Bob Seger burst onto the music scene in 1961.  Like most rock-and-rollers of that formative era, he was a counter-cultural figure.  Most men wore short hair.  His was long.  Most men were clean shaven.  He sported a beard.  Later in life when his music went mainstream, he swam upstream.  He cut his hair, settled down and got married (he and his wife, Juanita, have been together now for thirty years), and shunned touring for a decade in order to be a family man for his two children.  He is in full retirement now, after living a life best described by his best song, “Against the Wind.”

Well, those drifters days are past me now,
I’ve got so much more to think about,
Deadlines and commitments,
What to leave in, what to leave out.
Against the wind, I’m still running against the wind;
I’m older now but still running against the wind.
— Bob Seger

“Against the Wind” would be an apt description for the public ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  No, He did not play the guitar and probably didn’t even have long hair.  He wasn’t that kind of Nazarene.  There is a big difference between taking a Nazarite vow (which included not cutting your hair) and being from Nazareth.  He most likely wore some kind of a beard, as most men did in those days.  

Though we don’t know what Jesus’ face looked like during His earthly ministry, we do know what He did with His feet.  He ran against the wind.  He railed against the prevailing religious establishment, particularly for the ways in which they had perverted the worship of God.  On this day He used His hands, too, to grab a whip (according to John’s Gospel) and run the people out of His temple who were poisoning worship.  I suspect He would take a similar stance on bad worship practices today.

Polluted Worship

The prevailing religious culture in Jesus’ day was filled with spiritual air pollution, puffed out by two major factories of false doctrine.  The Pharisees dominated the laity, staunch legalists who believed they could rule and regulate their way into Heaven.  The Sadducees possessed most of the priesthoods, and they were more liberal than a three dollar bill, denying the authority of Scripture and anything supernatural.  The only thing these two enemies of the gospel could agree upon was money.  The loved it, clamored for it, and even used the worship of Almighty God to get it.  

That’s why the “money-changers” were in, as in inside, the temple.  They actually belonged, outside.  People from all over Israel came to Jerusalem for the Passover.  Each family either brought or bought a sacrifice to offer at the temple.  Many could not afford to bring or buy a lamb, so the levitical law permitted an easy-to-catch or inexpensive pigeon.  Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, were poor and brought pigeons to sacrifice when Jesus was a child.

Let’s blame the Sadducees for what was going on in this case.  They were in charge of the temple activities at Passover.  They polluted the worship of Almighty God by bringing into the place of worship what should have never been there.

It was an act of commercialism.  The priests polluted worship by bringing money into the center of it, not unlike the selling of indulgences in pre-reformation days, or the prosperity gospel preachers of our day.  “It’s all about the money, boys,” shouted the one-eyed, Bible-selling, Big Dan Teague in O Brother, Where Art Thou?  

It was an act of manipulation.  They pressured the people to buy, and at gouged prices, too.  Hence the accusation they were “robbers.”  Pastors use pressure in our day, too, to get money, or to get people to make a “decision” that puts a notch in their belt.  Only the Holy Spirit should be allowed to compel people in worship to give, of money or of themselves, to the Lord.  

What was going on was pure pollution of worship.  Jesus stood against that wind.  He did more than just stand there, too.

Harsh Judgment

God is a triune being with two faces.  He has a smiling face of love and acceptance for those who approach Him appropriately, in true repentance, full faith, and right worship.  He has a scowling face of anger and judgment for those who do not, who bypass repentance, fake faith, and use worship as a means of personal gain or popularity.  

On this day, those false priests and fake worshipers saw that latter face of the Lord as He entered His temple.  They saw His hands, too, His pre-scarred hands.  In one of them was a whip.  

The false worshippers didn’t need to call an Uber to get  “drove out” of the temple.  Jesus performed the task Himself.  In the original language it says our Lord aggressively approached them, and “eck-ballo,” they went.  “Ballō,” sounds like ball, and what do you do with a ball?  You throw it. “Ěck” or “Ěx” sounds like exit, meaning “out.” Jesus threw them out.  To quote Gus Portokalos, “Show me a word, any word, and I will show you that word comes from the Greek.”  He was right about the Windex, too.

