Death was coming in the darkness. Every family would be touched by death. Grief was on the wings of the night. The only way to be saved was to eat a special meal with unleavened bread and put the blood of the sacrificial lamb above the door post. Those in the community who followed these instructions would be spared—they would be identified as different from those in the other community. The other community was part of the world, they followed the wrong king. But the community that was separated from the world, the community that followed the instructions of Moses would be saved—the angel of death would pass over them. From that time the community would celebrate the Passover. They were a people called out of the world, separated from the sin, darkness and death; they would not follow the wrong king.
John the Gospel writer knew that the Christians of his day would understand the significance of the Passover; they would know that the broken body and the spilled blood of Christ identified a community called to follow the true God. Those who followed the true king would not be part of this darkness of this world. John begins telling us about the time that Jesus drove evil out of the Temple by mentioning the Passover. He wanted us to understand that that Jesus cleansed the Temple to make it ready for the Passover that would be celebrated in just a few days. Jesus was passionate about God House.
Scripture: John 2:13-22 NLT
13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
This is the Word of God for the people of God.
The story of Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple is in all four of the Gospels and is a story familiar to most Christians. It is clear that the money changers were wrong. Perhaps many of us have heard sermons about how bad the Temple leaders were. Today I would like for us to have a little—just a little—sympathy for the Temple leaders.
The basic issue was that the Temple was supposed to be kept ceremonially clean. The people who came to worship, to give tithes and to make sacrifices were supposed to bring only acceptable offerings. Roman money and unfit animals would not be accepted. Imagine that for some reason our government started printing pornographic pictures on one dollar bills. Some people might want ushers to meet people in the parking lot so that they could trade five of those offensive ones for five dollar bills that still had the picture of a president on it. That is a reasonable thing. But suppose that this went on, and people appreciated the ushers driving to the bank during the week and being ready with a stack of acceptable fives on Sunday. Because they appreciate the work of the users, perhaps people would begin giving the ushers a little tip to pay for the gas they used driving to the bank. Years later, perhaps the tip would be expected as a standard charge. The same kind of thing happened with the Roman money that was not acceptable in the Temple. The Temple leaders provided the service of exchanging unacceptable money for acceptable money. Probably they started with good intentions, but later began extorting high fees.
To continue with trying to get a current “picture” of this situation it will help if you imagine that over in Burke County they aren’t as careful in the way they bred and handle sheep as we are here in Caldwell County. So, to make sure that only good, clean sheep are allowed in, we will have a few of the same ushers bring in locally grown, Caldwell County sheep for people to buy and use for their sacrifices. At first this would be a good arrangement, but gradually reasonable charges would be replaced with excessive fees.
To make matters even worse, the way the Temple was designed, only Jewish men were allowed in the central section. Women and Gentiles were allowed to worship in the outer sections. The Temple leaders wouldn’t allow the money exchangers and those selling animals to disrupt worship in the central area where the Jewish men were, but they didn’t mind interfering with the worship of the Gentiles or the women. Do you see what happened? By the time of Jesus, the Temple was overrun with greedy, noisy people. By the time of Jesus, there was no place in the Temple for women or Gentiles to worship.
I doubt the Temple leaders realized how terrible this situation was. They started with good intentions, but over many years they gradually ended up perverting God’s House. The people and the leaders failed to have a true passion for God’s house.
My grandma Taylor often told me about growing up at a time when children were expected the children to contribute to the family. For generations her family had been farmers who raised large families and they always put the kids to work in the fields as soon as they were old enough. But her parents moved to a textile mill village for a better life. They still held to the idea that families should have a lot of children so the children could bring in an income for all of the family. With that idea in mind it seemed normal when her daddy took her out of school when she was 12 and put her to work in a textile mill. Not only were there no child labor laws that prevented it, most people thought it was the right thing. Many friends who were her age worked with her. She told me that every Friday she took her pay home, gave it to her daddy, and sometimes he would give her a little spending money—but not always.
In modern times we have child labor laws that prevent industry from abusing children. There was a time when children, like my grandmother, were forced to work at industrial jobs—especially in textiles. At its worst, years before my grandmother worked in the mills, there were foremen in England who would literally chain children to the machines. ”The first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Children younger than nine were not allowed to work and the work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.” (i) People thought it was OK to put 5 and 6 year olds to work! How did society get into a mess in which there had to be laws to stop industry from putting children under 9 to work?
