Fourth Sunday in Lent

Tables & Temples – Part 1

This morning you will be hearing two versions, two testimonies, of an event usually titled, “Jesus Cleanses the Temple.” One version comes from the gospel according to Mark, the other from the gospel according to John. This story is told in all four gospels so there is some confidence it is based on an actual event. But each gospel writer has shaped the story a little differently from the others. Each has interpreted what happened that day so that it has meaning to their congregation – not unlike what we do every week preparing the sermon.

We begin with Mark’s testimony found in chapter 11 starting with verse 15 and found on page 824 in the pew bible. Before I read, let me set the scene. The previous day, Jesus came into Jerusalem riding a colt while his disciples waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We celebrate that event every year on Palm Sunday. And we repeat the disciples’ words every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In Mark’s gospel the scene is rather muted. After entering the city, Jesus goes into the temple, looks around, and then leaves for the nearby town of Bethany. The next day, Jesus returns and the scene is rather more dramatic. Listen now for the word of God:

Mark 11:15-18 (p. 824)
15Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.17He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of robbers.”
18And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

There are many reasons this story makes pastors and elders uncomfortable. After all, we sell tickets for the youth fundraising dinners and fall harvest dinners. Our attic sale runs three days and winds up on Sunday after worship. We sell fair trade coffee. I think we try to be fair and reasonable. We’re not a den of robbers.

But I wonder if Jesus came today would he create a similar scene? Would he complain we focus too much on the “business” of this congregation and not enough on worship and prayer? Do we talk too much about financial matters and not enough about spiritual matters? Do we worry so much about pews and carpeting and fundraising that poorer folks in our community don’t feel welcome? It’s easy for preachers to use this text to make church leaders feel guilty. But it’s just as easy to argue that much of what we call business is necessary for our continued presence and ministry here in Hector & Lodi.

The people working in the temple were just doing what was required by the law and necessary. They sold animals and birds for sacrifices. They exchanged Roman coins for temple money. All this was done so Jews could enter the temple and worship God. Read Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and you will find commandments explaining all this. Without offering a sacrifice and paying the temple tax, pilgrims could not enter the temple. The problem according to Mark is this had turned into big business, corrupt business. The ones selling the animals and birds, and those exchanging money had a monopoly and took advantage of pilgrims who traveled long distances. The business of the temple was getting in the way of worship and prayer.

I imagine the crowds were excited as Jesus overturned the tables and drove out the merchants. Most couldn’t afford to buy an animal, the price of admission. Now they could enter the gates with singing and the courts with praise. No obstacles. No distractions. No prerequisites. No hindrances to approaching God.

Mark provides additional commentary on the event of Jesus cleansing the temple by placing it in the middle of a peculiar story about Jesus cursing a fig tree. Before coming to the temple, Jesus is hungry and spies a fig tree. Upon closer inspection, he finds no fruit on the tree. No wonder, it’s not fig season. Nevertheless, he curses the tree for not bearing fruit. The next day, after Jesus’ temple-cleansing act, the disciples walk past the same fig tree and it has now withered. It’s a symbolic reminder of the dangerous power of the institution and business of religion to get in the way of our Spirit-led work – a power that keeps us from bearing fruit so we wither and die.

The story of Jesus cleansing the temple begs several questions of us. As a congregation, what tables do we need to overturn, what obstacles do we need to remove, that get in the way of worship and prayer? What distracts us from our Spirit-focused work, from bearing fruit, and from intimacy with God and each other? As individual believers, we need to ask ourselves another question. What blocks or distracts us from loving God with all our heart and soul and might?

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Tables & Temples – Part 2

We turn now to John’s version of Jesus cleansing the temple. The other gospels, including Mark, place this story near the end of Jesus’ ministry, at the beginning of Holy Week. His disrupting the business of the temple and stirring up the crowds is considered a major reason the religious authorities plot his execution. They are afraid of Rome’s reaction which is bound to be harsh. “Better…to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”

John, on the other hand, puts this story at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He has just been to a wedding in Cana and changed the water into exceptional wine. Only no one but his disciples knows what Jesus did. That rather private act is followed by a most public one. John’s testimony can be found in chapter 2 starting with verse 13 and found on page 863 in the pew bible. Listen for the word of God.

