Cleansing the Temple: Jesus the Reformer – Epiphany 4
By Charles Rush
February 3, 2002
John 2: 12-22
want to share woth you a few famous proverbs that were completed by 1st graders, who had never heard them before. Out of the mouth of babes comes proverbial wisdom…
Strike while the ...................... bug
is close.
It's always darkest before..............Daylight
Savings Time.
No news is........................... impossible.
You can't teach an old dog new........math.
The pen is mightier than the............pigs.
An idle mind is....................... the best way to relax.
Where there's smoke there's............pollution.
Happy the bride who...................gets
all the presents.
A penny saved is.......................not
much.
Don't put off till tomorrow what........ you put on to go to bed.
There are none so blind as..............Stevie
Wonder.
Children should be seen and not........spanked
or grounded.
And the favorite ....
Better late than ........................pregnant.
Those are great aren't they? There is nothing quite as
preposterous to children as an old word in a new world. Elders, or at least
those old in Spirit, are always the last to get it that things have changed
around them. In our text this morning, Jesus speaks a new Word to the leaders
of the Temple, a word that they simply cannot hear, because they are vested in
the structures of Tradition, resistant to change under any circumstance.
This
story is one of the few that is told in all four Gospels. In Matthew, Mark, and
Luke the Cleansing of the Temple comes at the very end of Jesus life, the last
week of his life. Jesus goes about the country teaching and healing people,
then he goes to Jerusalem, Cleanses the Temple, and it sets in motion a number
of responses from the Priests, the Chief Priests, and ultimately the Governor
that leads to the death of Jesus.
In the
Gospel of John, interestingly, the cleansing of the Temple happens right at the
beginning of Jesus' ministry. It is one of the very first things he does.
First, Jesus shows up at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And he turns the water
into wine. It is a good story for those who say that religion is of no value-
water into wine- now that could come in handy. [As my New Testament professor
in Divinity school liked to say, you ever notice that the wedding runs out of
wine, just after the disciples show up- like a bunch of fraternity boys that
make a hard run on the keg.] In the gospel of John, turning water into wine is
a theological symbol that the Messianic era has arrived, full of joy and
celebration, a great party thrown by God for all of us is happening and Jesus
is at the heart of it. That is the first thing that Jesus does.
Then
this, he makes a whip out of chords and enters the area around the Temple
Mount. This is a pretty busy place at the beginning of Passover, because all
the people that had come from around the Mediteranean for the Passover were
coming here to get the things they needed to make their sacrifices. And Jesus makes
a whip and runs all of the people selling things for the Passover, out of the
Temple area, pronouncing that they had profaned the worship of things. And he
predicts the destruction of the Temple and an end to this form of worship.
Jesus was
right on both counts. About 60 years after he died, the Temple was destroyed
during an insurrection against the Roman Empire, which failed miserably. The
Romans pulled down the Temple, slaughtered thousands of Jews, and sent the Jews
into what became the modern diaspora- the great migration where Jews fanned out
all across Turkey, Russia, and Europe.
In the
process, Temple worship came to an end. The worship that entailed sacrifice
came to an end. The whole Jewish priesthood came to an end. And Judaism became
a family worship, centered in the home, organized by Rabbi's, who were
principally teachers of tradition.
History
aside, I thought I would lift up this text today, since we are about to begin
Lent, the period in the Church calendar that remembers Jesus' turn towards
Jerusalem, a turn that led to suffering and death. I thought it was important
to point out why Jesus died. He came into a very real confrontation with the
religious leaders of the day.
John says
this confrontation came at the beginning of his ministry, the other Gospels
have it at the end of his ministry. Both are saying the same thing in different
ways. John is a much more literary, theological, symbolic gospel. John puts
this event right at the front of Jesus' ministry because it portends the climax
of the Gospel. It is the theme that is introduced at the very beginning that
gets developed through his life and finally comes to a culmination.
Jesus has
only one other direct confrontation with the religious authorities, which again
has a literary, theological, symbolic character to it. It comes when he raises
Lazarus from the dead in the gospel of John. There the religious authorities
are worried again. They say, “This man is performing many signs. If we leave
him alone like this, the whole populace will believe in him. Then the Romans
will come and sweep away our temple and our nation (11:47, 48, 53).” The
passage ends with a portent, “They (the religious authorities) plotted from
that day on to do away with him.”
These are
the two themes that will cause a great confrontation- religious reform and the
resurrection. And they both beckon the same question from the people in Jesus'
day. It is found in our passage this morning in verse 18. The people say, “What
sign can you show as your authority?” Or as we might say today, ‘what gives you
the right?' ‘By what authority do you do what you do?'
It is a
great question, one we still ask. Why do you believe what you believe? When I
was a graduate student, all the graduate students from the different departments
came together to take languages- German, French and Latin. Everyone had to pass
these courses and it brought all of us together- Physics, Chemistry,
Engineering, History, Religion.
We had
one enormously bright student in Physics that stood out for his logical
obduracy. He was annoyingly intelligent. He absolutely despised language and
only passed because of his near photographic memory. The French professor would
be declining a an irregular verb which, of course, had exceptions to the rule-
which just had to be memorized. Hand in the air. This guy would say ‘Professor,
shouldn't it be declined with an ois ending?' ‘Yes', the professor would say,
‘it should but it doesn't which is why we call it an irregular verb'.
This guy
would say, ‘That's stupid. Why don't the French just follow their own rules?'
The professor would say, ‘because they just don't'. This guy would say, ‘That's
stupid. I'd develop a little more consistency if it were my language.' And the
professor would say, ‘But Bill, it's not your language.'
Every day
this went on. We got to be good friends- not friends, good classmates- because
I was about the only person that could get him to engage the actual French that
we have to learn and he was grateful.
