St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Year B ▪ March 7, 2021
John 2:13-22
In September 2015, I was blessed to experience a 14-day pilgrimage in the Holy Land. The name of the pilgrimage was, “Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.” Day after day we visited historic sites where Jesus’ layered ministry of teaching, healing and preaching took place. On the last full day of the pilgrimage, our group visited the site of the Jewish second temple ruins, the site of our gospel passage today, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. I slowly walked the steps of the temple, when the guide called for everyone to stop and listen. He said, “For several days we’ve been walking in the footsteps of Jesus, but these steps have not been restored. These are the steps Jesus used to enter the temple when he cleansed it of animals and the money changers. These are the steps Jesus used to enter the temple where he watched the poor widow give all she had to the treasury. Where you are standing is ground zero.”
Our passage in John’s gospel this morning places the reader at ground zero in the vibrant Jewish temple buzzing with people and activity outside of it and inside of it. The temple was the focal point of large numbers of pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for one of the largest of the Jewish festivals—the feast of the Passover. Hundreds of thousands of people would travel far distances to Jerusalem for the eight days of the Passover feast. In order for the pilgrims to participate in worship, they would need animal sacrifices as prescribed in Leviticus (sheep, goats, oxen and doves—for those who were unable to afford livestock). Due to the distances traveled, and due to the risk of damaging the unblemished offering, pilgrims would not bring the animals with them. They were, therefore, conveniently available for purchase onsite. When Jesus arrived at the temple, the necessary presence of live animals would not have been odd or angering for Jesus to witness.
While at the second temple ruins, I, along with my fellow pilgrims, saw, touched and walked into the remains of the marketplace on the perimeter of the temple. Festivals then, were like festivals we would normally enjoy, and for most, that includes shopping. Archeological excavations of those ruins uncovered several shops damaged by the Roman destruction of the temple walls, which gives us an idea of how closely positioned the shops were to the temple proper. But, there were also some shops found to be well preserved in which stone and ceramic vessels, as well as coins, were discovered. The money changers, like the live animals, were a necessary part of the smooth functioning of the temple worship structure. Pilgrims coming into Jerusalem from Greece or Rome would have foreign currency with them—currency that was not allowed to be used for the temple tax inside the temple because of imprint of the human image of the emperor. Witnessing the necessary changing of money for the temple tax and other commerce would not have been odd or angering for Jesus.
This was the temple life scene. If Jesus had witnessed such practices before, what was different this time? What was odd, and what angered Jesus this time? We do not have to look far into the scripture passage to find out. In the first verse, we learn that the festival had not yet begun, “The Passover of the Jews was near” (v.13). In the second verse, “In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables” (v. 14).
The Three words—in the temple—tells us what triggered Jesus to make his whip of cords to drive all of them out of the temple. The unclean animals were in the temple, and the money changers were not standing around doing their business; they were seated (officially set up for business) in which forbidden foreign currencies were in the temple. The money changers, functioning in a particular and necessary way, were not in their proper place. The unclean animals, necessary for the sacrificial offerings, were not in their proper place. The boundary separating the sacred from the profane had been breached, and those religious leaders, whose power was enmeshed with the sacrifice system, had not guarded the sanctity of the temple, and were complicit in its desecration.
Did these profane actions happen all of the time? Did they develop over time? Or were these actions used for “overflow” for those times when the usual setup was inadequate? The scripture does not tell us the reason for the malpractices, but we do know that when Jesus came upon the unholy scene, it was enough for him to act with the authority of his identity, interrupting and disrupting the commerce system of those in power.
This narrative of Jesus’ interruption and disruption in the temple is described, here in John, and in all of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), with the same title, “Jesus Cleanses the Temple.” The word, cleanse, is important. Today, we might hear the word used interchangeably with “detox.” People say that they are doing a “cleanse” to rid their bodies, from the inside out, of toxins—things that can cause harm in the body. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple was not a superficial clearing out of those things that did not belong in the temple, but a reset—a cleansing—from the inside out—of those things which outwardly assault the body and inwardly assault the soul. That is the language used in the collect we prayed at the beginning of worship today: “Almighty God…keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul…”
Within modern society, there is no shortage of those things which outwardly assault the body and inwardly assault the soul. And, there is no shortage of opportunities for any one of us to give in to myriad temptations to be complicit in those assaults perpetrated on others and within ourselves.
The season of Lent is our intentional time for Jesus’ faithful to invite him into our souls to interrupt business as usual in our own daily lives and to disrupt our blind participation in the ways in which we allow the sacred to become comprised for the sake of the profane. Put another way, this scripture challenges you and me, Jesus’ 21st century disciples, to examine the ways in which we subtly, or brazenly, sacrifice—at the altar of this secular world—the moral boundaries given by God in the 10 commandments.
We are challenged to examine the subconscious, or conscious, ways in which we sacrifice, at the altars of our workplaces, our schools and our communities, our sacred commitment to live our baptismal covenant—patterned by Jesus’ life and ministry. Examine the myriad ways in which the evil in this world tempts you to sacrifice, that which is sacred to God, your body and your soul at the altar of this temporary, earthly existence. In your examination, you may find that such assaults against your soul have seeped in, and have been allowed to happen all the time. Perhaps the assaults have been accepted over time, and perhaps you have accepted the assaults just for the “overflow” moments of life. Sin is sneaky like that.
The Jewish temple was believed to be where God’s presence dwelled. In Jesus Christ, God himself came and dwelt among humankind—Jesus was God’s holy temple made manifest to us. By our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ, our embodied souls, became sacred temples in which our savior abides with us, and dwells within us. Guard that sacred space with your life by being clear about your moral boundaries as a child of God, and by being clear about how you show up in this world as Jesus’ disciple, walking in his footsteps.
This Lent, invite Jesus to restore any breached boundaries within your sacred temple, by casting out that which is unclean and profane. Commit to meet Jesus at ground zero on those unrestored steps of your temple so that you may be cleansed from the inside out.
Amen.
