Director’s Letter
A Different Kind of Business
Jesus came to do His Father’s business, taking our sin on Himself and giving us His grace, mercy and peace.
“In the temple [Jesus] found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple. … And He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade.’” (John 2:14–16)
When coming into the temple, Jesus is confronted with an emporium of unjust trading. It should be the place of merciful divine presence, a house where God gives Himself away, where He meets man, where the Holy Spirit is never bought or sold. Yet, it has been corrupted by humankind’s faithless sacrifices and self-serving dealmaking.
Jesus literally and figuratively turns the tables on them. He cleanses His Father’s house of money-changers and sacrifice-sellers, while also proclaiming His body as the new temple. Jesus is the Lamb of God — the only sacrifice we need — and His zeal for His Father’s business takes Him to the cross, where He chooses to suffer all for His Father’s glory. Three days later, He rises from the dead, just as He told the Jews He would, thus raising up a new temple where God dwells with His people.
The temple sacrifices of pigeons, sheep and oxen were but a sign. Jesus comes to be the real thing: God’s love come down to redeem and save desperate people.
Now, whenever His called and ordained servant announces absolution to you, the risen and ascended Jesus cries out, “Get these things out of here! I forgive you all your sins. They are no more.” God means business. His freely given grace, mercy and peace replace the sin and death that He has taken away from you.
Thanks be to God, we have the best “deal” in the world, and it was paid for entirely by Jesus’ blood. The church follows Jesus’ example, not transacting business as the world defines it but instead delivering this Word that disrupts and transforms lives, one person at a time.
In His hands,
Rev. Kevin D. Robson
Chief Mission Officer, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