With righteous indignation and a whip, Jesus “drove out,” “cast out,” “threw out” those who were responsible for temple worship at the time.  Some things, or maybe every thing, they were doing got on God’s nerves.  I think it touched on something very near and dear to the heart of God.  Although the exact word is not expressly in this text, it is this word, “worship.”

God mandates a place for worship.  In the Old Covenant, it was the home, the synagogue on the seventh day, and the temple (for the three annual festivals, the Passover being pictured in this text).  In the New Covenant, it still begins at home, formally or informally, then gathers on the first day of the week with the church.  Christians, true Christians, are God’s temple now, housing the Holy Spirit, following the Holy Son, worshipping the Holy Father.  

God has a prescription for worship, a way in which it should be done.  It begins and ends with prayer, an invocation and a benediction, which is why the temple, then, and the church, now, is referred to as “a house of prayer.”  God prescribes other things to, in this text (“praise”) and in other parts of the Bible, which we will get to in a moment.  

Suffice it to say for now, God gets literally angry at those who pollute and pervert His manner and means of worship.  Those who take it lightly, or don’t take light of it at all, will find themselves “drove out” of God’s presence one day, too.  

What we really need now is some fresh air on the subject.  

Fresh Air

A foul wind was blowing, and Jesus stood against it.  In both biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek, there is an affinity between the words “wind,” “spirit,” and “worship.”  So how can we purify the “wind,” catch the “spirit,” and “worship” God aright?  

It matters who you are.

Are you a Pharisee, blind to your own sin, thinking you are good, believing in your salvation because of what you have done for God?  

Or, are can you admit you are just “blind” apart from God, covered in sin, and believe salvation can only be obtained by what God has done for you?  It was the “blind” who worshipped and were blessed in this text.

Are you a Sadducee, lame and crippled in unbelief of the Scriptures and the supernatural?  Do you use worship as a means of personal pride and political gain?  

Or, are you just “lame,” depraved and unable to follow Christ, except for Christ’s mercy and grace, hungering for worship as a means to learn how to walk with God and follow Christ?  It was the “lame” who worshipped and were blessed in this text.

Are you a proud American, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, working for a living and saving Sundays for yourself to do as you please, rather than finding a way to worship that pleases God?

Or, are you a one of the “babies,” dependent and hungry, seeking comfort and care, wanting to grow, mature, and make something of your life, a life given entirely to God.  It was the “babies” who praised and worshipped and were blessed in this text.

It matters what you do.

In the “house of prayer” we pray when we worship, from beginning to end.  We “praise” the Lord with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Like children, of God, we feed on His word in the Scriptures and the sermon which is offered.  We do not have to sacrifice animals, like in the Old Covenant, but we share the New Covenant sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to put faith on display for all to see.  And, yes, money is involved, but not in the way it was misused in this text.  We give offerings to the Lord, through the church, for which the church is expressly accountable to the giver, and to God. 

Seger sang of “what to leave in, what to leave out.”  We leave in the regulative principles of worship.  We leave out every thing else, commercialism, manipulation, and any other corruption.  We want to avoid the scowl of the Lord, and instead enjoy His beautiful, wonderful, amazing smiling face.  

We worship in the fresh air of God’s Spirit and God’s word to bring glory to God, our primary reason for worshipping, and living, for that matter.  We worship in God’s ways for God’s people, to gain peace, assurance, and direction for living.  We worship in God’s ways for all people, particularly lost people present, so they might see, in prayers and praise, in Scripture and sacrament, in word and deed, the incredible sacrifice, unconditional love, amazing grace, and saving mercy only God can give.  

Come, and stand, against the wind of modernism and modern worship, and walk in faith and the fresh air of true worship!