After Jesus first miraculous sign, the changing of water into wine, John’s Gospel moves to Jesus in the temple during the Passover. Can you imagine the temple at Passover? If you have trouble getting your mind around this, imagine the largest mega church that you can imagine, but its Easter service. The place is packed to capacity. Many of the folks visiting the temple would have been visiting maybe for the first time or visit very rarely since they live so far away from the Temple. The anticipation of worshiping God through the sacrifice is high but suddenly those hopes come to a screeching to a halt because Jesus is smashing apart the area where worshipers could purchase animals to sacrifice. Without an animal there was no sacrifice. Without a sacrifice there was no worship. And worship of God was of paramount importance to the Jewish community. It was in the worship of God that they received their meaning and purpose and their very identity. Worship was vital to the life of the Jewish community.
For many of us we rationalize that Jesus was reeling against unfair business practices. We argue that the business people were gouging the worshipers and getting rich at the expense of the temple. We would say that for travelers who ventured great distances and could not bring an animal from home would be at the mercy of the business people and their price fixing for their own benefit.
But if we look at the text carefully, it never says that Jesus was upset with unfair business practices. It simply says that Jesus entered the temple, saw the “market place,” made a whip out of cord and then began to turn it upside down. We place our suppositions into the text. Could there be a deeper reason for Jesus’ actions that may speak to the heart of corrupt worship practices of the Jewish community that would get in the way of the community experiencing the fullness of the Kingdom of God? Remember just sentences ago Jesus’ miraculous sign, changing water into wine, spoke of the nature of the Kingdom of God that was marked by abundance, extravagance, transformation and newness. Could it be that the Jewish people were worshiping the sacrifice and not God? Could it be that a sign that was supposed to usher them into the presence of God instead took their focus off of the presence of God?
The disciples remembered the passage from Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus demonstrated passion for the temple and its true meaning. God had instructed the construction of the temple as a visible sign of his presence. It was erected on a hill so that those coming to Jerusalem would see it from a distance and know that God was there. The temple was in the center of Jerusalem reminding all that God was the center of their lives. Jesus had zeal for the temple in as much as it represented the primacy and centrality of the presence of God in the lives of the Jewish community and his anger was fueled that it had been reduced to an embedded religious and cultural practice that lacked any power to move participants into God’s presence and usher in the Kingdom of God.
Is Jesus still reeling against our religious practices today? Do we really experience the presence of God in our religious practices and sign-acts in the church? Do we really experience the presence of God in our daily lives? Or has our faith become more of the status quo? As a test, think about the last time you participated in the Lord’s Supper or attended worship. Did it usher you into the presence of God? Or were you merely present at the service and not experiencing the God who desires to be the primary and central part of your life? Does zeal for God’s house consume you?
"But if we look at the text carefully, it never says that Jesus was upset with unfair business practices.'
ReplyDeleteInteresting point...and very true for the Gospel of John. Of course, it is very different in the other Gospels. In Mark 11, for instance:
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
I believe that your statement is true but could it be interpreted in other ways? Does "making my father's house a den of robbers" necessarily mean that people were being robbed of money? Jesus first says that his father's house is a place of prayer. It had been converted into something that God had not intended it to be. So could it possibly be that the people were robbed of true nature of the temple, which was to move them into the presence of God? Further as I look at the text preceding Mark 11:15, one of the striking stories is Jesus entering into Jerusalem. While the people welcomed him with shouts and palm branches, they misunderstood the nature of his messiah-ship which is an overarching theme of Mark. They were in the presence of God's son and they did not realize it because they were focused on an earthly leader. They too had been robbed of the opportunity to fully realize who Jesus was.
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ReplyDeleteI think when you look at the passage in Mark, and in particular at the use of the story of the fig tree that wraps around the cleansing of the Temple, it seems to say that the Temple has stopped bearing fruit...it looks active from a distance, and is particularly active during Passover; but, when you get close to it, it has been consumed by things of this world.
ReplyDeleteSo, I completely agree that Christ is upset that the true nature of the Temple had been perverted; but, I do think the commerce was spoken to specifically. Great topic!