It happened the same way the Temple leaders at the time of Jesus thought it was OK to buy and sell in the Temple. It happened the same way the Temple leaders thought it was OK to use the only space where women and Gentiles could worship as a store. They convinced themselves that there was nothing wrong—most people agreed with them, and the religious leaders didn’t point out the problem. The same thing happened in Nazi Germany. Gradually most people became convinced that exterminating a large group of people would help society. Most church leaders went along with the plan. The government supported the plan. Six million people were killed. Among them was a Lutheran minister who wrote several books that I have read. How did Germany come to sponsor the holocaust? It happened the same way the Temple leaders at the time of Jesus thought it was OK to buy and sell in the Temple—gradually and with no one speaking out against it. I am convinced that if all Christians recognized the evil and worked diligently they could have brought the Nazi problem under control.
I worked with many dangerous inmates during the many years I was employed by the prison system. The violent prison gangs that began to profligate during the last several years I worked in the prison frightened me more than any other situation. The lifeblood of these dangerous gangs is drug money—especially the profits of cocaine trafficking. The horrible and extensive violence in Mexico that we see in the news is spreading into the US. Some people are upset because 90% of the cocaine in the US comes through Mexico. But we have to remember that 90% of the drug money and the guns in Mexico comes from the US (ii). How much money are we Americans sending the violent drug lords in Mexico? “Forbes magazine reports that Guzman Loera [who] escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 [is]… ranked 701 on [their] report, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.”(iii) Essentially our nation is buying the violence that comes with cocaine trafficking. How did we come to sponsor this violence? How have we become a nation that tolerates cocaine addition among our people? It happened the same way the Temple leaders at the time of Jesus thought it was OK to buy and sell in the Temple. The people and the leaders failed to have a true passion for God’s house. I am convinced that if all Christians worked diligently we could bring the problem of cocaine under control.
What happened to our financial system in the US recently? Greed became widespread. People wanted bigger, more expensive houses even though they couldn’t afford to pay for them. Bankers wanted to give as many loans as possible so they could earn more and more money from the interest. It became common place to make and to get these risky loans—loans that were very likely to result in default. There was no one providing oversight to stop the process. How did we come to be caught in the worst recession in years? It happened the same way the Temple leaders at the time of Jesus thought it was OK to buy and sell in the Temple. The people and the leaders failed to have a true passion for God’s house and no one spoke up against the problem. I am convinced that if all Christians had worked diligently we could have avoided the current problem caused by greed, and I still believe that the church can help our nation bring the problem with greed under control.
So far, we have been looking at problems that are spread across society. Over the years Christians have been known for dealing with many of these problems. We were in the forefront in developing child labor laws. Many of our Methodist women worked in the Temperance movement last century. We need strong Christians to address the problems we face today.
But let us turn our attention from society to us as individuals. When Jesus drove people out of the Temple, he forced individuals to move, to stop what they were doing—when they were running from the whip it was not business as usual. What does Jesus need to drive out of our lives? Each of us will have to answer this question for ourselves, but I will point to a couple of possible answers to the question: What does Jesus need to drive out of our lives.
Let’s begin with anger. At the time of the crucifixion, Jesus didn’t get a whip and run people off. He submitted to the abuse he received. But when the money changers wouldn’t let Gentiles and women worship, Jesus took a whip and drive them out of the Temple. Jesus became angry when others were mistreated, not when he was mistreated. What a wonderful example for all of us. Let us keep that distinction clear—Jesus became angry when others were mistreated, not when he was crucified. The lesson is that it is OK to be angry on behalf of others, but great caution is necessary for any selfish anger—any anger that has to do with how we are treated. Do we need to have selfish anger driven out of our lives?
Another point to keep in mind has to do with greed. The Temple leaders started with a plan to provide acceptable sacrifices and offerings, but they grew greedy. “In his day, John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest men in the world. For all practical purposes, his money was virtually limitless. Once, an interviewer asked him, ‘How much money is enough?’ Rockefeller replied, ‘Just a little bit more!’ (iv) Have any of us fallen into the trap of wanting “just a little bit more,” and then a little bit more until we are not satisfied with what God has given us? Are any of us caught in the web of greed? Do we need to have greed driven from our lives?
As I have read and re-read this Scripture this week I have had a little sympathy for the money changers. They were sitting there doing business as usual. They were probably as satisfied with their situation as we are satisfied with ours. I can imagine that most of them wanted a few little improvements in their life, but none of them expected the explosion of anger from Jesus. Are we more like the reasonably satisfied workers in the Temple, or are we filled with world changing zealousness like that of Jesus? Do we need to have contentment driven out of our lives so that we can be filled with the zealousness of Christ?
What needs to be driven from our lives so that we can have a passion for God’s House?
Amen
(i) The Life of the Industrial Worker in Ninteenth-Century England Laura Del Col, West Virginia University quoted by wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor
(ii) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/28/world/main4835694.shtml
(iii) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/28/world/main4835694.shtml; Mexico: U.S. Must Stop Gun Trade At Border
(iv) Walter Moodie, with Glen Hoos; Money Management for the Christian Family; accessed at http://christianwomentoday.com/money/3step.html
