John 2:12-22
First Sunday in Lent
Today is the first Sunday in Lent, that season of self-reflection, reconciliation, and discipleship leading up to that glorious day of resurrection, Easter Sunday. At first glance, this Scripture seems like an odd way for us to begin Lent, with it’s portrayal of an angry Jesus, of the Temple, of moneychangers, people turning the sacred into financial profit. But I think, if we delve just a little bit deeper, we can discover that this lesson from John offers much in the way of Lenten preparation, for this is the season of the church when we are called to turn over our own tables, to drive out those things that make us less than the people God has made us to be, so that we may live as the loved children of God. Let us pray:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of these your faithful, and kindle within us the fire of your love. May our words and our hearts together glorify you, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When I was a young child, probably 5 or 6, I just loved that wonderful children’s book series called The Berestain Bears. Authors Stan and Jan Berenstain wrote these stories for young children, featuring Mama and Papa Berenstain Bear and little Brother Bear and Sister Bear. These stories are meant to deal with all those difficult life issues that young children encounter, like a bad dream, getting into trouble at school, interacting with strangers, and going to the dentist.
My mother’s favorite story to read to me was "The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room." She read it so often, that, looking back now, I realize she was trying to send me a message. The story is a lesson about clean rooms and tidiness. The introduction warns:
"When small bears forget to pick up, store and stash,
Some of their favorite things end up in the trash."
The crisis in the story comes when Mama Bear gets fed up with the mess in Brother and Sister's room. It goes this way:
"Well, the mess just seemed to build up and build up until one day... maybe it was because Mama's back was a little stiff, or maybe it was stepping on Brother's airplane cement, or maybe she was just fed up with that messy room, but whatever it was... Mama Bear lost her temper!
She stormed into the cub's room with a big box. 'The first thing we need to do is get rid of all this junk!' she said. Brother and Sister were watching in horror as Mama began to throw things into the box."
I think my mother must have been friends with Mama Bear!
It's like that sometimes with our lives, isn't it? Things pile up until it is just too much to take and we just have to clean up the mess. A messy relationship, a messy job, a messy spiritual life- the time comes when we just want the mess cleaned up. Things accumulate, stuff piles up, and before we know it, parts of our lives bear little resemblance to the way they used to look, and we find that we are and those around us have suffered from the messiness. Sometimes the messiness is so overwhelming that even God’s presence and goodness seems a distant memory.
Today’s Gospel story from John is all about a mess - a mess so entrenched, so overwhelming, only radical housecleaning can correct the situation. After Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine at the joyous wedding in Cana, Jesus makes his way to Capernaum, perhaps for some rest and relaxation with his family and friends. As the high holy days of the Passover drew closer, Jesus made his way to Jerusalem, the place all observant Jews would have travelled for this celebration. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, construction on the temple in Jerusalem began in 20 BCE under Herod the Great, and was completed by Herod Agrippa around of the common era. A bustling nexus of commercial activity, crowds of worshippers, nationalist aspirations, political identity, historical memory, architectural splendor, and of religious affiliation, the temple constituted the essence of Jewish faith in both a literal and symbolic manner. The temple represented God's presence, God’s availability to all, God’s love made available to God’s people.
Yet something happened to this good place, something happened to turn it into a place where it became difficult to hear God and experience God’s goodness. You see, the temple was a place where, in accordance with the law of God given in Leviticus, people offered sacrifices. Sacrifice was inherent to the Jewish faith; it was a way that the people remembered who they were in relation to God; it was a way to be reminded of the covenant God made with Abraham. The law of Moses stated what kinds of sacrifices should be made at the temple, and the majority of those sacrifices required the offering of an animal. Parts of the flesh of the animals sacrificed would be offered wholly to God, other parts would be given to the priests to support them and to provide resources for the poor and needy of the community.
Often religious duty required that the observant Jew bring a young male sheep, or a kid goat, or a pair of pigeons to the temple, where it would then be sacrificed by the priests on behalf of the person or persons. In the old rural days this had been fairly easy to do - people had sheep or goats or pigeons right at home. But in Jesus' day, as in ours, urban people didn't keep those kind of animals hanging around the apartment. So when someone went to the Temple to make sacrifice, the Temple authorities made it more convenient by having sacrificial animals for sale right there on the premises -- the only catch being that one had to use temple coins to make the purchase.
