"House Cleaning"  Judy Skaggs, UPC

Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22

This week is Spring Break. The trees are budding, a few wildflowers are blooming – it’s time for spring cleaning! We might even say that Lent is a time for a spiritual cleansing. On Ash Wednesday, as we began our Lenten journey, we spoke about fasting in which we empty ourselves, and of meditating on the Word of God in which we will have our minds and hearts transformed. So in our Gospel lesson, Jesus performs his own kind of house cleaning.

The event described in our Gospel today is one of the few stories that is in all four Gospels. The interesting thing is that in the 3 synoptics, it is at the end of Jesus’ ministry, during the last week of his life, but John places it here at the beginning. This was really the first public act of Jesus, according to John! John seems to place this story early in his Gospel to teach his readers something more about who Jesus is.

Picture the scene! It is Passover in Jerusalem. This means that as many as two million Jews would be coming to Jerusalem for the celebration. By this time Jews were scattered all over the world, but they returned if at all possible for this greatest of Jewish feasts.

In order to worship in the temple, every Jew had to pay a temple tax. This was necessary so that the rituals and sacrifices of the temple could be carried out day after day. The amount of the tax was about 2 days wages for the average working person. The problem was that all these people were coming from places that had different currencies, but the temple tax had to be paid in Galilean sheckels. So the money changers were a necessity. And often they would charge extra to change the coins, as much as double the value of the coins.

Besides the money changers, there were those who sold sacrificial animals, because frequently a trip to the temple involved a sacrifice – a thank offering, or an offering for sin. Pilgrims might bring their own animals, but the temple had inspectors to examine the animals because they had to be without blemish. There was a fee for the inspection, and rarely did an animal pass that inspection. So the pilgrim would then have to purchase the overpriced animals in the temple market. For example, a pair of doves which was the usual offering for the poor, cost 4 cents outside the temple, but as much as 75 cents inside.

But apparently there was something besides the overpricing that caught Jesus’s attention that day. According to Amy Jill Levine, the marketplace was normally located on the Mount of Olives, away from the temple courts. People could change their money and purchase animals and then proceed down to the temple for worship and sacrifice. But the Chief Priest had moved the marketplace inside the temple courts, into the Court of the Gentiles.

So as Jesus enters the temple that day, he is not only challenging the abuses that are taking place, but he is challenging the temple system itself and those who have authority there. Jesus finds that the temple is no longer a sacred space. Ironically, all these activities were necessary for the functioning of the temple, but did they have to take place inside in the Court of the Gentiles? Was this not robbing the Gentiles of the one place where they were allowed to enter and pray?

Jesus does not just explode, but he takes time to find some cords and ties them together in order to make a whip. And as he moved through the market he created holy havoc!  – animals squealing and running about wildly, tables turning over, coins bouncing across the floor, doves wings flapping and Jesus crying out! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace! In the other gospels, he cries out that it is a den of robbers.

Jesus seems to single out the sellers of doves because the dove was the only thing the poor could afford. Perhaps he remembers that his parents had offered a pair of doves at his dedication. Part of Jesus’s indignation was that the poor were being cut off from being able to fully worship their God.

As the merchants are gathering up bleating sheep and scattered coins, they ask for an explanation in the form of a sign. Notice that no one condemns his actions – perhaps they knew that he was right. Perhaps his actions make them think of the words of the prophet Malachi, “and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap…. and he will purify the descendents of Levi and refine them like gold and silver until they present offerings in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:1-4)

Perhaps what they experienced that day made them ask if this could be the long-awaited Messiah spoken of in the prophets. And so what they ask is where his authority comes from.

Now it is so typical of Jesus to not answer a question directly, but instead he makes a statement that they misunderstand. Jesus says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

They take his statement very literally. We have to remember how precious the temple was to them. For without a temple, their identity is changed. It is in the temple that they understand their relationship with God, it is in this place that their culture was secured. So they cannot imagine what Jesus means by being able to destroy the temple and raise it again in three days.

The writer, however, provides a clarification and a glimpse of things to come. Jesus is speaking of his own body. And for an instant, the shadow of the cross falls across our story. We hear the words of his making a whip of cords and we remember that he was scourged before his crucifixion. We hear the word used for the pouring out of the coins on the money changers tables, and remember the new covenant that his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

It is as if John pulls us aside and whispers in our ear an explanation that will be made clear years later.

But just like the disciples of that time, don’t we often understand our experiences with God when we look backward? It is especially difficult to see how God is present in the midst of hard times. It seems like all our energy is just going into getting through the crisis, and we often forget to look for God. We when we reflect back, we can see – oh, that was why that happened or that is what I have learned. Now I see God’s hand!

We see that in the lives of the disciples when we read the book of Acts and see how their lives were completely transformed by the life of Christ. But often at the time when they were traveling around with Jesus, listening to him and watching him heal and cast out demons, they could not understand. But what we need to remember is that eventually, they got it!

Last week, our youth preached on the text about Peter misunderstanding about why Jesus would have to die. Jesus said to him, “Peter, you are setting your mind on human things, not on divine things.” Carey told us that great story about the man who was given some glasses to be able to see as God sees. And that man finally got it!

So perhaps, these Lenten texts are meant to help us in our understanding of how God is working and of how God sees the world. The Corinthian text reminds us that what might be foolishness to us may be wisdom in God’s eyes.

We might have entered the temple that day and not have been outraged at all, as Jesus was. We might have just seen business as usual and as necessary – a human point of view.

But Jesus saw injustice; Jesus saw a misuse of God’s house; and through his actions, we become aware of the injustice and begin to examine our own worship practices.

So, friends, as we continue our Lenten journey, may we turn more and more toward God; may be more aware of how God is invading our lives; may we begin to see more from a divine point of view. May we see Christ and may we follow! Amen.