Occupy the Temple

Eric Lemonholm

January 8, 2012

Baptism of Our Lord – with alternate texts

Acts 18:1-11, II Thessalonians 2:16-17, John 2:13-25

 

Occupy the Temple

Did it seem strange to you that on Baptism of Jesus Sunday we did not hear the story of Jesus’ baptism?

Instead, Jesus clears the sellers and the money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Well, here’s why: we are exploring the Gospel of John this year, and John skips Jesus’ baptism, instead starting Jesus’ ministry with the sign of turning water into wine at the wedding banquet, which you heard last week, followed by today’s story.

John puts the clearing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry rather than at the end, as the other Gospels do.

 

It’s important.

Jesus’ action to disrupt the religious economy of the Temple sets the stage for his ministry.

As Andrew Greeley said, “Jesus and his troublemaking go merrily on.”

Now, the Temple was the religious, economic, and political center of Judea.

In the ancient world, religion, economics, and politics were not separate; they were fully intertwined.

Overturning the money changers tables in the Temple was tantamount to not only occupying Wall Street but clearing out the bankers and speculators!

Causing a riot in the Jerusalem Temple during the Passover, when probably over 100,000 pilgrims were crowding into the city, was a radical and dangerous move.

Jesus was radical.

He called into question the ancient – and biblical – practices of Temple worship.

 

Jesus is zealous for his Father’s house.

Mark’s Gospel records that Jesus said, “Is it not written [by the prophet Isaiah (56:7)], ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?  But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17)

Jesus reflects Jeremiah the prophet’s criticism of the wealthy rulers who rob the common people with the blessing and support of the Temple (Jer. 7:11).

 

Jesus is not criticizing the Jewish faith as a whole, but the way that his Father’s house, which should have been a sacred space for prayer for the pilgrims who gathered there from all nations, was instead a noisy marketplace filled with those who prey on the poor.

 

Here is how Bruce Chilton describes the scene in his book Rabbi Jesus:

As he purified the Temple of merchants, Jesus must have felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. All the tension that had accumulated during the years spent on the run from [Herod] Antipas went into this stormy, calculated outburst. His long-standing dream of pure sacrifice in the place that meant more to him than anywhere else on earth was now being realized. For a brief time, he was a master of the Temple. He thundered in his triumph (John 2:19), “You are destroying this Temple, and … I will raise it up!” He and his followers fled before the Temple police could summon reinforcements and the garrison could deal with them; Jesus’ occupying mob would have been no match against 80 trained [and armed] Roman soldiers. The Galileans dispersed into the city. Jesus, with James, the Twelve and a few others, hustled back to Bethany. They re-entered the house of Miriam and Martha exhilarated: They had purified the “cave of thugs.”[1]

 

Like the Occupy Wall Street movement, Jesus’ action was a symbolic takeover of the Temple grounds.

It did not permanently change the conditions for the people.

The money changers and the unscrupulous vendors returned to their places in the Temple.

 Undoubtedly, security was beefed up to keep the masses in line.

 

But Jesus’ action struck at the heart of the system.

What if the people did not need to go to the Temple to sacrifice animals for their sins?

What if they did not need to support the system that was oppressing them for the sake of their own salvation?

What if the perfect sacrifice had arrived?

What if God’s Word had pitched his tent among us?

Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

The new Temple is Jesus.

Destroy this Temple, says Jesus, and I will rise.

Remember, even though Jesus’ baptism is not recorded in John’s Gospel, John the Baptist plays a big role in pointing to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

 

You don’t need to buy unblemished lambs or doves at inflated prices to sacrifice for your sins.

Jesus offers himself as the Lamb of God.

 

Back to zeal.

Jesus is zealous for God’s house.

He does not want it to be a marketplace, a seedbed and prop for crony capitalism.

He does not want a religious elite profiting from the offerings of the poor.

 

No, Jesus wants his Father’s house to be a house of prayer for all people.

I want us to think about that in relation to Good Shepherd.

This body of Christ.

What if the first thing you said when someone asks you about Good Shepherd was this: Good Shepherd is a house of prayer for all people.

The church is a school of prayer, a place where we learn to live and share Jesus with our world – and then we do it, living and sharing Jesus daily in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s get to work!  Pray…