John 2:13-22 (p. 863)
13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

If Mark’s version described a wild scene, John’s seems to up the ante. Jesus doesn’t just drive out the merchants, now he’s got a whip. I’ve seen paintings of this story: Tables are overturning, coins and birds are flying through the air, cages are crashing and animals are running amok. Merchants are cowering in fear or running for their lives. And there in the middle is Jesus, armed and angry. More than one sermon has been preached on this text about anger as an appropriate response when we see injustice – appropriate as long as it turns into loving action for healing.

But I’m not sure railing against injustice is the point in John’s version of this story. Jesus doesn’t complain that the merchants are turning the temple into a den of robbers. There’s no charge of corruption. Instead, Jesus complains they are turning the temple into a marketplace – an emporium, in Greek. That hits a little closer to home and maybe makes us feel more uncomfortable. At a church I used to attend, one of the elders always vigorously fought any attempts to sell things there on Sunday. He insisted we keep the Sabbath day holy. He worried we were turning the church into a marketplace.

It seems John has described a scene similar to Mark’s only intensified in effect and message. More warnings about the ways this world hinders our relationship with God and with one another. More of the same … except John adds something new to the end of the story. Those who have come to Jerusalem, to the temple, to celebrate the Passover ask for a sign. A sign! As if overturning the tables and using a whip to drive out the animals wasn’t enough! And Jesus, the prophet, gives them a prophecy. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And because everyone is baffled by what Jesus has just said, the gospel writer turns to his audience as an aside. “But he was speaking of the temple of his body.” Ah, he was talking about his death and resurrection! But there is more here, and the more is a promise of good news.

I mentioned before that pilgrims to the temple needed to present various animals for sacrificial offerings. They really couldn’t bring these animals with them on their long journey so they had to buy them at the temple. And for the faithful people of Israel, the Temple itself was as sign: a covenantal sign, of the promise of God’s eternal presence. But now that Jesus has come, the temple and its sacrificial system have become obsolete, according to John. The Word that was in the beginning, that was with God, and that was God, has become flesh and dwelt among us. Before, you had to go to the temple to encounter God. Now God is present in Jesus, the new temple. And after Jesus' resurrection and ascension, God is present everywhere to believers through the Holy Spirit. Sacrificial offerings were for reconciliation with God. But in Jesus Christ, God reaches out to us in reconciliation and love.

Today we meet in church buildings – we need to meet somewhere. But there is a danger our church buildings can become the new “temples.” Many people think the only place we encounter God is that one hour on Sunday morning when we gather here to worship. But this place can’t contain God anymore than the temple in Jerusalem could. And sometimes these “temples” can become an obstacle to our worship and prayer because concern and care for them can sometimes consume so much of our energy and resources.

So if we can encounter God everywhere through the Holy Spirit, why come to church? Don’t some of us experience God in nature? Couldn’t we encounter God on the golf course or fishing or hiking? Well, yes, to some extent. But if you read the testimony of all the gospel writers you will discover it’s not a “me and Jesus” going it alone scenario. It’s about a relationship with Jesus rooted in community. It's about a relationship with Christ that puts us in a new community. That’s why we can sing “I am the Church. You are the church. We are the church together” (Avery & Marsh). Christ is present whenever two or three or more are gathered in his name.

We gather to worship the disrupting God who cannot be contained in buildings, but is present and still acting in the world. This "new community gathers to worship in church so we can hear God's Word proclaimed in a way that helps us see and experience God in all of life" (David Lose). As Presbyterians, we understand that we need each other, because we believe the holy work of discernment happens best in community. We know we listen best when we listen as a people. We are the church together because if we decide, alone, what God is saying, we are probably going to get it wrong. In our fellowship we can share our experiences and help one another learn to see God everywhere, at work, at home, where we relax, or volunteer our time.

I ended Mark’s version of this event with some questions for us to ponder, so let me ask a few more for us to consider as we leave this place. Where outside of church do we see God at work? How might God be calling us to participate in that work? How does our life here prepare us for our work—as believers and saints, as the church—out in the world? I hope that you will think about that this week, but that you will also share these observations with one another, the community of faith.