| The Passover of the Jews was
near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 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, both
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 market-place!’ His disciples remembered that
it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume
me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign
can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered
them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This
temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and will you raise it up in three days?” But he
was speaking of the temple of his body. 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. |
|
| John 2:13-22 |
| It’s the part of the back and forth question and answer
every teacher, babysitter and parent hates to reach. Later
we regret we eventually had to resort to short and concise “final
words.” You know the words I’m talking about. When
our educational conversation ceases to be one and deteriorates
into “Why not?” “Because I said so!” “But
why…” “I said no!” We all know saying “no” or “because
I said so” falls short of the kind of communication we
really want to have with our children or youth. We only get
to this point after trying to explain our reasoning and rationale
for denying a request or laying down some rules. But we’ve
all done it at some point or another. |
| In John’s gospel it appears that Jesus has skipped
the teaching conversation entirely. He went right for the “Because
I said so!” He goes to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover
as one making a pilgrimage. But Jesus didn’t like what
he saw when he arrived and decided immediate change was in
order. This is not counselor Jesus, buddy Jesus or inspirational
Jesus. Here, we meet enraged and indignant Jesus. He doesn’t
seem interested in working the system and negotiating with
the chief priest for institutional change. No. “Making
a whip of cords” which I guess were lying around, he
proved himself a shepherd of his day by driving out the sheep
and the cattle. He also upset the tables of the money-changers.
When he finally spoke, it was to the dove owners. “Take
these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house
a market-place!” Finally the on-looking crowd gets a
clue to his outrageous behavior. |
| Now the disciples somewhat get what is going on. They link
his statement to “zeal for God’s house.” But
the authorities of the temple are bewildered by this wild man
standing in front of them. It was Passover and because of Jesus,
righteous Jews were not going to be able to offer the sacrifices
they had traveled to Jerusalem to make before God. The authorities
could have booted him out right away. Instead they ask Jesus, “What
sign can you show us for doing this?” They have a point
and are pretty calm considering what has just taken place.
Temple trade was necessary to maintain the cultic system of
sacrifices and tithes. Jesus was challenging the authority
of the temple in its worship as he drove out the animals to
be sacrificed, and the necessary money changers to procure
acceptable coins to offer a tithe to God. |
| “What sign can you show us for doing this?” John
portrays Jesus leaping ahead to the end of his gospel in his
answer, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up.” By temple, Jesus meant his own body. His
words were like an unsolved riddle. They had no idea he was
talking about himself. Of course they thought he was talking
about the temple they all stood in. |
| All four gospels relate this story to their readers. John
is unique though. He puts this story up front in the second
chapter of his gospel while the others place it in Jesus’ final
visit to Jerusalem the week of his death. In John, Jesus threatens
the existing beliefs about God’s presence from the Gospel’s
beginning. John portrays Jesus as knowing that his words, his
teachings, his showing forth God’s presence in him through
his life won’t be enough. It would take more to break
the cycle of sin and death for humanity. |
| Angry at the cultic system which he felt bound and made captives
of the people, Jesus confronts it head on. New Testament scholar
Marcus Borg in his book Meeting Jesus
Again for the First Time makes a compelling
case for Jesus' ministry as a confrontation with this vast
purity system. He points to the profound implications of the
purity system: “...the effect of the purity system
was to create a world with sharp social boundaries: between
pure and impure, righteous and sinner, whole and not whole,
male and female, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile.” Just
before Jesus went to Jerusalem to cleanse the temple, he was
at the wedding party in Cana where he changed the water of
the purity jugs into wine. Right away, John shows Jesus engaging
in acts that break boundaries through transforming material
substance. (1) |
| As we witness these acts and realize who Jesus is our perceptions
of how God is at work in the world change. God's presence in
Jesus is alarming because it shatters the validity of empty
cultic deeds and routines when they become rote and heartless.
Jesus calls out “grow in faith.” Only in faith
can we enter into the risk of dying and rising with Christ
to all that would bind us. Faith gives us the security to lose
ourselves to find what God really intends for our lives. |
| The scandal of this passage to the temple authorities is
the authority Jesus claims for himself through his words and
actions. “What sign can you show us for doing this?” they
ask. The mood of Jesus changes somewhat here at this question.
John portrays him as knowing that righteous indignation won’t
be enough to reform the chasm between humanity and God. Self-giving
love, self-emptying love, the kind that leads to the cross
would finally be needed. The story of the cleansing of the
temple moves to the death and resurrection of Jesus. “Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus
has the authority to challenge the temple system because he
is God’s presence on earth. Instead of the presence of
God confined to the innermost chamber of the temple, God’s
presence is manifest in flesh and blood to challenge us and
to break sin’s hold over our lives. |
| Jesus’ actions and teachings will ultimately bring
about his death. We can see why the authorities were displeased
with him since their first encounter. His whip of cords and
righteous indignation challenge a religious system that has
honored God in the past, but now is so imbedded in its rules
and practices that it is no longer open to a revelation from
God. This temptation, to maintain the church and the status
quo, exists for contemporary Christianity just as it did for
the Judaism of Jesus day. His challenge of the religious system
of his day highlights our hesitancy to hear his message. Like
the authorities who thought he was talking about the physical
temple they were standing in, we often miss the message right
in front of us—or we choose to ignore it. |
| Lent is a time for self and communal reflection. So what
about us today? What would Jesus bust in to this sanctuary
to drive out? Perhaps our rigidity in beliefs of what debates
the church should or shouldn’t engage in? Our resistance
to opening ourselves to live into new life? Maybe what some
of us need is for Jesus to drive out our self-doubt or hate,
consumerist tendencies, or our petty bickering. Every religious
system we have, even the most faithful out there, falls short
of God’s ideal for our individual and common welfare.
Each fails to fully honor God. Even as we strive to live the
practices Jesus taught, we must rely on our faith in God’s
grace to reform us and sustain our living. |
| When we stand in our old ways and challenge God’s new
revelations to us today, why does God put up with us? Why did
Jesus let himself be taken to death on the cross? Why does
the Holy Spirit abide with us? Because God has promised not
to be God without us. Because God loves. First in the covenants
with Israel and then in life with God offered through faith
in Jesus, we can claim with full assurance that we along with
all creation are God’s beloved. When words weren’t
enough to reconcile us, God in Jesus suffered and triumphed
over the ultimate human experience of alienation--conquering
death and sin forever. |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - March 19, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
| 1. "It's Not About Bingo" The
Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad, March 2, 1997, Day 1. |
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