Destroy This Temple

 Destroy This Temple 

Psalm 19, John 2:13-22 

The story of Jesus cleansing the Temple of the money lenders is used in the gospel of John very differently than it appears in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. In the gospel of John, the story appears early in Jesus’ ministry, during his first trip to Jerusalem. It is because John’s gospel features three trips to Jerusalem that we believe that Jesus’ public ministry ran three years. 

In the synoptic gospels, those that follow the basic outline provided by Mark with only one trip to Jerusalem, this story appears during Holy Week. The event forms sort of a “last straw” that causes the authorities to move forward with their plan to deal with Jesus. 

In the gospel of John, this stands as a bold confrontational statement between the ministry of Jesus, and the religious establishment. Protesting in the Temple is a sign of deep disrespect, and it was the kind of protest that would have consequences from the powerful. The authorities interpret the protest from their own perspective, uninterested in the message intended, which is the way protests are interpreted from a position of privilege. In the gospel of John this event might be seen as a measure of young Jesus’ political naivety, where in the other gospels it appears more calculating. 

The Temple in Jerusalem sat on the Temple Mount on the east edge of the Old City of Jerusalem, with a commanding view of the Kidron Valley below. It was the prototype of a fortress, with only one way to access it, from the west, so it was easy to defend from attack. 

As a religious shrine, the Temple stood as a symbol of how the people of King David and Solomon regarded a relationship with God as a primary focus of the people they represented. On Sunday, January 28, we looked at pictures; first of a scale model of the Old City from 66CE before the Romans leveled the Temple; and the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim shrine that occupies the space since 1020CE. 

When prominent real estate is devoted to religious purposes, you immediately recognize that a significant amount of political power and symbolism are involved in maintaining the structure. This is a place to start in determining what are the local community values and a part of its history. 

The First Temple was built by Solomon, the son of King David, around 1000 BCE. The Old Testament raves about the beauty of the furnishings and the extravagant use of precious materials. The Temple Mount also provided space for the Palace of the King, a formal court for matters of the state, in addition to facilities for the priests to process live animals for sacrifice. A good Jewish priest also needed to be a sophisticated butcher. 

Solomon’s Temple was looted and flattened when the Babylonians defeated the forces of Israel around 650BCE, and took many captive to serve as slaves for several generations. The Second Temple was rebuilt, as a rallying centerpiece of civic pride, when the families of the captives returned several generations later. It was the work of poor people, working under duress. It lacked the shine, sparkle and stature associated with the original. 

King Herod the Great was clearly an egomaniac. He built palaces for himself, financed with the share of the taxes he collected for the occupying Roman government. He diffused the anger of the population by incrementally rebuilding the Temple on a grander scale, a project continued by his son, Herod-the-Not-So-Great. 

In the time of Jesus, every time you mention the Temple you are bringing up the entire political issue of the day. Herod and Sons are in cahoots with the Romans, and the Temple priests are beholden to the entire structure. Within the balance of power, the priests’ sought to keep the peace, and alert the authorities to troublemakers. There was a wide range of emotional responses to the situation within the various segments of the population, from quiet acceptance to violent rejection of the arrangement. 

In this Lenten season, we are trying to remind ourselves that Jesus was a real human being, and lives as a human with human emotions and circumstances. At the same time, we remind ourselves that we also have a spiritual nature. The human Jesus ways always in shark infested political waters.  When he exercised religious authority, the realm of the priests - but operated without their sanction or control, he marked himself as a rival and a threat to the delicate balance of powers.  

The human Jesus understood the political structure and that he represented a threat to the powers that be. You and I read the gospel stories, and see Jesus as a philosopher and healer. The authorities in Jerusalem saw a rural zealot, who proclaimed a God that related to the people outside of the carefully constructed three tiered scale. The human Jesus has no power to control the events, but has the potential to undermine the priests, and possibly the entire stack of blocks will tumble down. 

We think of one and two year olds, playing with blocks. They first learn the joy of knocking them over. Then they learn to put 2 or 3 up, and knock them over. Then, they may learn to enjoy putting more elaborate structures together. 

The gospel of Mark was written right around the time, 70CE, where the crucifixion of Jesus was now 40 years past and the Romans, tired of revolts, crushed the Temple and either expelled or killed all of the Jewish priests. Judaism would never be the same. Priests and animal sacrifices ended forever as the Temple stones were disassembled. Jerusalem, in Mark’s day, was a very dangerous place. 

The gospels of Matthew, Luke and John were clearly written after the events of 70CE and we see evidence of the political unease of their own times, in how they remember the events of Jesus public ministry and death. 

The gospel of John, the last of our four gospels to be written, structures his words in ways that understand that it is political when we say that God abhors the religious leaders abusing their authority to turn a profit, or benefit the system of profiteering. When our religious beliefs guide and structure our actions in the world, there are always political implications. We have the same choice as the original inhabitants of Jerusalem; from quiet acceptance to active resistance to the arrangement. 

Like Jesus, when we act as agents for the defense of the poor, and care for the aging and infirm, we are seen as opponents of the balance of power. The system of profits and political power are accustomed to using the legal structure to oppose truth and justice, whether in the hands of political foes, or in the hands of idealists. 

The ceremonial site of the heroic acts of the crucifixion and resurrection, embodied in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem, was closed to the public this week for several days. The three Christian groups who share the administration of the shrine acted together in reaction to harsh and far-reaching taxation and zoning regulations enacted against Christian owned properties in Israel. 

The diplomacy and compromise associated with mutual respect and negotiation fail when those with power act preemptively. The Holy Land was, and remains, embroiled in conflicts where laws are enacted by those in power, in direct avoidance of the challenge of relationship. 

This is a traditional use of power over others, to enact rules that protect the advantageous position of the powerful. Then one can claim it an impersonal decision to require simple adherence to the law. This happens in matters of states, and cities, school boards and yes, even in churches, where the authority of Boards and committees overlap.   

In a very real sense Jesus demonstrates for us that when there is a conflict between God’s love of justice, and the balance of power in the flesh and blood world, the result is human violence; unless compassion and relationship intervene. We are not doing something wrong when we are confronted by the ones who manipulate the political and legal system. To imitate Jesus is not to confront violence with violence, but neither do we turn our heads and walk away.  

Jesus provides us with evidence that when we answer to the priorities of heaven, God understands and walks with us. When the ‘powers that be’ retaliate against lovers of peace in an unbalanced wave of violence, Jesus demonstrates how God understands and walks with us. 

You and I, we live in two worlds. In our flesh and blood existence, we have the temptations to seek out a life of ease. We often look down on others who might expose our hypocrisy when we claim the integrity of our system, and bristle when out shortcomings are named. The powerful often  demand complete allegiance as a test of faithfulness. 

We live spiritual lives, tuned in to the God that Jesus loved and preached about. Jesus committed his mortal life to promoting an understanding of God as being more devoted to relationship and reconciliation than God is devoted to rules and purity. This is the point of departure between the God of violence, so often portrayed by the religious - who want to exercise personal authority in the name of God, and the self-sacrificing Jesus of Nazareth. 

Jesus warns the powers that be, you can tear down this Temple, but the glory of God is undeterred. That is the truth this morning. The God of the Jews is not dead and gone, though their symbolic Temple has been displaced by a religious symbol from another culture and another generation. God lives, and continues to speak words of relationship and reconciliation to those who might turn to God in humility and prayer, Amen.