"The Money Changers?"

The Mosaic law  anyone know what that law is?   It begins with the Ten Commandments but includes a total of 613 rules of religious observance given in the first five books of the Old Testament. In Judaism, these books are called the Torah, and the Torah retains what the Jewish community refers to as “the Laws Of Moses.”

Mar 4 2018 Readings:  Exodus 20:1-17,  John 2:13-22

In order to understand Jesus actions within the Gospel reading this morning we must reflect for a moment on the reading from Exodus.  Moses is famous for receiving the 10 commandments from God and giving them to the Israelites.  Little known to most Christians today though, the 10 commandments were just the beginning of 613 laws given by Moses to the Israelites to be observe and obey within their religion. Somewhere within the 613, the sacrificing of animals to God was included.  This sets the stage for the passage we heard read from John today.  Jesus enters the court yard of the temple and finds that it has turned into a market place for the Temple Priests and it appears to bring out the worst in Jesus.  This is shocking to some who have only known the meek and mild Jesus that many of us grew up with!  So then, what is really happening here?  Is there a message for us within the modern day church?

Well before we jump to any conclusions, we first need to examine the historical circumstances behind this story.    

The purpose of Temples, Churches, and Synagogs around the world no matter what religion has built them is to provide a place where people could gather together and experience the Holy through worship, prayer and the sacrificial act of surrendering oneself over to the care and control of something greater than themselves.  These buildings were meant to be a place where you learn about God as you humbly surrendered your corruptible human nature to the greater good.     

The Temple in Jerusalem was much the same as it is today accept for one thing, we no longer do animal sacrifice but we are asked to sacrifice or to lay down the nature that feeds on pride, self-centeredness and our ego.  These temples were constructed to be a place where people could honor God. It was a place for people to experience the words of scripture, receive grace and forgiveness and to reflect upon the goodness and love of God.  The Temple represented the presence of the Holy and its availability to all who were seeking a personal relationship with God.  Yet something was taking place that was making it difficult to stay focused on and to experience the presence of God.   I do believe that this is still a major struggle in our churches today, staying focused on the purpose of church and experiencing the presence of God in our day to day lives.  

In Jesus time, the Law of Moses required the sacrifice of an animal on the alter but over time this practise became an open door for corruption within the life of the Temple Priests.  The Temple priests were allowed to keep some of meat from the animal sacrifice to nourish themselves and to help feed the poor.  The best of the meat was to be placed and burnt on the alter for God, but, that didn’t always happen, and you probably can guess where the best meat went.  Stealing, deception and dishonesty had crept into the rituals and the laws of sacrifice was becoming tainted.   Corruption is like a cancer that can invade any organized group and will eventually destroy it if it is left to itself unchecked.   It had now traveled outside the temple to the court yard where the selling of sacrificial animals and temple coins took place.  Rural folk would bring with them one of their animals to be sacrificed but city dwellers didn’t have space to keep livestock, so, it was the Temple Authorities from inside that decided to made it easy for anyone to get a sacrificial animal right there on the premises, another window of opportunity for the Priests to make a buck. Can you see where this might be going folks?   

Have you ever wondered why the temple authorities set up money changing tables?  Worshipers were required to pay a Temple tax.   You can think of it as their way to cover operating expenses, but there were restrictions placed upon any coins that had a human image engraved on them.  This meant they could not use Roman coins to pay the temple tax because Ceases image was stamped there.   The Temple authorities needed the valuable Roman coins to run the temple so they produced their own coin that had no image on it, but it also had no value outside the Temple.  So the Temple authorities made it convenient for worshipers to get these Temple coins needed to pay the tax  The only problem here was that it opened the door for more abuse by some of the Temple Priests.  I believe Jesus could see the corruption that had crept unnoticed by the average worshiper into their religious practices. There was cheating, stealing, and dishonesty and it was feeding the great monster greed.  Jesus’ anger can now be understood as righteous anger produced by remorse, because these were originally  good folks who had lost their way.  Of course their original intentions were good I’m sure, but if Jesus were to have only confronted them with words, he knew their human nature would only try to defend or justify the circumstances.  I believe that more drastic measures were needed here, so Jesus completely uproots and exposes the corruption.

This story is very appropriate for the Lenten season and our 40 day pilgrimage to the cross.   What do these ancient stories mean for us today?  On a personal level, if we are willing they help us know what is broken within our lives, something in our human nature.  They also help us to see when we stop imitating God’s good desires to create, bless and give life and instead imitate the prideful, competitive, fearful, and harmful desires we see in the world.    Look around you do not have to look far folks to see who is imitating what? 

If we are willing we can draw significant parallels between the Temple authorities and the contemporary church.  The use of money and buildings needs to be considered.  How we treat the out casts, the poor and the marginalize.  The purpose and vision for organized church needs be discussed.   We live in a time when church participation has declined. Surveys of the un-churched suggest that many do not experience Christian worship as life-giving and joyful. Our faithfulness to God demands that we re-examine our practices and remain open to change. It is there, that we will experience the fresh movement of the Spirit.  May you personally continue and gain from your Lenten journey this year.