Friends, our worship services will focus on the Gospel of John over the next few months. Last week, we focused on Jesus’ first miracle – turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana.
This week, we pick up where we left off last week. After the wedding, Jesus went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, brothers, and disciples. Then, Jesus travelled to Jerusalem – and had a violent reaction to what he found in God’s city at the Temple.
Listen to the story as it is told in the Gospel of John, chapter 2, verses thirteen through twenty-five:
Scripture Lesson John 2:13-25
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.
Let us pray…
Message Cleansing the Temple
Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem and was dismayed by what he found.
When Jesus walked the earth, the Temple was being rebuilt. King Herod the Great started improving and rebuilding the Temple in 22 BC – it had been destroyed by the Babylonians and then rebuilt, but Herod wanted it to be restored to its former glory. So, it was being expanded and adorned with more and more splendid architecture. The Temple complex was full of activity – worship life and festivals and construction were on-going, year-round activities.
Every year, each Jewish male over the age of twenty was required to pay a Temple Tax. The tax was paid before Passover. The tax was used to maintain and expand the Temple in Jerusalem and pay the many priests who operated and administered Jewish life in Israel. The temple tax was not optional – every man, no matter his health or his profession, had to pay it. And, the tax couldn’t be paid in Roman currency – it had to be paid in Tyrian shekels – the coinage of the Jewish Temple.
In 30 AD, the chief-priest, Caiaphas, instituted the practice of selling animals to be sacrificed at the Temple in the Court of the Gentiles – before 30, people could buy animals outside the Temple and bring them to be sacrificed. Caiaphas changed things – under his leadership, believers had to go to the Temple, exchange their Roman money for Tyrian shekels, and then use their Tyrian shekels to buy animals to sacrifice in-house.
This was all very profitable for the Temple and its priests. The Temple added a fee to exchange money. The Temple added a fee on every animal that was purchased. And, then after the animals were sacrificed to God, the priests and their families received the meat of the sacrificial animals for their own dinner tables.
Jesus’ public ministry just happened to begin as Caiaphus’ new profit-making strategy was put in place.
And, this requirement was too much for Jesus – Jesus came to liberate us from oppression. And, he saw the charges and fees imposed on worshippers as oppression – the fees exploited the poor – the fees exploited the devout – the fees took advantage of people who wanted to worship God.
So, Jesus was furious. He turned over the tables of the money changers. He cast out the people selling animals in the temple. He wanted his Father’s house to be a place of prayer, not a market-place to exploit the faithful.
Jesus’ actions must have shocked the people in the Temple that day. A man who was unknown to most of the people walked in and caused a huge disturbance. He objected to “business-as-usual.” He objected to making a financial profit off of the backs of the faithful who came to worship. He caused a big disruption.
When Jesus was questioned about authority – “What gives you, Jesus, the right to disrupt Temple business? Show us a “sign” of your authority!” – Jesus didn’t show them a sign or do a magic trick to justify his qualifications – instead he made a prediction about his future – Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Jesus was talking about his own resurrection, but the people in the Temple didn’t know what Jesus meant until three years later, until Jesus resurrected.
The Jewish people of the first century believed the only place they could properly worship God was at the Temple – They thought God dwelled in the Temple. They thought God required them to make animal sacrifices to atone for their sins and to offer thanksgiving to God. Most 1st Century Jewish people didn’t realize or recognize that Jesus was God incarnate. Jesus’ words and teachings, as well as his death and resurrection, would free believers in God from needing to make symbolic animal sacrifices to worship and honor God.
Jesus objected to the priests and Temple authorities taking advantage of worshippers. They were making a financial profit from exchanging money and selling animals in God’s house. In order to worship God at the Temple, they had to be paid. Imagine how we would feel if we couldn't walk into our church without first paying an entry fee, and then couldn’t sit in the sanctuary pews without paying another fee, and then couldn’t receive communion without paying a third fee.
We would not want our lack of money to prevent us from worshipping God. We wouldn’t want our lack of money separate us from God.
As Protestant Christians, we believe that all people can access the Holy. We can pray and talk to God. We can sing our hymns and join the choir. We don’t require entry fees or mandate a set tithe or tax on our worshippers. We don’t believe in intercessors – we don’t need priests or saints to be go-betweens on our behalf with God.
But, we have all heard stories about churches who are unfriendly. I have walked into unfamiliar churches on a Sunday morning and no one showed me where the sanctuary was. I have visited new-to-me churches and the minister ignored me when I walked past him at the door. I have heard about churches whose members come across more like country club cliques who ignore new people instead of welcoming them. We all have had experiences of feeling excluded or unwelcome at churches, at God’s houses.
So, we must be the opposite. We must be invitational – and invite our friends and neighbors and co-workers to our churches. And, when people come, we need to be friendly….we need to be welcoming….we need to invite them to participate in whatever it is we are doing.
Jesus wanted everyone to have access to the Temple – to God. He was furious when he felt people were being financially exploited when they came worship God. We must work to make not only our church welcoming, but to share with others that God is approachable to them. They don’t have to have money, or the right clothing, or live in the right neighborhood, or have the right ethnic background to be a part of the family of God. Let us do our part to be welcoming and to invite all people, all kinds of people, to join us here at worship.
Amen.
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