A Jealous God and a Zealous Messiah

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

March 15, 2009

John 2: 12-22

Of all of the mental images we have stored in our minds, the image of Jesus clearing the temple area of riff-raff is probably last on our list.

And yet…….

Here he is with a whip of leather cords, causing a scene!

Money changers (converting Roman coins into shekels), dealers (cattle, sheep, pigeons) scurrying for the exits of the temple precincts. “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” (Peterson, The Message Bible)

The Temple was prized by the Jewish people as a tangible sign of  God’s  covenant with Israel and God’s hope for freedom.

And it was the scene of other prophetic actions through the ages.

For example, see Jeremiah chapter 7:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.

 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?

And now Jesus makes his stand.As John the evangelists understand it, it was not only that Jesus thought the money changers were dishonest, or that the poor were being exploited.

Jesus was protesting that the temple was not the place for such selling and buying at all. What had happened?

For one thing, the temple area, which was built as a witness to God, had itself become the primary object of adoration.

Jesus had learned from his father and mother the Sacred Story:  that the Temple was to serve God’s holy purposes, not to be the end-all of their religion.

The vision was that “Nations shall come to [their] light and Kings to the brightness of [their] rising.” (60: 1-14)

To Abraham God had spoken: “All nations shall, through your people, be blessed.” They were blessed to be a blessing. And the temple was to be the place where the blessed people rendered their gratitude and petitions to God

At its best the Temple was the place where heaven and earth met in sacred ceremony.

Even foreigners were to be welcomed! Those who held fast to the covenant and kept the Torah would be drawn by God to the holy mountain. They and their offerings will be acceptable, “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (See Isaiah 56!)

Apparently, the temple structures had taken the place of God.

It can happen. There is nothing wrong with places set aside, or with ceremonies.

But it is not always the patently evil things that lead us away from God. It can be good, even necessary things, like buildings.

Buildings can become idols, at odds with the first and second of the Ten Commands: No other gods; no graven images!

A little church in a little town gets  restored, and they face the future unafraid---until they decide that the church is too precious to be used by children who might make some scuff marks in it.

Funds are set aside to preserve a church building which an historic marker affixed. And the question is asked, “What will happen to the funds if the church (the people) moves to a new location?” And the reply is that the funds are committed to preserve the building, not the church.  Presumably, the building would be a place where God used to be revered. It would be preserved as an historical artifact for nostalgic purposes 

In the seldom used liturgy for confirmation and baptism, it reads that

“The church (read: people of God) is of God (a creation of God!) and will be preserved to the end of time,  for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world.”

If we preserve temples, it is so that they will serve the purpose of having temples in the first place: the places where God and humans meet and the sacred story is told and prayers are lifted.

And God preserves the people of God.

We are stewards, not of buildings, but of  “Eternal realities alive in a temporal order.” (Source lost)

AND, I think Jesus also found in the temple area (the place where he came as a youth with his parents on pilgrimage) that the business, the merchandising of the church, had become the temple’s focus of energy.

Not proclaiming the kingdom of God;

not drawing people with acts of mercy;

 not as a source of great good news to the poor.

But an industry had developed around the selling of livestock so that people could gain access to God’s forgiveness.

And, the bigger the animal you can buy to sacrifice, the more important you are to God. (With pigeons the cheapest.)

The means of providing worship and prayer had become the tail that wagged the dog.

I wonder: when we give to the church, do we think we are purchasing admission to the church?!

And is the church the merchant of the means of being included? Is our giving money a transactional or a transformational offering? Are we a church of consumers of religious and spiritual products, or are we people drawn together by God because we are persuaded that God is faithful and loving?

What is at stake is the heart of the good news: we are saved (forgiven, restored to God and the community) by grace through faith and not by our works.

“Come sinners to the gospel feast; let every one be Jesus’ guest! You need not one be left behind? For God has invited all humankind!” (Charles Wesley Hymn)

Church is not a club we join; it is a community we enter.

Our gifts?  They are not  fees paid so we can approach God. They are love offerings----- a response by which we show our love of God and neighbor and our commitment to God’s continuing work in and through us!

THEN Jesus ups the ante when he is asked to give them a sign (SOMETHING TO JUSTIFY HIS ACTIONS.

He says that he himself is the temple. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” (46 years of temple work in three days!?)

He is the one in whom the people of God dwell.

Places? They serve their function, but not unless the people of God abide in Christ as the branch grows from the trunk of the tree.  Worshiping God “in spirit and in truth” does not require any particular place, but the right attitude and approach and openness to God’s presence and power. (Jouette M. Bassler, page 95, Feasting on the Word)

We need places to meet. But the dwelling of God is in the people who gather, not the specific place.

As the apostle Paul sums it up: We are the body of Christ, God making appealing to the world through us!

And what appeal is that? Expressed in many different ways. And as John sees it, it is for the Word to be made truly flesh on the earth, so that the whole world might be saved. This is the Word we are to “make flesh” in every age.  

And so our temples are made holy by the holiness that is communicated and received here---in the lives of people.

How do we keep the means from becoming ends in themselves?

We can stay awake to listen and watch for the God who leads us. And we can keep going back to the stories of the Bible and asking for God to meet us there and bring the Holy Spirit to wake us up! And we open our wounded hearts and troubled minds to God’s healing, bracing presence.

Why did Jesus display what one source calls the “energy of righteousness.” (Oxford Annotated RSV)

It must have been Jesus’ passion for God being made accessible as Savior---and his anger when he saw barricades being erected by his own religious leaders, barriers which kept  his beloved people (and strangers) at arm’s length from God’s saving presence.

A quote heard on NPR this morning on the way to the church: “Be kind to everyone, because every one you meet is carrying a great burden (or fighting a great battle.)” (Philo?)

Jesus knew our vulnerabilities, the burdens we carry and the battles we fight. His anger in the temple was because of his love for us and for the whole world---and for the God whom he prayed to as Father.

What do we say to this? Well, we must preserve our buildings (as we are now doing here at TUMC!), but always keeping in mind the purpose: for the sake of Jesus and the gospel.

But Jesus Christ is our sanctuary, our meeting-place, as the place of prayer for all people.

So, be on your guard!

The risen crucified One has been known to clear present-day temples of those who are in the religion business! Or Jesus just goes someplace else where people will take him seriously!