3 March - Turning the Tables
Notes
Transcript
Zeal for your house will consume me.
Zeal for your house will consume me.
Has church ever made you angry?
I’m sure it has.
Some rule you didn’t like.
Some ham handed handling of a difficult situation.
I’ve probably made you angry at some point.
I do and say stupid and careless things sometimes.
And sometimes I say wise and careful things that will upset you.
And we all get angry - probably -
And mostly for all the wrong reasons.
In today’s scripture - Jesus gets angry - and surprisingly violent
For the right reasons - but I think we need to dig a little deeper to understand them:
Lets imagine the Scene
15 Making 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.
It is a mad scene to imagine.
The whip of cords is not made for the people - it is made for the sheep and the cattle.
Can you imagine - in the temple, sheep and cattle herded together for sale and exchange for sacrifice. Now being driven into a frenzy by the sound of the whip cracking.
And you know how it is when you’re counting out some coins…. 1 2 3 4 5 6 (Don’t talk to me - I’m counting) Starting again.
All the money neatly piled and stored in little boxes (they didn’t have zip locks in those days).
But Jesus turned their tables and scattered their coins.
Take a moment to imagine what sort of chaos is going on now in the temple precincts.
Sheep and cows letting out moos and bleats and knocking over their stalls.
Cows are not small.
They weigh about 500 kg (today) but probably in Jesus day it would have been less - about 350kg.
Springbok Prop Retshegofaditswe (Ox) Nché weighs about 125kg and I think we would get pretty terrified if he started running around inside the church.
But you can talk to a rugby player - not to a frightened cow.
The scene must have been complete chaos. And for it to all happen at the passover would be like crashing the credit card system on black Friday.
Trying to pick up coins on the floor - one money changer starting a fight with another over whose coins belong to whom - while a cow nibbles on their ears.
(I asked AI to turn a paragraph of my sermon into a picture)
Jesus really causes a scene of Holy Chaos in the temple.
And John’s comment is:
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Zealous is a nice word. Its a word we use for passion - but passion beyond passion - perhaps to the point of getting a bit iritating.
So Jesus has a passionate love for God’s house - the temple. But why would he cause so much chaos?
Marketplace
Marketplace
Marketplace
The best explanation is probably in Jesus words:
John 2:16 (NRSV)
16 ____“Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
‘Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!’
What Jesus is doing has several layers of meaning. I want to point to the two I see -
A religious response
And a spiritual response
What I mean by ‘religious’ is a critique of the things we do, the actions we perform. And what I mean by ‘spiritual’ is a critique of our lack of inward transformation.
On the religious level:
In the synoptic gospels - as Jesus performs this prophetic act of table turning he quotes from Isaiah 56:7
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
We might say that all this busyness didn’t belong in the temple precinct. Gentiles were only allowed in the outer courts of the temple - and all this trade and exchange happening was keeping them from worship.
As Jesus reprimands specifically those selling pigeons -
John 2:16 (NRSV)
16 ____“Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
The offering that the poorest of the poor could bring. Probably because their practices were keeping the poorest of the poor out of the temple.
I think the point of being able to offer a pigeon is that it is quite easy to catch a pigeon if you want one.
But in the marketplace I’m sure you will find people selling special pigeons that guarantee god will listen to you more closely if only you buy this one…
Angle One - A marketplace - pricing access to God out of reach for the poor and the gentile.
And in the market place - access to God’s grace and God’s glory depends on the performance of an action:
This for that.
Exchange of money for favour.
Probably some surge pricing on pigeons during passover.
The Angle that interests me more - is the Spiritual one.
John’s Gospel
John’s Gospel
John’s gospel is the spiritual one - with deep theological meanings. The order of events is different to the ‘synoptic’ gospels - who all agree on the order of events. In the synoptic gospels this turning of the temple tables only happens at the end.
In John’s gospel - it is right at the beginning.
Probably because John is not so interested in the order of events - as he is in the meaning of the events.
In his prophetic speak - he seems to echo Malachi.
Now remember from John 1 - a theology of who Jesus is - what his flesh - his body represents:
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Hold that in your head while you think of Malachi - the last book of the Old Testament:
1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:1 - The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
Malachi goes on:
Malachi 3:3 (NRSV)
3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.
And he will purify.
Points to this act of driving out the money changers - of disrupting the system as a form of refining and reformation.
From Malachi - in this reading - seeing Jesus as “The Lord whom you seek” suddenly come to the temple….
We are introduced to the notion of God’s power at work in Jesus - Jesus upending the sacrificial system by chasing the animals out.
Jesus putting an end to what has become a transactional relationship with God. A marketplace relationship.
If I do this - then God will do that.
To a grace filled and spiritual relationship with God.
Jesus is pointing to the New Covenant promised in Malachi 3:3 -
“Until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.” - Mal 3:3
We remember Jesus words to the Samaritan woman at the well:
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.
Worship in Spirit and Truth.
Offerings presented to the Lord in righteousness.
Hopefully I’m helping us to see on two levels:
1 - Temple Busyness that Excludes
2 - Temple Busyness that doesn’t Transform
Religion that gets in the way of relationship with God.
What does it look like:
In our church it might look like us being more worried about being Methodists than we are about being Christian.
Does our society busyness. Our circuit busyness. Our Manyano busyness. Our fund raising busyness. Cause us to forget what we are dealing with…
Messiah is in the temple.
The presence of God - creator of heaven and Earth is hear. And we are debating the colour of our socks and the height of our heels.
Messiah is in the temple.
And we are arguing about pigeons, cows and sheep.
Messiah is in the cup on this table…
And we’re worried the service won’t be finished in time for our next appointment.
Jesus’ Response
Jesus’ Response
Jesus response to our Temple Busyness - our Religion:
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
His disciples would later remember this after he had died and risen again. This is why Paul wants us to know - and we will dig deeper in Bible Study this Wednesday:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”