Sermon 15th March 2009

Today, our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from John 2:13-22

Jesus’ anger

So what was the scenario?

Jesus, as an observant Jew joins the throngs of pilgrims who have trekked to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover at the temple. Sacrificial worship in the temple involved the use of cattle, sheep and doves. Worshippers journeying over several days from all over the Roman Empire obviously found it convenient to travel light, and purchase these sacrifice items on site and hence the service provided by the merchants.
What about the money changers?
Every Jewish male, serious about his faith paid temple tax of two drachmas, which could only be paid using a special coin. Matthew 17:24fd describes an incident where tax collectors are accusing Jesus of not paying the temple tax of two drachmas. The value of this coin was however four drachma, meaning it could cater for two people. In fact after this incident Jesus instructs Peter to go into the lake and throw in a line and that the first fish he catches will have a four drachma coin, which he can use to pay for their temple tax i.e. for Peter and himself.
The money changers were therefore an exchange bureau converting money and who charged a percentage for their service. This was a thriving business environment!
But all in all, this set up was not honouring to God. True, the business men did a good job and helped all who wished to fulfil their religious obligations. It’s even been suggested that by trading in the temple courts which were preserved for the Gentiles to come and worship in, they were actually excluding Gentiles by taking up their space. Imagine reverent worship taking place with a cacophony of noisy cattle and sheep etc.
The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) describe the scene as a ‘den of robbers’, meaning that honesty was not being observed at the temple. Whatever it was, it necessitated a strong rebuke from Jesus.
Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!
The question that presents itself here then is, had the priestly authorities noticed all this? The answer must be NO!
For them this day, like others before, was business as usual. Money changers, coins, cattle, noise, sheep, doves, worship, sacrifice – another day!
But not for Jesus!
I wonder what your earliest memories and images of Jesus are! What comes to mind when you imagine ‘Jesus’?
One famously influential picture of our Lord (reproduced more than 500 million times) is the painting by Warner Sallman, The Head of Christ (1940) and which appears on many things – from buttons to church bulletins. Another famous one is by Holmant Hunt, The Light of the world and which shows Jesus, holding a lantern, gently knocking a door and standing on a spot overgrown with weeds. Both pictures show a calm, meek and harmless Jesus; a respectable looking Jesus, a good citizen, a man who would never raise his voice.
What picture of Jesus has stuck with you form your childhood memory, if any? Do you know the one of Jesus holding a white lamb on picturesque pastures looking all green and serene? Jesus loves me this I know written by Anna Warner to be sung to a dying boy still stands as one of the most popular children’s hymns the world over. I have known it and still love it. It presents a cuddly Jesus who loves me, who is close beside me and welcomes me to heaven. This is good and sound biblical teaching. I also think that from a preacher’s perspective it is a pleasant duty to commend this kind of Jesus.
But, how do we reconcile this Jesus with the violent Jesus we have just read about? Is your Jesus capable of carrying a whip and putting it to good use? Is he capable of causing, to put it in legal terms, a ‘breach of the peace’? How comfortable are you dealing with this kind of Jesus?
It is very easy to domesticate Jesus in our minds and even create him as we would like to visualize him. It happens to us quite unconsciously often, and usually for a good reasons. A cuddly Jesus is comfortable to deal with and no one enjoys being told off. But Jesus, the man who is also God is all of this, and also much more. It is true he welcomes and embraces us with open arms of love, but He is also a merciful redeemer and judge as we are reminded in the funeral liturgy. Our reading of this episode in the temple is a reminder that all who come to him must do so in his terms. And when he enters a scene, then it can no longer be ‘business as usual’.
The temple authorities who had allowed the environment of temple worship to degenerate to this level had not seen anything wrong with it. There is no indication that they wished to turn the temple precincts into an irreverent ground, nor did they intentionally set out to convert God’s house into a market. But somehow, in the course of doing the right thing, ie enabling people to fulfil their religious obligations, they had gradually veered off; standards had declined leading up to this deplorable situation.
The Christian world view is that Jesus sets our standards. He alone lived like we do, ate, drunk, worked, travelled, was a member of a family, was tempted like we are, but in all these did not sin. He alone is worthy of emulation. He alone is qualified to set the standards. It is the reason why Jesus’ entry or involvement in a situation does not leave things the same.
And so the temple authorities confront him with the question –
what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?
Their demand reveals what they thought of Jesus. They obviously weren’t dismissing him as some inconsequential hooligan. There was something about him that raised a suspicion that this was no ordinary man. But how dare you regulate the temple? Can you justify your authority? We know you as a self styled Rabii with followers but by what authority have you to call this your Father’s house and behave as though it is? Just picture for a moment a local well known priest walking into this building and saying something similar…
Jesus however refuses to play into their hands, for this would have simply domesticated God. Any allegiance to God that originates from his ability to perform spectacular acts is dangerous because what then happens when God withholds a miracle? What do we then do when he heals one person and not the another? Does he then cease to be God, the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth?
And to explain his shocking act, Jesus invites them to consider an equally shocking statement. Destroy this temple and I will raise it again on three days. What? A temple that had taken 46 years to build would be rebuilt in three days? Of course they completely misunderstand him. He was talking about his death which happened exactly as he had described it. He was crucified and on the third day he rose from the grave. But since all they wanted a sign, then there couldn’t have been a more appropriate one. It is surely credible for anyone who can claim to restore a temple within three days to have the authority to cleanse it.
And what a timely story for our Lent! How is your Lent going? Are you finding some quality time (however short) with God? Have you found opportunity to refresh yourself about the meaning of life, God? Or is it business as usual?
As we remember these forty days when our Lord fasted and was tested in the wilderness, let it be a time to remember that God loves us so much that he sent his Son Jesus to show us the way to him. Let us allow ourselves to address those hard and often ignored questions about our relationship with this God.
For some it might be, do I really believe in God, as revealed to us through Jesus Christ? A God who loves me so much that when necessary he can use a whip for my own good?
For others it might be, ever since I declared my believe in God, has anything really changed? And if there was a change, has this been sustained? Or am I back at the old treadmill? Does something need to change now?
For all of us, the question will be, if Jesus was to bring his whip today, what might he want to drive out of our hearts? What tables might he want to turn?
I ask all these because having a relationship with Jesus means allowing him to drive out anything that is anti-God. It may be a religiosity that gives us false sense of security. There is a religiosity that no longer serves God’s purposes, the sort which Jesus was dealing with which had degenerated into a routine practice that was dishonouring to God.
It might be our pathetic excuses – which demand that we moderate our claim about the uniqueness of Christ as the way, the truth and the life because it arrogantly alienates other faiths, other claims. I have no interest in a god who is just another alternative brand in this huge supermarket of life. My God is the king of Kings and the Lord of lords, the creator of the universe, the one to who I owe my existence! I invite us all to allow ourselves to be changed by him to be more like him.
God loves us so much friends! When we allow him to clean our inside, we receive his forgiveness and by that extent we are able to extend forgiveness to other people. We all have a capacity to grow thick skins that are no longer penetrable to pain. We can easily learn how not to be vulnerable. I feel strongly the need to say that anyone who feels this way must stop soldiering on with a brave face, and start again. It is possible to receive God’s healing and start once more. You only need to say yes to him.
May we join in the prayer of Archbishop Rowan in this Lent, to let God the Holy Trinity, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus touch the core of our humanity. May we allow him through his Spirit to bring us to a point of repentance and reconciliation, as he cleanses the core of our beings, for that is his perfect will for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.