When Things Need To Be Changed
Sermon Text for March 25:
John 2:13-22
It was Passover time when Jesus and his disciples entered the Holy City. The narrow streets vibrated with excitement as vendors hawked their wares to the many thousands of visitors who have come to the big city. Some have come to buy and sell, but most have come to celebrate Passover, and to remember the terrible yet wonderful night generations before when God finally won their release from Egypt. This year Passover held special meaning for Jesus and his disciples. It was the beginning of the end for Jesus. From this moment on the leaders of the Temple would look for a way to eliminate Jesus.
It should have been a joyous time but when Jesus entered the Temple he sensed that something was very, very wrong and his joy was replaced with rage. This was not the house of prayer that Jesus envisioned. The holiness of the Temple was replaced by a carnival atmosphere that was detrimental to prayer and made worship all but impossible. It was time for Jesus to take a stand.
John tells the story of the “angry Passover” in the very beginning of his gospel. Most scholars agree that historically the incident took place at the end of Jesus’ ministry. But John tells us of the “angry Passover” incident in the beginning of his gospel so his readers will understand that even from the beginning of his ministry Jesus was in conflict with the Temple authorities. The whole of John’s gospel is set in the context of this major conflict.
That day when Jesus entered the Temple he saw people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons. He saw the money changers at their tables making a profit from the people’s need, and something snapped. He made a whip and drove all of them out of the Temple. He stampeded the sheep and cattle, overturned the money changer’s tables, scattered their coins, and screamed at them, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s House a marketplace!”
This doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know does it? His reaction is perplexing and in many ways makes no sense. The animals he drove away were needed for the sacrifice, and without them everything would grind to a halt. The more wealthy people purchased large animals for the sacrifice at the Temple rather than risk driving them miles from home. If they drove a young ram or bull from home and it got cut or bruised, it became ineligible for sacrifice. So it made more sense to buy a perfect animal in Jerusalem. The poorer people spent a few pennies in the Temple to buy doves for the sacrifice and the system worked for the convenience of everyone. It was they way they had always done it, at least as far back as anyone could remember.
Even the money changers played an essential role. Worshippers in the Temple were required to pay a tax and it had to be in an appropriate coin. Believers came from around the Empire to celebrate Passover. And they carried the coins of the realm, stamped with the likeness of Caesar or one of the other gods. These coins were illegal within the Temple because they were considered graven images and were against Jewish law. The money changers merely exchanged bad money for good at a profit. The system worked, it was needed and the way they had always done it.
But on this day, the way things had always done was not acceptable to Jesus. He saw that the system had taken on a life of its own. Instead of existing to serve the people, now it existed to perpetuate itself and the people served the system. The Temple was majestic and supposed to draw believers into worship, but it had become a typical oriental bazaar and worshippers had to run the gauntlet of merchants just to get inside. Jesus was angry because the Temple’s purpose had been subverted. Instead of calling people to worship it was an obstacle in the way of worship.
So Jesus used all of his personal authority and evicted those who put obstacles in the way of worship. The religious leaders whose very lives were invested in the way “they had always done it” were angry at Jesus, but cautious. Instead of having him arrested for disrupting the Temple’s activity, they asked him by what authority he acted. And Jesus gave them the first prophecy of his death and resurrection. “Destroy this Temple and I will build it up again in three days,” he said.
Each of the gospel writers records this incident. They want us to know that Jesus challenged anything that made faith more difficult for the people. No human system, nothing that people make up, should stand in the way of faith. And when it gets to the place that people exist to keep the system going, instead of the system serving the people, then radical change is needed. And change is what Jesus brought to the Temple in the story we read today.
Sometimes I wonder what parts of our life we keep doing because it’s the way it has always been done, even if no one can remember why. What things do we do that are expedient, but which actually get in the way of our loving one another and serving Jesus Christ? I wonder if we need a good housecleaning.
I do not know you well enough to hazard a guess about what part of your life needs such a housecleaning. But I know that you know, even if you would fight to keep things exactly as they are. You know what tables need to be overturned.
And that is why God gave us Lent. During Lent we become introspective and confessional, and we invite the One who overturned the tables in the Temple to overturn the tables in our lives and in the life of the church. Then on Easter morning we begin again as people who are cleansed, refreshed, and ready to minister in His name.
Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock
John 2:13-22
It was Passover time when Jesus and his disciples entered the Holy City. The narrow streets vibrated with excitement as vendors hawked their wares to the many thousands of visitors who have come to the big city. Some have come to buy and sell, but most have come to celebrate Passover, and to remember the terrible yet wonderful night generations before when God finally won their release from Egypt. This year Passover held special meaning for Jesus and his disciples. It was the beginning of the end for Jesus. From this moment on the leaders of the Temple would look for a way to eliminate Jesus.
It should have been a joyous time but when Jesus entered the Temple he sensed that something was very, very wrong and his joy was replaced with rage. This was not the house of prayer that Jesus envisioned. The holiness of the Temple was replaced by a carnival atmosphere that was detrimental to prayer and made worship all but impossible. It was time for Jesus to take a stand.
John tells the story of the “angry Passover” in the very beginning of his gospel. Most scholars agree that historically the incident took place at the end of Jesus’ ministry. But John tells us of the “angry Passover” incident in the beginning of his gospel so his readers will understand that even from the beginning of his ministry Jesus was in conflict with the Temple authorities. The whole of John’s gospel is set in the context of this major conflict.
That day when Jesus entered the Temple he saw people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons. He saw the money changers at their tables making a profit from the people’s need, and something snapped. He made a whip and drove all of them out of the Temple. He stampeded the sheep and cattle, overturned the money changer’s tables, scattered their coins, and screamed at them, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s House a marketplace!”
This doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know does it? His reaction is perplexing and in many ways makes no sense. The animals he drove away were needed for the sacrifice, and without them everything would grind to a halt. The more wealthy people purchased large animals for the sacrifice at the Temple rather than risk driving them miles from home. If they drove a young ram or bull from home and it got cut or bruised, it became ineligible for sacrifice. So it made more sense to buy a perfect animal in Jerusalem. The poorer people spent a few pennies in the Temple to buy doves for the sacrifice and the system worked for the convenience of everyone. It was they way they had always done it, at least as far back as anyone could remember.
Even the money changers played an essential role. Worshippers in the Temple were required to pay a tax and it had to be in an appropriate coin. Believers came from around the Empire to celebrate Passover. And they carried the coins of the realm, stamped with the likeness of Caesar or one of the other gods. These coins were illegal within the Temple because they were considered graven images and were against Jewish law. The money changers merely exchanged bad money for good at a profit. The system worked, it was needed and the way they had always done it.
But on this day, the way things had always done was not acceptable to Jesus. He saw that the system had taken on a life of its own. Instead of existing to serve the people, now it existed to perpetuate itself and the people served the system. The Temple was majestic and supposed to draw believers into worship, but it had become a typical oriental bazaar and worshippers had to run the gauntlet of merchants just to get inside. Jesus was angry because the Temple’s purpose had been subverted. Instead of calling people to worship it was an obstacle in the way of worship.
So Jesus used all of his personal authority and evicted those who put obstacles in the way of worship. The religious leaders whose very lives were invested in the way “they had always done it” were angry at Jesus, but cautious. Instead of having him arrested for disrupting the Temple’s activity, they asked him by what authority he acted. And Jesus gave them the first prophecy of his death and resurrection. “Destroy this Temple and I will build it up again in three days,” he said.
Each of the gospel writers records this incident. They want us to know that Jesus challenged anything that made faith more difficult for the people. No human system, nothing that people make up, should stand in the way of faith. And when it gets to the place that people exist to keep the system going, instead of the system serving the people, then radical change is needed. And change is what Jesus brought to the Temple in the story we read today.
Sometimes I wonder what parts of our life we keep doing because it’s the way it has always been done, even if no one can remember why. What things do we do that are expedient, but which actually get in the way of our loving one another and serving Jesus Christ? I wonder if we need a good housecleaning.
I do not know you well enough to hazard a guess about what part of your life needs such a housecleaning. But I know that you know, even if you would fight to keep things exactly as they are. You know what tables need to be overturned.
And that is why God gave us Lent. During Lent we become introspective and confessional, and we invite the One who overturned the tables in the Temple to overturn the tables in our lives and in the life of the church. Then on Easter morning we begin again as people who are cleansed, refreshed, and ready to minister in His name.
Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 4:23 PM
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