Year B
3rd Sunday in LentMarch 8, 2015
Title: Jesus Coming to Church (with a whip)
When people say, "It's not the money; it's the principle of the thing," it's the money. --Will Rogers.
Going deeper
John 2:13-22 (NRSV)
John 2:13-22 is a story concerning the cleansing of the
temple. Although all four canonical gospels tell this story, John places it at
the beginning of the ministry of Jesus rather than the last week of his life.
In the synoptics (Mark 11:15-17), Jesus' bold action of taking on the religious
establishment in Jerusalem serves as a fitting impetus for his impending
arrest, trial and crucifixion. John's placement of this event at the very
beginning of Jesus' ministry thus seems odd, given that the gospel's audience
has scarcely been introduced to the protagonist before he takes this daring
step to incite leading religious authorities. The story shows the abrogation of
the Jewish temple system. Jesus and his community will replace it. Through
Jesus, the perfect, eschatological worship becomes possible, a worship that
surpasses and abrogates even that of the Jews, which had been the legitimate
one hitherto.
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Jesus finds in the Temple precincts those who sell animals that may be used. In this text, Jesus travels to Jerusalem during the Passover festival to pay the annual "temple tax" and offer sacrifices. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. The scene that greets Jesus at the temple mount during this high holyday is not unexpected. Merchants offered sacrificial animals for sale to diaspora Jews who had traveled long distances to make their annual pilgrimage. Being able to purchase animals at the temple site instead of bringing them on a long trek was a convenience for the observant. Likewise, the moneychangers accepted coinage from any number of distant places and exchanged them for the Tyrian coin required to pay the temple tax. The problem was that they had made the temple service a transaction rather than a meeting place for the holy and righteous God. The moneychangers were doing a necessary chore. Here are a couple of technical items. The word translated "money changers" in verse 14 (kermatistaz) appears only here in all of the New Testament. However, in verse 15, John switches words to adopt the term for "money changer" (kollubistvn) which is used in Matthew (21:12) and Mark (11:15). Likewise, while the Synoptics use only one word for "temple" (ieron), John switches from the use of this word in verses 14-15 to another (naoz) in verses 19-21 when Jesus enters into debate with his Jewish interlocutors. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” These words clearly identify Jesus' action with the prophetic protest against the exploitation both of the Temple and of the people of Israel. John's gospel increases the physicality of Jesus' reaction by "a whip of cords" used to drive the crowd from the outer courtyard. On a technical matter, some grammatical imprecision in verse 15 makes it unclear whether Jesus uses this whip to drive out only the animals (the sheep and the cattle) or if he plies this whip against the backs of the sellers and moneychangers as well. In the same way the animal stables are opened, so too, are the financial stables: First, the coins are poured out; then the tables themselves, heaped with spilled riches, are overturned completely. Jesus' first direct words in this drama may reveal the reason for placing this event so close to the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Jesus' command to the dove sellers is based less on any perceived dishonesty in their dealings (as in the synoptic's reference to them as a "den of robbers") but on their presence alone. What is it that has caused Jesus to become so angry that he becomes a holy terror? It may be injustice. The sacrificial system in the temple had evolved, over the centuries, into an efficient machine for fleecing rich and poor alike, earning a great deal of money for the insiders who ran it. If you went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, your goal was to sacrifice an animal, according to the Law of Moses. You could bring your own sacrificial animal, of course, but many who had journeyed from afar found it easier to purchase a beast locally, at a steep markup. The law said you had to present a perfect animal, without mark or blemish. Unless you purchased a pre-approved animal within the temple precincts, you had to bring your offering before an inspector, who would tell you whether it met the grade. The inspectors were conspiring with the animal-sellers, who knew how to grease their palms with silver. Rarely did they grant approval for a sacrificial animal brought in from the outside. There was something else. If you had journeyed from one of the lands of the Jewish diaspora -- Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, even distant Rome -- the coins jingling in your purse would have been imperial coins, engraved with the Emperor's likeness. Such graven images violated the Second Commandment, and so were forbidden within the temple precincts. In order to buy yourself a sacrificial animal, you had to first exchange