Sermon: Jesus Cleansing the Temple

John 2:12-25

The “Cleansing of The Temple” is one of the most significant acts in the ministry of Jesus. It is attested to by every Gospel. In the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Luke the “Cleansing of the Temple” happens on Palm Sunday, immediately after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In the Gospel of St. John, this event is so important and symbolic that it is portrayed as one of the first things done by Jesus in his ministry.

I believe, this conflict related to the operation of the Temple is probably the one event that sealed Jesus fate in the minds of the religious and political authorities of Jerusalem. After this, the religious and political leaders knew they must kill Jesus. He was just too dangerous.

To understand the importance and the meaning of the “Cleansing of the Temple” we must understand what the Temple meant to the Jewish people.

The Temple in Jerusalem was the most important structure in the Jewish national identity. Physically, it was the largest group of buildings in the city, dominating the skyline of ancient Jerusalem. As the sun set upon ancient Jerusalem, the last structure in the city to catch the rays of the sun was the Pinnacle of the Temple set upon the Temple Mount. There, glowing in the golden light, the polished stone and gold laid wood would stand alone has the pride of the Jewish people.

Spiritually, the Temple was the center of the Hebrew faith. The Temple was where the Priests offered sacrifices to God following the precise instructions found in the Torah. The Temple contained in it the Holy of Holies, where no one could enter, except once a year, when the High Priest went in to pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation.

The Holy of Holies was were many Jews believed God actually resided. Nothing was more important to the Jewish people than the Temple.

The “Cleansing of the Temple” is one of the last and most extreme of a series of conflicts between Jesus and the religious and political leaders. That fateful year, probably 30 A.D., Jesus and his disciples came up to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus was at the height of his popularity. He had come from Galilee preaching the kingdom of God, healing, and feeding the people, with a message of God’s grace and righteousness.

Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by his followers as the Messiah with a parade that aroused popular curiosity and support. This entrance, of course, made the Roman Government that occupied Jerusalem very suspicious, for this was an act by Jesus’ followers that challenged the Roman occupation of Palestine. To hail someone as Messiah was a direct act of sedition and treason against Rome, a crime against Caesar, punishable by death. From that day forward, Jesus was a man marked for death by Pilate.

And then, Jesus’ first act in the city of Jerusalem was to go and start trouble in the Temple.
To the shock and surprise of Jesus’ followers and the Religious Authorities, Jesus challenges the operation of the Temple. He turns over the tables of the money changers, he chases out those who are overseeing the Temple sacrifices; he accuses the High Priests and Scribes to be thieves and robbers. It is hard for us to put this radical act into a modern context. Maybe it was as radical as MLK, Jr. marching into B’ham in Holy Week in 1963?

Why in the world would Jesus do such a thing? Why create such a scene? If Jesus had a little political savvy about him, he could have rubbed noses with the Religious Elite and gained influence. Right? Maybe he could have secured a position for himself; or at least found a few supporters among those with influence. If Jesus was a politician, that’s what he would have done.

But instead, Jesus cleans house. He objects to the way everything is done at the Temple.

A number of contemporary scholars, give us insights from the history, of the 1st century, and help us understand how the Temple worked; and, help us understand why Jesus did what he did: Here is how the Temple worked.

The Jewish people would come to Jerusalem during the Passover festival as religious pilgrims. They had saved up their money during the year, which was considerably difficult for the poor people of Palestine to do, and would use this money to pay their Temple dues or tax, everyone had to pay the Temple dues…even the poor widow, dropping in her “Widow’s Mite” had to pay the high tax. And, they would also use their money to buy animals such as doves or lambs to be sacrificed at the altar.

The Temple dues and sacrifices were essential to the Jewish religious system of that day. The Jewish people were taught by their religious Elders & traditions that the way they could be in a RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God, would be to pay the Temple dues, and participate in the Temple sacrifice.

To participate in this Temple sacrifice and tithing system, these pilgrims where required to go to the money changers in front of the Temple. Why the money changers? The money changers, for a large fee, changed their money from the Roman Coins. Roman Coins could not be used in the Temple, because they had the image of the Roman Emperor on them, into Temple Tokens that could be used to pay and purchase in the Temple.

This “Temple economy” of money changers, and buyers and sellers of sacrifices was central to the operation of the Temple.

