This morning
we take a dive into the Gospel of John.
John’s focus was on showing signs that Jesus was the messiah. In this morning’s reading, we visit a story
that was one of the most significant events of Jesus’ lifetime: Jesus cleansed
the Temple of Money Changers and Animal Sellers. After this event, Jesus
essentially was put on the “hit list” of the Romans and some of the Temple Authorities.
Listen to how John described the event
as we read John, Chapter 2, verses thirteen through twenty-two:
Scripture Reading John 2:13-22
When it was
almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the temple
courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting
at tables exchanging money.
So he made a
whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle;
he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
To those who
sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s
house into a market!”
His disciples
remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
The
Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your
authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered
them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied,
“It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise
it in three days?”
But the temple
he had spoken of was his body.
After he was
raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they
believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Now while he was
in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he
was performing and believed in his name.
But Jesus
would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need
any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Here ends this reading of the word of God
for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Understanding
May these
words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your
sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
Message
Beautiful
Law
When Jesus walked the earth, it was
common for religious people to sacrifice animals to their gods. The Old Testament is full of instructions
about how to sacrifice animals, which animals to sacrifice, and the value of
each animal. The scripture also describes the occasions upon which an animal is
to be sacrificed. When families celebrated
special life events – the birth of a child, a wedding, a child becoming an
“official” adult – each event would have a specific animal sacrifice made in
honor of the event. Although this sounds
odd, after the animals were sacrificed, the priests and their families would
eat the meat – so in some ways, part of their salaries came in the form of
food. The priest conducted the ceremony
in honor of the event, the animal was sacrificed, and then the priest received
the meat as part of their compensation for doing the service.
The Old Testament also has rules that tell the Jewish people not
to make the sacrifices their neighbors made to their gods. Sadly, in the days when much of the Old
Testament was written, many ancient people sacrificed their children to their gods. For 21st century people, this is
the stuff of horror movies, but for the Hebrew people of the 2nd and
1st centuries BC, this was reality.
The people of our world have moved
on. Jewish people stopped making animal
sacrifices when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Jewish families still eat lamb meat for Passover, but the animals are usually killed
by butchers, not priests. Jewish rabbis
and Christian ministers are not usually paid salaries in food or goods, but it
wasn’t long ago that ministers in farming communities received produce and meat
when the harvest came in – I suspect Trinity’s early ministers received quite a
few bushels of corn and potatoes when the crops were harvested.
Over the next few weeks, we will
focus on stories from Jesus’ life that took him down the path to Good
Friday. Jesus was the Messiah, the
savior of the world. When he came to earth,
though, the people who were waiting for a messiah had some inaccurate
preconceived notions of what the messiah would be like. They also had incorrect preconceived notions of
how the messiah would behave.
The people expected a strong,
beautiful, powerful king. Instead, the
messiah came as a peasant from an inconsequential small town – he did not
appear to be sophisticated or mighty. Jesus
was a master storyteller, a teacher, a healer, and a reformer. Jesus didn’t come to lead the people into a
glorious battle against their Roman oppressors.
Instead, he came to embrace and love all people, even the Roman
oppressors. He came to teach us, love
us, and to guide us.
Jesus was a threat to the powers that ruled Israel. He was a threat to the Romans – they couldn’t
have people going around saying they were the God appointed king, not their Caesar. The Romans were an occupying power with a lot
of unhappy residents. Their goal was to keep order and control the populations
of their colonies. They stamped down any
rebellion, and Messiah who was not their king was a major threat to their
power.
Jesus was a threat to 1st century Jewish religious
authorities – they believed they were following God “correctly” with their
rules, laws, and procedures. Jesus’ message
was different than their message. Jesus
preached that sometimes the rules should be broken for a higher purpose. Jesus preached that everyone, not just Jewish
people, were loved and saved by our God and invited to follow God. If Jesus was the messiah, the Temple system,
with its priests, and obligations, and offerings was no longer needed. It was hard for the religious authorities to
accept a message that made them obsolete.