your Roman money for image-free Judean coins. The moneychangers, who had a monopoly, charged exorbitant commissions, but the poor pilgrims had no recourse. They got them coming and going, those temple merchants. The reason Jesus raged through the temple had nothing to do with the proximity of money to a place of worship, as some modern commentators have assumed. His anger was sparked by injustice: the fact that the temple had been transformed into a corrupt machine for cheating pilgrims out of their life savings.17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The disciples grasp the dangerous consequences of the action of Jesus. His zeal for the house of God will cost him his life. This is the meaning of the quotation from Psalm 68:10, because the psalm too speaks of something more than an inwardly consuming zeal. The psalmist suffers contumely and provokes many to hate him. The early church understood the psalm as Messianic. The disciples are described as remembering it in the actual situation, but the reader is meant to think also of the mortal hatred of the Jews that is soon to be aroused.18 Even more importantly, John uses Jesus' first words in this highly charged scenario to give us a glimpse into his unique divine relationship. The synoptic authors have Jesus declare the temple to be "my house." John's text reveals that temple to be "my Father's house" (v.16). From its very opening prologue, John's gospel focuses on the unique relationship that exists between the Logos and God, Jesus and his Father. It is the power and intimacy of this relationship that prompts John to subtly change the focus of Jesus' outrage from the abuse of the temple building (Greek hieron in vv. 14-15) to the desecration of "his Father's house" (Greek oikoV in vv.16-17). As the oikoV, the temple is not just a gathering place for people, or even the formal dwelling place of God. Jesus' relationship to the oikoV is unique because it is "his Father's house." He has special authority within it.19 Jesus' actions are both motivationally mystifying and culturally threatening. All rituals involve a kind of substitution. It was clearly a way of establishing or re-establishing a right relationship with the divine within the community. The Jews who witnessed them must have been shocked--finding his behavior incomprehensible. He was questioning the validity of the entire sacrificial system itself. He questioned Israel's ability to atone for its sins, be forgiven and stand in right relationship with God. The Jews [the overseers of the temple, who had charge of good order in the temple and controlled the levitical police] then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” [They call Jesus to account. While they want a sign, Jesus will give them a word. In John's account, what comes to the foreground is as much the question of Jesus' identity, and especially his authority, as the prophetic motif itself. Questions about Jesus' identity and authority invariably call for response. In this scene, Jesus' assault on the abuse of the Temple elicits from his disciples further insight about him. The words of Jesus come from his consciousness of being the Son, which is to be still more clearly expressed later in the course of the Gospel. The writer is less interested in the objective implications of the action than in its significance and its consequences for the person of Jesus. Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Behind the statement is the likely historical reality that the intimation of the destruction of the temple was the immediate reason for his arrest by the Jewish authorities.[1] Even when a writer depicts the resurrection as the act of the Son, as here, the writer does so recognizing the Father is the one who commands it, and is thus not an independent act of power.[2] Jesus apparently agrees to the demand of his interlocutors, but holds out a quite different type of sign. He answers with an enigmatic saying, which cannot but remain obscure to them. Formally, it resembles the procedure of the Old Testament prophets, who often used a cryptic mashal to give a sign. However, it is also in keeping with the procedure of the Johannine Christ, who often utters words of revelation that almost inevitably lead his hearers to misunderstand him. As often happens in John, they misunderstand what Jesus said. 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”[The authorities reject the word of Jesus completely. They deny the role of Jesus in such a miracle.] 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. The final two verses leave behind the actual dialogue and face-to-face confrontation of the parties at the temple and instead offer a somewhat informed aside to the reader. Jesus freely surrenders his body to destruction. However, within three days he will deliver it again from death. Pannenberg points out that this saying of the body of Jesus as the temple in which the Father abides raises questions regarding the Trinity, which seeks to resolve the tension between the transcendence and immanence of God.[3] Ultimately, the cleansing of the temple becomes a revelation of his glory that is disclosed to those who believe.
For
the readers of this gospel, written long after the destruction of the temple in
70 AD, this story would take on new significance. The focus of so much
attention during the life of Jesus, the entire system of sacrifices, temple
worship, and political power would be gone. So many people had placed so much
stress on it as a means of growing close to God. It was gone. Yet, God had
provided a new holy place in Jesus. In Jesus, God provides a new way to grow
close to God.
We tend to like
this portrait of Jesus. Most people
instinctively cheer when the cheek-turning good guy in the movies finally hauls
off and punches the loathsome bad guy in the mouth. From the comfortable distance of 20
centuries, it is easy to look disdainfully at the presence of the money-changers.
Yet, it also provides a challenge. Do we really want to follow Jesus this far?
Application
Suppose I were to enter the church like most days during the week.
However, on one day, something entirely new happened. I hear some sort of
commotion. I can hear clatter, clamor, and crashing. “No, you can’t do that!
Stop! Who do you think you are?” It was the voice of Lois and Judy, the ones
who do so much to keep our church building so clean. As I approach the door, I
am shocked, even horrified, to see some hymnals come flying out the door. Yes,
although we use the screen, we still have some hymnals in the back. Some raving
lunatic is throwing them out the door. Then, here comes the altar area and
everything on it. They are getting thrown out. Along with all of that come the
items we have in our worship area that we have to observe Lent. Even the
computer – what would we do without it – comes out, breaking into pieces on the
sidewalk. The sacred computer is a pile of rubble! The Book of Discipline flies
out. The bishop was here, but this nut is throwing him out by the seat of his
pants. I get a text from Nashville, saying the Council of Bishops, the General
Boards and Agencies leaders, and the Judicial Council, all get thrown out.
Suddenly, Kayc and Joy come running out with bruises, screaming, “Jesus is in
there cleaning house!”
Well,
none of that seems like a real picture of our Jesus. He is meek and mild,
right? He is the compassionate one. He is our friend.
Jesus is cleaning house – with a
whip.
You
see, the house Jesus was then cleaning up would soon be gone. The Romans would
destroy it. Jesus has become the new temple, the new holy place through whom we
gain access to God. Everything else, as helpful as they may have become to us,
is what human beings have made. Sadly, these beloved means of worship, those
ways we have to climb up to God, sometimes, in our hands, become gods. Idols.
We invest too much of ourselves in them, expect too much from them, allow them
to expect too little of us. Our freedom to worship becomes enslavement to false
gods. Jesus sets us free. We pass over to worship in Spirit and in truth. Jesus
is the gift of God to us. He is the Word of God dwelling among us. If the House
of God has become an idol or even a way of evading God, then little wonder that
Jesus is upset.
If
even the very House of God can become an idol, a substitute for, a way of
evading God, what next might we make our idol?
I wonder what Jesus would become
angry about today?
Jesus might be angry about noise pollution.
Imagine the setting of this story. You enter the temple outer court,
and we find all this noise of animals and people doing business. It would be
hard to pray or to offer sacrifices with the right spirit. Jesus' rampage in
the temple was partly a reaction against the intrusions of unholy noise and
unholy images into this sanctuary of holy silence. Jesus saw that the religious
leaders had gradually transformed the temple from a center of spirituality that
leads one to greater silence and greater space for holiness--into a place
simply of greater hustle and bustle. The crush of crowds and commerce
threatened to fill in the cracks of holy absences. By cleansing the temple of
all this noise pollution, Jesus sought to restore the purity of the temple.
Only by regaining the sanctity of silence and the silence of the sanctuary
could the Jews hope to hear the speaking absence in their midst.
It may well be that we have allowed noise to become a constant part of
our day. We need quiet time with God so that we can listen to what God wants
and then do what God wants.
Jesus might be angry about religion.
