He brags on that wine to the bridegroom.  The first of Jesus signs, and it all happens in this little town called Cana. 

1. Jesus’ glory is revealed.
2. His disciples believe in him.
3. Cut to rolling credits.
4. Fade in tenderly-frolicking soundtrack. 
5. End of story.

Course, Mr. John has much more gospel to tell.  Oddly, this evangelist moves from this tender and glorious romantic-comedy he’s just unfolded to this:  A kind of Good, Bad, and the Ugly, Jerusalem-style. 
The synoptics wait until Jesus makes his final visit to Jerusalem.  But not John.   Jesus’ temple tantrum is placed at the beginning of his ministry.  And given the din Jesus musters up, it’s hard to believe Jesus lasts 17 more chapters.
Here’s Jesus, with his posse in tow….ambling his way toward the temple.  A tumble weed blows across his path, and off in the distance you start to grit your teeth.  Because you know something just ain’t right. Coming from the court of the Gentiles, is this dull hum of clinking coins, bellowing cattle, bleating sheep, and cooing doves.  People are hollering, bartering, and making change.  The only thing lacking is the bouncy rhythm of saloon piano.
Next thing you know our wedding hero has turned Temple bad boy.  Jesus brandishes his whip and creates holy havoc. 

1. No table is left unturned. 
2. No one untouched.
3. Coins are bouncing on the stone floor. 
4. Animals are a’ squeelin’ and a scamperin’. 

Those once calm and cooing doves are flapping their wings.  There’s a new sheriff in town and he ain’t happy.  “Take these things out of here!” He says.  “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 

And this is the Lord we worship. 

I get uneasy and a bit queasy every time I’m presented with this picture of Jesus.  It’s just a bit nerve wracking to have this kind of unwieldy Jesus in our midst and on the loose.
To tell you the truth, Jesus’ anger seems a bit misplaced.  The activity of the money changers and the buyers and sellers was necessary for the temple to function.  Temple tax couldn’t be paid with Roman coins bearing the likeness of the emperor.  It had to be paid with plain coins – temple coins. 
Sacrificial animals had to be without blemish.  Good luck hoofing it from Capernaum to Jerusalem with an unblemished dove under your arm.  All of this money changing, buying and selling of animals was in service to the temple but…did these services have to be rendered inside the temple precincts?  Was it necessary to rob the Gentiles of the one area in the temple precincts they were allowed to enter and pray?
In defense of the Temple authorities, these folks had made a career of studying Torah.  Their study of Torah reminded them of the God who delivered their ancestors from bondage and into the promised land.  They were committed to building up institutions to proclaim and embody Torah.  It’s doubtful the system was ever designed to exploit God’s good name.  Still, they had somehow managed to leave the door open for the money changer.
More than likely this is what happened:  Temple leadership simply settled into a comfortable routine year in and year out, that enabled them to meet institutional goals.  The institution somehow sequestered God to the holy of holies.  Gradually, the ones calling the shots were able to turn a blind eye to the unsavory possibilities of corruption inherent in changing money.
But not Jesus.  The Word made Flesh shows our God to be unsequestered by years of institutionalized religion.  Our God in Christ, is on the loose, always reaching in and driving out.  He’s not gonna settle with the status quo.  He’s got his way, and it’s the way of transformation.  Things in the Temple had to change – or be exchanged, if you will.
When Temple leadership challenges Jesus to prove what he’s doing with a sign, he cuts to the quick: “You destroy the temple…and I will raise it up in three days.”
Jesus response to the Jews request for a sign read like a blistering critque.   If there’s any destruction of the temple going on, it’s Jesus challengers who are doing the deed.  It would be all too comfortable and a bit anti-Semitic for us to think Jesus is only concerned with the behavior of his fellow Jews.  His words are for us too.
One writer and theologian put it this way, “There’s no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year God survives the way his professional friends treat him.”
“You destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.  Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this Lenten journey, as we return to the Lord our God, we do so penitently, confessing the many ways we too, have done our part to destroy the temple – to nail Christ to the Cross.

1. We study God’s Word only to make God a Democrat or a Republican.
2. We gather to consume worship rather than allowing God to consume us through it.
3. We hear Good News of God on Sunday, and we share no news of God Monday through Saturday.

If Jesus’ Temple Tantrum and ensuing exchange cause us unease, it’s most likely due to this dis-ease we call human sin.
And yet, Mr. John doesn’t leave us squirming in the pews.  Because while we, along with Jesus challengers, have sought the destruction of Christ’s body, the cross will not be – cannot be the end.  Jesus has assured us of that.  Christ our Lord is the resurrected One.  In his resurrection God has turned the tables on the world.
Fallen humankind found Jesus’ presence intolerable and put him to death, but God has raised him, declaring the world wrong and Jesus right.  It is indeed right our duty and our joy that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to God.
For it is God who cares for us, who delivers us, and sets us free to live according to God’s commands.  It’s God who, in great love, came to live among us as the Word Made Flesh.  It’s God who has cleansed us from all unrighteousness with a splash, that we may offer the Risen One Unbridled worship.

1. Who reaches out to heal the sick and suffering
2. Who preaches good news to the poor
3. And who, on the cross we fashioned, opens his arms to all.

It’s this unwieldy, zealous God who has the audacity to feed us – sinners though we are – with this holy meal.  Brothers and Sisters: 

This IS the Lord we worship.

May our Lord we encounter in water, word and meal inhabit our hearts and sustain us in our Lenten journey and beyond.  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…AMEN.