John 2:13-25
2nd Sunday in Lent 2012
There were many currency
exchange houses along the way. They
popped up annually as throngs of Jewish people made pilgrimage to the Great
Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast. Every adult Jewish male living within
fifteen miles of Jerusalem was required by sacred law to make this pilgrimage. Upon arrival, each and every one was required
to pay taxes to the Temple. These
exchange houses on the outskirts of the city very wisely offered reasonable
rates for the service of swapping foreign, ritually filthy loose change for officially
sanctioned Temple shekels.
It’s safe to assume
that Jesus made this compulsory journey to the Great Temple many times. We can conclude that He dutifully did as was
required of Him. And He may well have
stopped by any one of the conveniently located exchange houses on His way into
the Holy City.
He certainly had time
to do so on the particular pilgrimage mentioned in this morning’s Gospel
lesson. The second chapter of John
tells us this particular journey was a week-long trek from Capernaum. But based on what we are told happened
when He arrived at the Great Temple, it’s a safe bet He didn’t patronize any of
the pop-up exchange places. He hadn’t been looking for any bargains, nor
was He interested in doing business as usual.
He fully understood that He would be expected to
pay his taxes. He fully understood this
requirement supported the day to day operations of the Temple’s time-honored system
of offering sacrificial animal rituals on behalf of penitent pilgrims. But this particular Passover, Jesus had no
intention of dealing with conversions to Temple coins or the costs of
institutionally sanctioned sacrifices. On
this visit to the Great Temple, He had no intention of paying the high priests
anything in worldly currency or courtesy.
We should understand
that religious law wasn’t the only reason the Jewish people gathered together
en masse for Passover. Many also sojourned because it was tradition
and a great way to be gathered together to honor and recall the people’s epic
story of the exodus out of enslavement in ancient Egypt. Specifically, they recalled the gracious moments
of deliverance when God passed over the homes of their ancestors during days of
sin-punishing plagues. Back then, a bit
of blood from a spring lamb above the doorpost of a faithful home was the sign
of God’s protection.
So in addition to long-established religious
law, Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem was also inspired by this potent liberation narrative
of the people. The living memory of
liberation from an enslaving system likely fueled this particular journey every
step of the way.
From what John tells
us, this specific sojourn of Jesus to the Temple was not at all for the purpose
of fulfilling an annual religious obligation to a religious institution. He went to make change. And He went absolutely filled with faithful
fervor, with tremendous zeal to glorify and reveal the will of God the Father
above all else. This zeal protested the
spiritual effectiveness of sacrificing lambs, and it even more so protested the
fleecing of pilgrim people. It had
nothing to do with exchange houses … and everything to do with His exchanging
the house of God, the Temple, with His holy body.
To appreciate the
power of Jesus’ zeal in that historic moment, it’s helpful to know about
something that has been generally written about the Great Temple by Bible
scholars. Namely, that it suffered corruption
in two particular ways.
First, despite the
convenience of exchange houses outside the city, many a spiritual pilgrim
waited until they got to the Temple to swap their foreign currency for official
shekels. After all, what exchange agent could be more
trustworthy than the one operating right in the Temple court, right? But the money-changers working for the big
city Temple apparently charged an exorbitant rate. So the
honest, pious, and very often quite poor pilgrims got wrangled into paying more
than just their required taxes.
Secondly, the economic
injustice was further evidenced by a rigged process for procuring sacrificial
offerings. Pilgrims were absolutely
allowed to bring their own lambs to the Temple for the sacrificial offering. This meant, however, bringing the bleating
creature every step of the sojourn and so many did not do so. The religious officials no doubt counted on
this.
They also, however,
counted on the fact that even if an animal was brought in from the outside it
was going to have to pass official inspection.
By law, it would only be accepted if it was regarded as perfect and
unblemished. And guess what? There was a fee charged for the inspection. And guess what else? The Temple inspectors were apparently not
inclined to pass any animal they inspected.
Pilgrims were therefore forced to purchase either a lamb or a pair of
doves from sellers in the Temple court.
Go ahead and imagine what those prices
were and who made a hefty profit! One
respected Bible scholar has called this whole entire process “bare-faced
extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims.”[i] Bottom line, it seems the Temple accrued
massive wealth during this mandatory religious holiday. The good, faithful zeal pilgrims brought with
them to the Passover Feast really got zapped.
Enter Jesus. Enter the Son of God. Enter the One with the authority to call out
the Temple authorities for this fleecing.
In one of the most intensely
dramatic scenes in Scripture, Jesus’ zeal was utterly unleashed in the outer
court of the Great Temple (which, I understand, was about two football fields
in length). I enjoyed reading the way one Christian essayist
described what happened as he imagined the disciple’s reaction. He wrote, “No doubt the disciples tossed and
turned a long, sleepless night that evening; it must have been terribly
disconcerting to witness Jesus unhinged, throwing furniture, screaming at the
top of his lungs, and flinging money into the air. Perhaps they ran for cover with the crowd …
did they look him in the eyes the next morning, or shuffle their feet, stare at
the ground, and make small talk?”[ii]
Jesus’ holy zeal
caused this great disturbance during what was otherwise a mechanically
ritualistic, celebratory time -- not to simply be a nuisance or display some
sort of spiritual showmanship; not to
only protest the corruption so as to hopefully transform the Temple system for
the better. He wasn’t there that
particular Passover for renovation or even reform.
He was there to boldly,
bodily declare that the existence of the Great Temple was no longer going to be
needed as the place to be directly in the presence of God.
He was there to
boldly, bodily declare an end to the time-honored sacrificial system that had become
sinfully self-serving and therefore had ceased to honor the Almighty or
righteously serve God’s people.
He was there to
boldly, bodily declare that through Him, God was about to raze the ancient
Temple house and its sacrificial system to the ground. It
was about to be replaced with His body—starting with the very first Easter
morning – so all people would have direct, undefiled access to the merciful presence
of God. Spiritual pilgrimage henceforth
would need only be made from a person’s heart to the heart of God known through
Jesus, whose self-sacrifice was once … and for all.
Stepping from the
Bible to our present Lenten journeying -- if you were in the Temple that
particular Passover day, on that day of house exchange, what would you have
done? Who would you have been?
Would you have been a
Temple official, caught off guard by this disturbance, this bold challenge to your
time-honored authority, spouting off defensive demands to Jesus in reply? Would
you have been a confused lamb or dove seller suddenly squeezed in the middle of
an economic rebellion?
Or would you have been
a poor, exhausted pilgrim ecstatic about someone with the right kind of honest,
faithful zeal finally taking a stand for you, for liberating holy justice? Amen.
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