I doubt that any of you have ever seen Jesus this mad. You see, the problem is not only that Jesus
is mad. Jesus is mad in the temple, he is mad at Passover. In the temple that day, he did not mention
adultery, stealing, covetousness. He
attacked worship. He assaulted religion. The temple is a place where one goes to meet
God. Passover is a time to celebrate
what God has done for us. I think John
chose to tell this story right up front, because he wanted us to know, right up
front, the sort of God who had come among us. Yes, religious practices have the design of
opening us to God, but we need to be careful. We dare let them become idols.
Jesus might be angry about pettiness.
The problem with the Church today is not
corruption. It is not
institutionalism. No, the problem is far
more serious than something like the minister running away with the organist. The problem is pettiness. Blatant pettiness.[4]
We all have our pet peeves. People who pass you, get in front, then slow
down. People who, when stopped for
construction or accident and a long line, speed ahead of everyone else. These events for the most part affect us
personally but not permanently. Those
circumstances that reek of wrongness while resonating with the turning of our
own temperament constitute our "hot buttons." A truly hot-button issue puts you at serious
risk. Yet, we sweat “the small stuff” as
one wonderful little book puts it, and let larger issues of Christian life have
little attention or energy.
People today long for the body of Christ to
focus upon things that matter to their lives. People are in need in this
community. People long for a connection with God. Yet, we start nit-picking
because things do not go exactly the way we think they should. Maybe the
preacher spent too much time on Scripture today. We have not sung my favorite
song lately. Someone ignored me today. I have been seeing some wonderful advice
about how to treat the wife of the pastor that includes things writing a note
of appreciation to her. Because pastor and wife are so noticeable, it can make
them larger targets. Of course, anything can become a reason to stop coming to
church. Was it something small in comparison to the mission and vision of the
church?
Jesus took precisely opposite approach. Jesus was a master at keeping the nagging,
time-consuming, energy-sapping details of life at bay while he focused on what
was important. Jesus was suddenly struck
by the futility of all that activity: the waste, the deception, the
manipulation of God's intentions for selfish human purposes. The sickness of this religious system lit up
his hot button. The sickness of the
religious system hit Jesus' hot button so hard that he reacted instantaneously,
without considering the risks he might be running.
What needs to be cleaned out of our religious
practices in order to once again make our churches places where the Holy Spirit
blows and breathes its life into all who worship there?
Could Jesus be
angry? Only when what is most important
to God becomes of little importance to us.
Only when we become sidetracked by trivial things, thereby forgetting
that which is life-changing. Jesus
became a "holy place" so that we might meet God. Jesus became the new mercy seat that we might
freely come into the presence of a holy God.
Conclusion
It is interesting that Jesus does not argue
that the temple is just a building; that in and of itself it is nothing more
than stone and mortar. He knew that the temple had been set aside for the glory
of God.
The good news is that Jesus has
passion for God’s house. Jesus loves us, but loves the righteousness, truth,
and holiness of God even more. He will purify God’s house, transforming us into
the Body of Christ. He will, with whip in hand, drive out the idolatry in us.
He will cleanse us until we shine like the sun. He will take our church and our
fumbling attempts to praise, and transform them into a purified acclamation of
the true God.
So
this Sunday, amid the rubble of our religion, we pray: Lord Jesus, drive out
our self-contrived demons, whip us into shape, clean us up, dust us off, until
we are able to worship you – in word and in deed, on Sunday and on Monday – as
we ought. Amen.
Sermon to go
Key points
Jesus might
be angry about noise pollution.
Jesus might angry about religion.
Jesus might be angry about pettiness.
Ideas for exploration
1. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 are a good and
simple reminder of what God requires of us.
2. I Corinthians 1:18-25 raises the question of who truly is
wise and who is foolish.
3. John 2:13-22 is the story of Jesus going to a holy place
at a holy time and disturbing it all.
Let’s Live It
Psalm 19:
11
Moreover
by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there
is great reward.
12
But
who can detect their errors?
Clear me from hidden
faults.
13
Keep
back your servant also from the insolent;
do not let them have
dominion over me.
Then I shall be
blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
No comments:
Post a Comment