'Then God spoke all these words:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'
--Exodus 20: 1-17
'The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 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. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.'
--John 2: 13-22
What would Jesus do? I used to see everybody and his cousin wearing those WWJD wristbands As Christians, that is a question that should be at the heart of every decision we make: what would Jesus do? Would he listen? Would he show mercy and compassion? Would he make a whip of cords and turn over tables in the church? Yes. Yes. And YES!
The Cleansing of the Temple, as we call this story, is one of the most compelling in Scripture. It shows up in all four Gospels, which is rare, but here in the Fourth Gospel it is placed early in Jesus’ ministry, right after he turns water into wine, whereas the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke place this story during Holy Week—it’s the action that finally makes the authorities say “We’ve had enough of this guy!” Here we see a side of Jesus we don’t see much. He’s angry, and we don’t like him when he’s angry—Hulk Jesus, if you will.
His anger makes sense, though, if we understand it. We might think he's angry at the moneychangers and the animals, but it's not these things themselves but what's behind them. He empties out the jars of coins from the moneychangers. Their practice was perfectly legal, given that there were folks coming to Jerusalem from all over the world and they needed to exchange their money like we would if we traveled abroad, but these folks were charging extra for the exchange and extorting their customers. Then Jesus uses his whip to drive away the livestock in the temple courtyard. Like the moneychangers there were legitimate reasons for them being there because it was Passover and folks needed to buy an animal to sacrifice. But the cost of one of these animals was ridiculous when compared to a perfectly good ox or lamb that could’ve been bought in the market downtown. The reason that these animals were super special and extra holy was because they were sold in the temple court, which meant they were super extra expensive. It’s like going to a baseball game and buying a bottle of water for $10 inside the stadium when you could’ve had the same bottle for $2 before you walked in. All of this corruption and exploitation is what drives Jesus into a frenzy. While it’s jarring to see, it’s also kind of cathartic. Go get ‘em, Jesus! Cleanse that temple! Drive ‘em out! THAT is what Jesus would do!
We might not see it at first, but there’s a connection between Jesus’ actions in the Temple and the story from Exodus of Moses giving the 10 Commandments atop Mt. Sinai. The giving of the Law here is a sign of the Covenant between God and these wayward people whom God had brought out of slavery in Egypt and was leading into a new future. Part of that future was that they wouldn’t going to be like Egypt and all of those other empires, they would put their relationship with God and one another at the forefront of their lives – notice how the first four commandments are about being in relationship with God and the other six are about being in relationship with each other. To have a covenant with God means promising to be in right relationship with God AND with other people.
This is what the religious authorities in Jesus’ time forgot. Relationship was not the point, maintaining power was, which is why those authorities entered into a covenant of collaboration and corruption with their Roman occupiers. Among the ways power was maintained was abusing the Temple, taking things that were perfectly legal and even necessary – like exchanging currency or selling the animals – and using them as means to keep the masses in line, exploiting the poor and making sure nothing ever changed.
Obviously, that’s not how Jesus operated. He confronts the moneychangers and sellers of livestock because he loves them all too fiercely to allow them to keep being used as instruments of greed wedged against the poor. He drives them out of the temple, turning the tables on this kind of enterprise, and any activity that divides and abuses, that uses power for wicked purposes. Business as usual in this system is not God’s kind of business.
So what kind of business is ours, who have entered a covenant relationship with God? Does the Church – both big and little C – today have the same particular responsibilities as the Temple did, to be houses of prayer, refuge, and support for the poor and the lost? How often is religion of all kinds used to entertain the folks inside the club and feed their greed, leaving others wanting on the outside? Maybe we need to actively turn over some tables, to upset the customs that incapacitate the poor and leave people feeling even more lost.
Several years ago I was working in a church of some means, and a person with whom I was very close scoffed and asked, “Do they worship money?” After the last 40 years and the rise of televangelism, mega churches, and celebrity pastors, I can’t blame this person for asking that. Lent is the time for us to let Jesus cleanse us of everything that gets in the way of God’s business. It’s true for each of us as individuals – what do I need cleansed inside me to be more mindful of and responsive to the needs of others? – and it’s true for churches, especially during transition – which tables need overturning, which part of our house needs reordering, reconnecting to both God and our neighbors? It is common for all the people of God to forget, just as the folks who received the Law from Moses in the dessert forgot, that relationship is at the core of who we are as participants in this covenant, our relationship with God and with each other. Every now and then we need to let Jesus in to turn over the tables, to reorganize us and get our houses back in the way God intended. Someone once said “God is a woman, and her house is a mess!” God loves us, Jesus loves us, too fiercely to allow us to be participants in systems that exploit and ignore the poor and those in need, and Jesus will find a way to clean up the mess.
Yes, we invite Jesus in to help us do this work on ourselves first, and also, we have a responsibility to actively call out and work toward dismantling the same kinds of corruption and exploitation in our world today as Jesus knew – if the church doesn’t do that, who will?! Notice that Jesus didn’t drive out the people in the Temple, he drove out the mechanisms of exploitation. We don’t denounce people, but we do denounce dysfunctional behaviors and the same corrupt systems that compelled Jesus to cleanse the Temple, namely the collaboration between religious and political power. We mustn’t be comfortable bystanders when we are called to be about God’s business, both within ourselves and in our world. It starts with ourselves, remembering our covenant with God. Like those folks in the dessert, ours is a covenant grounded in right relationship with God and one another. When we do that work on ourselves we can more actively denounce corruption and exploitation within our churches, our governments, and every other system, turning over enough tables until God’s house is in order. That, I believe, is what Jesus would do.
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