Through
a sermon by Pastor David Jang, we meditate on the gospel of the cross,
repentance, resurrection, and the new temple community found in Jesus’ words,
“Destroy this temple,” in the Gospel of John.
In
El Greco’s depiction of the cleansing of the temple, there is a holy tension
that tears through a quiet religious space. People buy and sell sacrificial
animals inside the temple, exchange money, and continue their day as though it
were an ordinary, familiar order. Yet in the midst of that scene stands Christ,
whose gesture shatters the calm. His anger was not an emotional outburst, but a
judgment against the reality that the place meant to be offered to God had been
defiled by human greed.
The
words “Destroy this temple” in John 2 are heard precisely in this setting. This
was not simply a declaration to tear down a building made of stone. It was the
sharp blade of the gospel directed toward power hardened under the name of God,
desire hidden beneath the outward form of piety, and the false center that
humanity had built for itself. The temple had to be shaken not because it was a
place that merely deserved destruction, but because it was a place that had to
be returned to God.
Before
the Temple That Had Become a House of Trade
The
first point emphasized in the sermon of Pastor David Jang, founder of Olivet
University in the United States, is the question of why Jesus was arrested. In
John 18, after Gethsemane, Jesus is bound and taken to Annas. On the surface,
it appeared to be a religious trial, but behind it lay a corrupt structure of
vested interests and power surrounding the temple. Those who interrogated Jesus
asked about His disciples and His teaching, but in reality they were afraid
before the words that shook their system.
As
the Passover drew near, countless people went up to the temple in Jerusalem.
They had to prepare oxen, sheep, and doves in order to offer sacrifices to God.
Yet the selling of sacrificial animals inside the temple had become not a means
of helping people worship reverently, but a structure that forced even the poor
to buy costly offerings. Animals purchased outside the temple were rejected on
the grounds that they had blemishes, and eventually people had no choice but to
pay the prices set inside the temple.
When
Jesus said, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade,” it was a holy
protest against religious greed that had turned the place of grace into a
marketplace. What He overturned was not merely a set of tables. He overturned
the unjust burdens placed upon hearts that longed to come before God, the
structure that oppressed people in the name of worship, and the distorted order
of faith that had exchanged holiness for profit.
The
Invisible Temple Built Within Me
Yet
this word does not only expose the temple authorities of the past. Even today,
there are things in our hearts that we uphold like temples. When money and
power, reputation and tradition, religious pride and self-righteousness come
before God, they become another kind of idol clothed in the name of faith. No
matter how holy our language may sound, if the center is not fixed on God, the
heart can already begin to lean toward becoming a house of trade.
Faith
is not the work of decorating that false temple more securely. Faith begins
with repentance, with honestly seeing before the Lord what must collapse. We
tend to think of ourselves as people unrelated to Annas, yet deep within our
hearts we often want to make even God take our side in order to protect our own
benefit. For this reason, biblical meditation is not a time to analyze the sins
of others, but a time to ask to whom the altar within me is truly dedicated.
At
this point, Pastor David Jang emphasizes that believing in the Lord is not
simply accepting doctrine, but laying down the corrupt center that the Lord
seeks to tear down. What the Lord commands to be destroyed is not meant to kill
us, but to make us live anew. Only in the place where the old temple collapses
does grace open a new way.
This
does not remain only in the realm of personal piety. Stubborn pride between
husband and wife, possessiveness toward children, and the desire to be
recognized within a community can also become small temples. When we speak
outwardly of love but in reality absolutize our own standards, we cannot be
reconciled with others, nor can we be free before God. It is precisely toward
that hardened center that the Lord says, “Destroy it.”
The
Gospel Raised Up Again in Three Days
When
Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” the
people did not understand His words. They thought of the temple building that
had taken forty-six years to construct, but the Gospel of John states clearly
that Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. This misunderstanding
later became the basis for false testimony used to put Jesus to death, and it
was repeated in the accusation against Stephen.
Here
we find a deep theological insight of the gospel. Jesus did not simply abolish
the temple; rather, He fulfilled in His own body the ultimate reality to which
the temple had been pointing. When His body was torn on the cross, the way to
come before God was opened, and in His resurrection a new era of worship began.
Now the place where one meets God is no longer confined to a particular
building or to the privilege of a certain class. Sinners, the poor, the sick,
and even Gentiles who were once far off can come before the throne of grace in
Christ.
The
attitude Jesus showed toward the woman caught in adultery reveals the same
light. People lifted stones in the name of the law, but the Lord said that the
one without sin should cast the first stone. Then He opened for the woman not a
path of condemnation, but a path of grace and truth, telling her to sin no
more. The Lord did not destroy the law; He fulfilled the justice and love of
God to which the law pointed.
Therefore,
the words “Destroy this temple” are not simply words of destruction. The Lord
did not come merely to tear down, but to build again. Yet the new temple He
builds cannot be established upon human greed and self-righteousness. True
worship begins only upon the obedience of the cross, the sacrifice of love, and
the hope of resurrection.
The
Lord Who Calls Us to Be a New Temple Community
The
temple Jesus raises again does not remain only within the individual heart. The
gospel tears down the walls that divide people from one another and builds a
new community in Christ. As Paul says, the Lord is our peace, the One who makes
the two into one. In the Holy Spirit, the church becomes a temple of deeper
meaning than a building made by human hands—a living community where God
dwells.
The
church after the coming of the Holy Spirit shows the form of this new temple.
Male servants and female servants, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free people
are all called into the same grace. The classes and barriers created by human
beings can no longer serve as decisive standards before the cross of Christ.
The gospel is not a system that excludes people, but the power of
reconciliation that makes them one again in the Lord.
Yet
the church can always become a house of trade again. When institutions replace
the gospel, when tradition suppresses love, and when power and material wealth
come before service, the church once again enters the shadow of the old temple.
For this reason, the words “Destroy this temple” still sound in the present
tense to today’s churches and believers.
The
strength of Pastor David Jang’s sermon lies in the fact that he does not turn
this word only into criticism of others. For the church to be renewed, one
person’s heart must first be renewed. When the self-righteousness I hold on to,
the sense of superiority I cannot lay down, and the secure places I have valued
more than the gospel collapse before the cross, the Lord builds a new temple
upon those ruins.
The
process of the temple being torn down is always painful. Jesus Himself was
misunderstood and accused because of this word, and Stephen also walked the
path of martyrdom amid false testimony that he had spoken against the temple
and the law. Yet the gospel became clearer precisely in the midst of that
conflict. When the kingdom of God comes, a world hardened by sin and hypocrisy
cannot remain undisturbed.
This
application is very concrete. Beginning with small communities, there must be
transparent finances, fair service, and an order that does not oppress others
but builds them up. Believers must not use the gospel for their own benefit,
and the church must not allow its heart to be captivated by the logic of
worldly power or capital. A new temple community is proven not by a large and
splendid outward appearance, but through the humility of the cross.
Jesus
said to destroy the temple, but the end was not ruin. At the end stood the
resurrection power that raises it again in three days. Therefore, this word is
both a fearful command and a profound invitation. What within me is still
standing firm before the whip of the Lord? Do I truly desire to live as the new
temple that He raises again?
As
we remain long before that question, our faith becomes not decoration but
obedience, not habit but gospel. When we do not avoid the pain of what the Lord
tears down, we finally become one stone in the community built up in love. And
there, the church stands again—not as a marketplace of the world, but as a
living temple that reveals the presence of God.
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