|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Exodus 20:1–17 |
Psalm 19 |
1 Corinthians 1:18–25 |
John 2:13-22 |
Do we perceive the times that God catches us off guard as opportunities for deeper growth, or as an invasion and disturber of our peace? In today’s Gospel, Jesus entered the main courtyard of the Temple. Before pilgrims could proceed to worship, their offerings would be inspected here. If they had Roman currency with the emperor’s image, it would have had to be exchanged. If one brought an animal to be sacrificed, it would have been examined to see if it was satisfactory. Needless to say, the pilgrim’s gifts were often found unsatisfactory, and they would have to purchase new offerings, at an inflated price. The time honored practice was an exceedingly profitable business for the money changers and merchants, but it was a formidable hassle for pilgrims with all the odds staked against them That is why many pilgrims gave up bringing their own animals for sacrifice and simply would grit their teeth and pay the merchants their price.
Jesus wanted to make it clear that God did not institute such barriers. That is why those who represented themselves as God’s agents had their tables overturned, their cages of doves unlocked, and their business disrupted. They pretended to be God’s gatekeepers, but Jesus uprooted and fired them, and announced a new order, proclaiming that God does not place barriers to access before us nor will God be bought or bribed by the top dollar. God’s grace is never for sale.
We might think, at first glance, that Jesus’ actions would have been welcomed by most pilgrims, that those in the courtyard waiting in lines to get through to worship would applaud, saying, “Now at last this corruption is exposed. We don’t have to go through this unnecessary hassle and are free to worship and give thanks to God with a calm mind.” However, we know that Jesus’ actions were fearfully perceived by most as a hostile act of an enemy seeking to destroy the accepted functioning of things.
The temple, of all places, should have been the spot where the fundamental openness of divine grace should have been readily recognized. The temple mount was historically as a place of revelation and enlightenment, and set aside as Holy ground. It was the spot where Abraham had offered up his entire future to God and God immediately gave it back to him. The temple was where a young civil servant by the name of Isaiah received a vision of the heavenly throne room. Isaiah left the temple filled with the call of God and became one of the greatest of God’s prophets. The temple was where elderly Anna and Simeon gazed upon the infant Jesus and knew somehow that that baby, held and protected in his mother’s arms, was directly connected to God’s promised salvation of the world.
In contrast with the other Gospels which place this episode at the beginning of Holy Week, right after Jesus enters the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, John puts the incident of Jesus entering the Temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. For John, Jesus’s condemnation of the activities of the money changers and merchants was a clear sign that the Good News was meant to enter every area in our lives and make available a gift that transforms our techniques, our rules, laws, and the foundations and horizons of all our institutions. The problem was not merely the chief priests, or the merchants or just the temple system of revenue enhancement. Rather there was and is a problem with all of our institutions and us.
All human societies are in need of being revitalized by God’s grace. Lent reminds us that we need rejuvenation as much as anyone else, even if we all resist it in some way or another. Sometimes exhaustion and spiritual emptiness can sneak up on us as undetectably and unknowingly as carbon monoxide poisoning. When we come up against strangeness or surprise, often our demands for proof, like the expectations of certainty, are really blockades put up against something we don’t want to know. Moreover, when we attempt to turn our beliefs and customs into a proof of God’s presence rather than understanding them as guiding us towards the source of God’s presence, God will challenge us as sharply as Jesus challenged the moneychangers in Herod’s temple.
The incident from the temple contains both a message of promise and warning. Instead of being greeted as a teacher and a herald of great joy, Jesus was tossed out as a threat. Turning our back on surprise and newness may well be turning our back on greater spiritual learning, and perhaps turning our back on God. Yet when God catches us off guard, and we don’t run away; when God challenges us and we don’t hide behind barricades; when God appears as a stranger and we pay attention, often that becomes the precursor of the dawn and new light from the Holy Spirit.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