If someone didn't have temple currency available to make the purchase, the Temple authorities provided a service, a precursor to the ATM machine. People were set up in the outer courtyard, available to convert Roman money into Temple money right there on the spot. Take one look at the money markets in today's world and it doesn't take much imagination to visualize what ended up happening in the temple courtyard at the time of Jesus. There was commotion, lots of shouting, bargaining, exchanging, converting - perhaps the only difference being these brokers wore togas and sandals instead of suits and oxfords.
John tells us that Jesus walked into this environment, this up-to-date full-service Temple, saw the people selling the cattle and the sheep and the birds. He saw the money-changers at their counters with their constantly changing rates of exchange. He heard the noise, the shouting, the bargaining, the bragging, the bleating and the cooing, and he smelled the sweet sweat and earthy dung of the nervous animals.
He saw and heard and smelled all these things that were there for the sake
of the salvation of God's people, and he became tremendously angry!
And just like Mama Bear in the story “The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room,” Jesus indignantly shouted, “We’ve got to get rid of all this junk!” In a rush of righteous anger, Jesus took out a cord, perhaps the belt cinched around his waist, fashions it into a whip, and went to work. The whip cracked; tables were hurled over, scattering coins that clattered and clanged on the ground. Money changers threw up their arms to shield themselves as confused doves flapped and flew from their smashed cages. Others jumped aside to avoid the stampedes of startled oxen and scared sheep, and strained, over the chaotic uproar, to hear Jesus’ indictment of the corrupt merchants, the Temple, economics, church and state.
And we, much like those first-century witnesses of Jesus’ wrath toward these entrepreneurs, ask: What’s the big deal? Why was so corrupt about that?
Nothing - at first. But, over time, with all the buying and selling and money changing, the temple had become corrupt. Instead of contributing to the worship and reverence of God, it missed the point. The idea of money changing began with good intentions -- instead of using Roman money, which was considered pagan, to buy offerings, those observant pilgrims would exchange their worldly money for temple money. The system was put there to help people who came to the temple to observe their faith and make the requisite sacrifices. The problem was, the system was a setup for corruption. The price of a pair of turtle doves jacked up a little here. The exchange of money tilted a little in favor of the money changer there. Someone would shave a little money off the top here and there and plunk it in his pocket. Soon the thing that was supposed to facilitate the worship and reverence of God was turned into something that cheated people and made it more difficult, especially for the poor, to participate in the life of faith.
In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you …? We are the temple of God in the world today. And this is where Jesus’ cleansing the temple becomes relevant for us today, as we consider the many ways we have accumulated stuff that should be driven out. Perhaps it was a good word left unsaid, a hand of peace and forgiveness that wasn’t extended. Maybe it was not standing up for the oppressed or the marginalized because it would have been inconvenient. Perhaps we, too, like the money changes, have participated in ways that further disenfranchise the poor and make it difficult for others to freely worship the God who loves us all. All of these things done or left undone, said or not uttered, build up inside of us, and slowly corrupt the temple.
Indeed, it is a subtle process, this turning the temple into a marketplace. Like the houses we live in – a little dust and dirt build up on the baseboards and in the hard-to-reach nooks and crannies of each room; lint balls accumulate under the beds; mildew forms in the shower stall and around the tub; coffee stains appear on the carpet; cobwebs hang from the ceiling – it all happens so slowly that we hardly notice, until, one day, like Mama Bear, we just can’t take it anymore, and we realize it’s time to grab a big box and put our houses back in order.
My friends, Lent is a time of introspection, of looking within and taking stock of the accumulation that keeps us from being our best selves, for each other and for God, of purging those things that keep us from striving for justice, peace and equality for all of God’s children. It’s a time for cleansing the temple and making our lives – mind, body and soul – ready to do God’s work, to bring the kingdom here on earth, so that each and every person knows that they matter and that God loves them. May you find the courage this Lent to clean up the messiness in your life, in whatever form you find it. May you turn over your own tables, and be not afraid, for the resurrected Christ is with you always, and nothing can separate you from the Love of God. Amen.