One of the action Jesus did was particularly shocking to the
Temple authorities. In our scripture
reading this morning, we read of the occasion when Jesus went to the Temple in
Jerusalem and drove out the people who were exchanging money and selling
animals in the Temple courts. Jesus’
reason for taking this bold step were two-fold.
First, in the First Century, the Temple was divided into two
main places for worship. One part of the
Temple was for Jewish people who had been born into the religion. The other part of the Temple were for people
who had converted to Judaism. Jesus was
upset the Temple. All people who believe
in God should have access to God…not just people born to the right parents, not
just people who pay the right amount of money, not just people who are rich
enough to buy elaborate sacrifices…..all people.
The second problem for Jesus was that in the place where the
Gentile converts were allowed to worship, in the little space they had for
worship, merchants set up their stalls.
Some of the merchants were selling animals that were used for
sacrifices. The other merchants were
exchanging money.
The people lived in a world ruled by the Romans. Their currency was Roman coinage. But, the Temple authorities decided that
sacrificial animals could not be purchased with Roman coins. They had to be
purchased with Temple coins. And, when
you came to exchange your Roman coins for Temple coins, they would take a
commission, a percentage, off the top.
So, the Temple authorities and money changers were making a profit by
forcing the people to pay a fee when their exchanged their money for the only
money they could use to buy the special, expensive animals they were allowed to
use to make sacrifices.
The animals were also
more expensive than their secular counterparts – the Temple authorities were\
making a profit off of the animals bought for sacrifice. The priests who made the sacrifice and
ritually slaughtered the animals got to keep the meat and eat it. So, the Temple authorities’ profit was
threefold—profit from the fee for exchanging money, profit from the selling of
the extra-expensive animals to be sacrificed, and then the meat they received
after the animals were slaughtered.
Jesus was upset by this unjust system. We all would be upset if we were living under
this unjust system. The people were led
to believe the only way they could “correctly” worship God was to participate
in a system that took advantage of them financially. So, when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for
Passover, he went to the Temple and protested the injustice he found
there. He made a whip and drove out the
people who were selling and exchanging.
He yelled at the stall keepers.
He chased them away.
Jesus’ message and his actions that day were very threatening to
the Temple authorities. The writers of
our Gospels proposed that this event was the catalyst that caused the Temple
authorities to look for ways to get rid of Jesus. And, Jesus’ ministry and sheer existence made
him a threat to the Romans. During Holy Week, we will recall the events that
transpired that allowed the Temple authorities and Romans to achieve their goal
of “eliminating” their mutual “problem” – Jesus.
But, the thing is, people are not as powerful as we think we
are. People are not as powerful as we
want to be. And, Jesus was not just a
mere man. He was not just someone they
could easily “dispose of” – Jesus was the son of God. And, despite the efforts
that were taken to sabotage Jesus and his message, God’s will is stronger than
the will of man. Jesus overcame death on Easter.
And, Jesus’ message – that God loves us, forgives us, redeems
us, and guides us – is still here, going strong, over 200o years later. Jesus’ message outlasted the Temple and the
Temple authorities – the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Jesus’ message outlasted the Roman Empire – The
Western Roman Empire was officially ended in 476 AD when Emperor Romulus Augustulus
was disposed by the Germanic King Odoacer.
Jesus’ message outlives empires and kings, dictators and social
movements.
Jesus’ message lives on. Like
Jesus, when we see injustice happening, we are to stand up against it. When people are being taken advantage of to
sustain greedy individuals, we must stand against it. When people are suffering because they were
not born into the “right” kind of families, we must stand against it. When people are suffering because they are
outsiders, or elderly, or poor, or an ethnic minority, or disabled, or LGBT, or
a religious minority, we must stand against their suffering. We are called upon to be brave like Jesus was
brave when he went the Temple that Passover week. Brave even if it is unpopular. Brave even it
makes people uncomfortable. Brave even if it may get us killed.
We are called to be brave like Jesus. May we do so knowing God
blesses us, loves us, forgives us and redeems us. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment