Cleansing Our Temple

John 2:13-22

March 8, 2015

Cleansing Our Temple

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ the one still has zeal for this house of Worship, amen.

The Gospel of John has been noted for three things. It is deceptively simple in the vocabulary--it is very easy to read. It is also annoyingly convoluted in style. John uses metaphors and multiple meanings. He has characters that don’t seem to be on the same page when they talk to one another. Finally John is consistently triumphant. From the beginning until the end Jesus is in charge. Creation happened through Jesus and at the time of crucifixion Jesus lays down his own life, it is not taken from him. Even at the moment of his death John says Jesus announces “It is finished” and then gives up his spirit. Even in death Jesus decides when it is finished.

The Gospel text for today has almost universally been dubbed the Cleansing of the Temple. This text also demonstrates these three characteristics typical of John’s Gospel. It is called the Cleansing of the Temple because the smart people who read and study the Bible say that Jesus is cleaning house of all the people who are buying and selling things in the Temple. They say Jesus is cleaning up the corruption of those who were overcharging or making a profit for the selling of animals for the sacrifice. They say they were too close to the Holy of Holies or the inner portion of the Temple. The trouble I have with these interpretations is the fact that corruption within the system is not mentioned in John’s Gospel as a motivating factor for Jesus’ sudden and some might say even violent outburst. This is too deceptively simple. In fact, John never says anything about temple corruption anywhere in his Gospel. He never says anythingabout the priests robbing the poor or consuming the houses of widows. If corruption had been running rampant and been the motivation for Jesus’ actions, you’d think there would have been some mention of this by John. There is no demonization of Big SacrificialAnimal Providers making windfall profits off the backs of poor peasants coming to Jerusalem for their annual pilgrimage and sacrifice. If this had been occurring don’t you think John would have said so? What’s more it seems to me the companies who offer perfect, blemish free sheep, cattle and doves are offering a great service to those who are travelling from a distance. First of all, they don’t have to raise perfect, blemish free sacrificial animals. They don’t have to bring these prefect animals clear across the desert into town and then find a place for them to be housed while they await the proper time for the sacrifice. They don’t have to cart along extra foodto feed these animals who are about to be sacrificed anyway… No, thefolks who bred, raised and sold the sacrificial animals offered a great service to these pilgrims. Once the pilgrims arrive in town all they have to do is determine what size sacrifice they require to atone for the sins they had committed, how much they could afford to pay, and they could purchase either a pair of doves, a sacrificial lamb, or a full blown ox. What’s more, these animals came with certificates of perfection because you were buying them directly from the end user. This was important because only perfect first born blemish free animals could be offered as sacrifice according to Jewish law.

I think perhaps this story might be a little annoyingly convoluted as well. There might be more going on here than Jesus being upset with the cost of a pair of turtle doves, a scape goat, or a sacrificial bull. In today’s terms I don’t think it’s selling knives, as the women are planning, or even about holding an auction in the basement that has Jesus’ ire. The market place Jesus was upset about had nothing to do with the price of a pair of doves, the price of an ox or a scape goat, or even the selling of lilies to adorn the altar for Easter. It had much more to do with the thought process of people thinking they could behave any way they want as long as they pay God the appropriate homage in terms of the animals that are sacrificed. The exchange of sacrificial blood as the payment for their sins created a thriving marketplace solely owned and operated by the ruling religious leaders. In today’s terms we tend to think we can do whatever we want as long as we come to the house of God and offer one hour, and no more, as our sacrifice.

What if any relevance does this story have for us today? What practices do we have around here that might draw such a negative reaction from Jesus? How have we turned God’s house into a marketplace? Thankfully you all gave up selling cattle from the narthex before I got here… I wonder if Jesus had to cleanse the Temple because of all the droppings from all those head of cattle they had milling around. Seriously, on a spiritual level have we turned this house into a market place when we think we can behave anyway we want as long as we come here on Sunday mornings and confess our sin? Does God’s grace cover us so completely and make us so immune from the consequences of our Sin that we fail to repent and change? If so, we have cheapened God’s grace to the point where many today don’t even feel the weight of their own sin? The Law has lost its teeth! When people no longer feel responsible for their sin, when they don’t even recognize they are sinning there is no need for a savior, there is no need for repentance, and there is no need for a Church to proclaim Christ Crucified and raised from the dead. It’s no wonder Church attendance had steadily declined in this country and the Churches in Europe have long been empty shells. Today we feel the righteous anger of our Lord against the people, not for simple buying and selling of sacrificial animals, but for an entire corrupt system that allowed for the buying and selling of God’s gifts of love and forgiveness. The corruption wasn’t in the overcharges, but the fact that they thought you could buy their way out of the sin problem at all. What price to pay for your life? How many sacrifices are required? How much is enough?

It wasn’t any different in Martin Luther’s day either. Purchase an indulgence or two and you could spring your dead loved one from the suffering and agony of purgatory. The sale of certificates of forgiveness was what funded the building of Saint Peters Basilica in Rome. Today we need to guard against the same theology that allowed for the sale of indulgences. In some protestant denominations the exchange goes something like this, “All you have to do is allow Jesus to enter into your heart and you will be saved from the sin of this world.” There’s a couple of things wrong with that statement. First, anything you say after “All you have to do is …” turns God’s gift of grace, love, and mercy into a marketplace exchange. I do this and in return, God does that… It turns salvation into a transaction. It makes salvation a business and turns God into a forgiveness broker. And it’s wrong, wrong, wrong!

Jesus wanted his disciples to know that people come first. It’s not the condition of our wallets that matters, it’s the condition of our hearts. He wanted people to understand their relationship to God wasn’t based on monetary economic transactions. He wanted to let the people know that the entire system of offering sacrificial scape goats was over. When they destroy the temple of His body and then when He rises from the dead Jesus would become the last sacrifice that would be needed ever, period. There is a transaction that takes place for your salvation, but it isn’t one that you’re involved in. The stakes in this exchange are far more than any of us could afford, even more than Bill Gates with all his billions… Martin Luther called in the “Happy Exchange.” He said Jesus became the “Happy Exchange”. Jesus exchanged our Sin for His suffering. He exchanged our guilt for His glory. He exchanged our death for new life in Him.

Is this a simple story, deceptively so. Is it convoluted, annoyingly so. As far as the consistently triumphant part goes Jesus does appear like the young Indiana Jones whip and all. He drives out the cattle and overturns the money changer’s tables. Pretty impressive stuff for this hayseed from Nazareth!

May Jesus upset our tables and drive out of us anything that interferes with our worship of God in Spirit and in Truth. May we come to understand that our forgiveness can never be bought with our sacrifice of animals, or our sacrifice of our time, talents, and treasure. May we recognize when our faith is being corrupted into thinking we must do something, anything to earn God’s grace, love and mercy. And may God move mightily in us to share these truths with our friends and our neighbors. Thanks be to God and to Jesus for cleansing our temple and freeing us to live in His grace, amen.