Sermon (Revised) John 2:14-17 - January 18, 2026

John 2:14-17  

In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written,

“Zeal for your house will consume me.”

There once was a gardener who planted and kept a large garden with all varieties of flowers and vegetables—the diversity was immense in beauty and sustenance. Whenever it was time to pass on the caretaking of the garden, the new gardener was told to “Keep and guard this garden with your life because it is.” And the garden passed from generation to generation, and it fed and delighted many people … and, when it was time to pass it on, the new caretaker would continue to hear the same charge: “Now keep and guard this garden with your life because it is.”

But then there was a gardener who either wasn’t listening or misunderstood the gardeners charge and did not keep the garden nor guard it very well and slowly over time, the garden lost its beauty and abundance and stopped being a garden entirely—for there was nothing to keep and to guard.

But then one day, years later, someone walking through the woods where the garden used to be noticed a beautiful flower and another and another and got to thinking: you know, this would be a great place to... 

History tends to repeat itself in both the beautiful and ugly ways, amen? We celebrate the good kind of repeating, but what are we to do when something evil returns? The first thing to do is to pay careful attention. See if you can spot the essence. For it is those who pay attention who do what needs doing, from fictional gardeners to meticulous mothers to ancient rabbis in ancient Temples. Here, Jesus noticed that the essence of his people’s religious life had become compromised somehow, and so he did what needed doing—which in this case, was memorable to say the least.

There’s no doubt that just as you will remember where you were when the towers fell, you will remember where you were when thousands of federal agents descended on the streets of the Twin Cities to the sights and sounds of violent aggression towards our Minnesota neighbors. Minnesotans are now experiencing the epicenter of what hate looks like when fully unleashed. If anyone still finds themselves on the fence as to whether this elected administration has the best interests of all Americans in mind, the proof is right outside your door. If you’re paying attention in even the slightest of ways right now, then you know that the instructions of Garden keeping 101 have fallen on deaf ears and dull hearts.

We are beyond reversing course now—it is time to choose a side of history you want to be remembered for: those who pay attention and pick up on the life we are given to keep and to guard, or those who prefer to turn away and turn off their ears and shield their hearts. It is your call and calling as the baptized to choose the former, but perhaps you haven’t been listening or misunderstood—so let me show you a few things through John’s version of Jesus in the Temple from chapter 2 that might help you make up your mind for the sakes of Renee Good and the thousands of other lives that are being shattered in the Twin Cities.

Appearing in all four Gospels, not only can we count on the historical likelihood that this happened, but that it was a crucial component of Jesus’ ministry. Think about that for a second. Jesus’s rage was that important to pass on to generation after generation. Now, as for the focus of that rage? This was an angry but peaceful protest. No one was hurt or killed. There was some destruction to property, yes, but Jesus did not harm anybody in any way.

Furthermore, according to John Dominic Crossan in God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome Then and Now:

(Jesus’s anger) was directed not against Judaism, not against the Temple, and not against the high priesthood. It was a protest from the legal and prophetic heart of Judaism against Jewish religious cooperation with Roman imperial control.

In other words, Jesus was angry with those claiming to know and love God who had sold out their beliefs to side with those enacting imperial violence against their own people.

And so, as we go about knowing Jesus, it is knowing that the Son of God wasn’t always the Jesus you grew up with in Sunday school, but that sometimes Jesus got mad, like real enraged whipping, flipping tables mad at the sight of somethings essence being destroyed and at the hypocrisy of those who ought to know better.   

So this is my plea: let’s not waste Jesus’ righteous tantrum with only songs and story time about him. Let’s also strive to be and do something memorably good. Democrat or Republican, it no longer matters. It’s do or die for democracy as we’ve known it and maybe even for Christianity, too. Just take a look out your car window or turn on your local news station or hear alleged Christian leaders ignoring the actions of ICE. What I see is not the essence of Minnesota as I have come to love about my home state. Our essence has been taken from us. But many are fighting for that essence, to retain it like our lives depend on it, because they do.

For as Governor Walz recently said, “This is a moment of chaos, confusion, and trauma” in a “campaign of organized brutality against MN by our own federal government.”

So please, please do something helpful; something to show the persecuted and oppressed and violently targeted that you are with them as so many Minnesotans are doing right now. So many inspiring acts of selflessness for the sake of their neighbors of color. Is it safe? Of course not, but it’s good and right and our calling as Jesus' true followers.

Doing something can take shape in dozens of ways. You can make a card for or share a message of love for an immigrant whose feeling their world being ripped apart right now. Or go make a big sign of solidarity and attend a protest or a vigil or a prayer meeting with friends as some of you have already done. Keep at it. Or maybe some of you can help me figure out a way to get letters of accompaniment to those in detention centers who are undergoing tremendous suffering right now, or better yet, join your community in banding together to keep people informed and supported.

As long as I am a pastor, I refuse to let us go gently into this dark night but instead to walk with you and with all my fellow Minnesotans who, as our Governor and lifelong Lutheran put it, “have risen to meet this unbearable moment as an island of decency in a country being driven to cruelty.”

Let us also reflect the zealous, all-consuming fire that the uniting Spirit of Truth charged us to be and become as his keepers and guardians of the beauty and the bounty of Goodness as we strive to be and become one in body, and mind, and spirit.