One day
he says to me, “I have a question for you. You seem like your not stupid and
you've read a lot more than I have but there is one thing I don't get?”
“What is
it Bill?”
“How come
you believe Christianity? All that stuff about God talking to people… all that
stuff about Jesus being divine… and walking on the water and stuff… You don't
really believe all that do you. I'm only asking because you've read quite a lot
and you seem like your not stupid.'
Bill was
just blunter than most people because when God made Bill he had to use up all
his social skills in order to make him smart. But if I've had this conversation
once, I've had it one hundred times in the past twenty years.
I resonate with the question. From the
beginning, the Orthodox answer to the question has been that we believe in the
Truth that Jesus is the Christ because of the miraculous things that he did,
the prophecies that he fulfilled.
The
authority of the Orthodox has rested on the assumption that there is an
unbroken line from the time of Jesus to the present. St. Peter, the Rock, the
first of the disciples, became the Bishop of Rome. Roman Christianity
flourished. It gave us the scriptures as we have them today. It convened all
the early Councils that established what Christians believed.
Today,
when you listen to the best Catholic scholars, the authority they cite is the
authority of the Church itself. It is the sheer number of adherents- fully a
fifth of the world's population, the largest land owner in Europe by a long
shot, the sheer number of Churches, the sheer mental and spiritual power that
is invested in the College of Cardinals that decide doctrine and morals for the
faithful. They cite, in short, Tradition with a capital T. They stand for
Tradition, they embody Tradition, they live out Tradition.
It is a compelling
argument, which is why many of the brightest Christian minds choose to become
Catholic. The tradition is rich indeed. I might point out the obvious, that
this was essentially the argument of those in charge of the Temple when they
faced Jesus. They pointed to the massive Temple behind them as being the
authoritative Tradition and asked him, ‘who are you?'
The
tradition argument is compelling but if you live with Tradition for a while, it
is as human and compromised as anything in this world. A little of that gloss loses its shine upon
closer inspection. A quick review of the history of the Papacy is rife with
examples of Popes that were more like Ceasar than the Vicar of Christ.
I'm
thinking of one of the Borgia's- and it amazing how many people from that one
family were Pope at one time or another. One of them had these lavish dinners
at the Vatican and liked to show off just how wealthy he was by throwing his
silver off the balcony into the Tiber river after each course rather than have
it washed. He was also cheap. And he had his servants stand beneath the balcony
with nets to catch the silver before it went by-by for good.
We have
lots of examples of leaders of the
Church behaving more like generals than Monks, plotting political intrigue rather
than simple virtue. When you read Church history as a whole, there is a strong
‘in spite of ourselves' quality to it that should engender more humility than
assurance.
“By what
authority?” An interesting question. Even if Jesus was the Christ, it was far
from evident at the time. The kind of authority that relies upon tradition,
that relies upon objective structure, is fleeting is it not? Many people who
are successful comment on that fact. Sic transit Gloria. You see
politicians surrounded by microphones, reporters clutching at their every word.
10 years ago, no one knew who they were, no one cared what they thought about
anything. Suddenly, they find themselves at the center of the universe. It is
very empowering, very heady, almost intoxicating. It is true of so many
vocations when you rise to the top… Everyone wants to know what you think about
this and that.
And just
so it passes. It is one of the hardest things to give up in retirement. The
phone just doesn't ring. Within a fairly short time of stepping out of the
limelight, stepping out of the center of responsibility, very few people ask
you about your opinion any more. Your spouse, who never asked you about your
opinion to begin with, surely doesn't want to hear about it now. You no longer
have that built in authority. You are just you again. No one is going to listen
to you because of your position. You are just you.
When they
asked Jesus that question, he was a nobody. He couldn't call on tradition. He
had no position. He was just a guy trying to speak the truth.
And it is
interesting what he later says about true worship. Later on in the Gospel of
John, he meets a Samaritan woman. She is not a person of power, not important…
just a woman in a patriarchal society, and only half-Jewish. She asks him about
real worship because the Samaritans worshipped in a different place than
Jerusalem, using a different ritual. And she asks the question, which one is
right, ours or theirs?
Jesus
says, “The time approaches, indeed it is already here, when those who are real
worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth. This is what God wants.”
In other
words, it is not out there, it is in here- in Spirit and Truth. The answer
reminds me of the wonderful promise of Jeremiah, ‘The time is coming when I will
write my law on their hearts'. People will not have to go around saying, do you
have the truth, do you. It will be inside.
Back to
my boneheaded friend Bill. I asked him, ‘What is the point of religion?' He
said, ‘to make us better people'. ‘That is a pretty good start', I said.
I can
only speak for myself, but over the years, I have found that what Jesus came to
tell us about produces spiritual maturity in a way that I haven't found
anywhere else- that life is about living out of grace, that forgiveness is
pivotal in relationship, that love is the goal of life, that hope in the midst
of darkness has a power to overcome like nothing else, that positive faith
radiates grace, forgiveness, and love in a way that is healing for others and
centers us as well, that this is the way that makes for peace, that true
fulfillment is not found alone but with other people working on these things
together, that the point of life is not so much to be perfect as it is to be
honest and move in the direction of integrity, that we cannot finally find
peace and centeredness in ourselves as long as other people are living in
misery and degradation so that we are people of compassion, mercy, that we must
work for justice. I have found that it is a better way of living, a more
realistic way of living. There is a self-authenticating quality to the things
the Jesus talked about. They work better than the alternatives. In other words,
the proof is in the fruit that it produces.
"So far today, God, I've done
all right. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been
greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or overindulgent. I am very thankful for
that. But in a few minutes, God, I am going to get out of bed. And
from then on, I am probably going to need a lot of help "
Amen
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