However, the witness of history tells us that this “Temple economy” of the buying and selling and coin changing, was a thoroughly CORRUPT SYSTEM. The money changers and the Temple Priests, took a cut of the money. They became rich through the fees charged to the pilgrims when the pilgrims entered and participated in the Temple worship.

Scripture is a witness to this: Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees in Mark 12:40 of “Devouring the widow’s houses” through their practices in the Temple. And here is the central issue for Jesus: Because of the fees and high cost of the sacrifices, the REALITY became that many, IF NOT MOST people could not participate in Temple worship. Most did not have enough money. If you were poor, you could not buy the proper sacrifice or pay the temple dues.

This “Temple economy” became a barrier TO the poor to enter the Temple: Thus, the poor could not bring themselves, through worship and sacrifice, following Jewish tradition, into a right relationship with God.

COMPOUNDED upon this barrier to the poor to the Temple were the PURITY LAWS of the Torah, strictly enforced by the Temple.

Purity: If you were a Gentile, you could not participate in the Temple. If you were a leper, or had any disease or condition that made you unclean you were prohibited from entering the Temple. The poor and the unclean could not bring themselves through sacrifice into a right relationship with God.

-THE RESULT OF ALL THESE THINGS, was that the Temple became the primary enforcer of a religious hierarchy of PURITY that defined most people as not redeemed in the sight of God.

-The Temple, that mighty and beautiful structure, with its pious religious practices, became a barrier between God and the people.

-The Temple justified before God barriers of segregation between different peoples – SOME AS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD AND MOST AS NOT.

-To top it all off, the Priests and scribes, who operated this Temple, being wealthy through these practices, were living a privileged life, in a cozy relationship with the brutal Roman army of occupation, while most every other Jew in Palestine lived in poverty and oppression.

AND ALL OF THIS MADE JESUS VERY ANGRY.

Because of this corruption, because of this separation AND SEGREGATION from God endorsed by the religious authorities, Jesus attacked the practices taking place in the Temple.

In the mind and heart of Jesus, this Temple no longer did what it was supposed to do… instead of connecting the people TO God, instead of being that place where people could find God, the Temple practices had become a Barrier to a relationship with God, and Jesus would not stand for it.

He overturned the tables, he ran the scribes and the priests out and said, “This Temple is supposed to be a house of prayer for ALL NATIONS, and you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there will be NO BARRIERS between God and the people; there will be no barriers of segregation within the people of God. The love of Jesus demands this: NO Barriers; our love of neighbor will accept nothing less.

God’s grace is present for all people, for all nations, given freely for you; given to you as bread from heaven, to feed you, to nourish you to be faithful in all things.

This is what the Communion Table, our Eucharist, is all about…God’s grace, in flesh and blood, given for all of us, to all of us. This is what baptism is about: God’s grace given to you, without price, without cost, available to you in Jesus Christ.

This radical act of Jesus in the Temple calls forth within us today a RADICAL RE-EVALUATION of our religious practices and institutions. And a radical re-evaluation of how we think of other people.

In what way do we, in the name of God and using the power of religious tradition, set up barriers between God and the people? (purity, guilt & shame, economic barriers, class-ism, elitism, racism?)

In what way do we, in the practice of PIOUS RELIGION, separate and define as unworthy our neighbor? (because they are poor, or different, of another nationality, because of their sexual orientation?) Jesus will have none of this sort of ”religious” behavior.

Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, is always at work breaking down these kinds of walls that we build. The kingdom of God is about opening the doors of the faith to all people.
Jesus smashes separations that we build; wipes out all division; God has willed this world to be One. Our God breaks down walls of separation! That’s what Jesus did in the Temple that day.

Here is the point of the Cleansing of the Temple: HeThe House of God shall be a house of prayer for all people, a house of equality and hospitality for every nation, every language, every person, every so-called level of status, and especially for the poor, the marginalized, and the outcast.

In the 21st century, as in the 1st century, the ministry, the passion, the cross of Jesus Christ demands nothing less.

And THIS is what the cross is about.

Brothers and sisters of Christ, the cleansing of the Temple is Jesus PICKING UP THE CROSS, and taking the truth of God’s love to the powers that be.

Regardless of the consequences, regardless of the pain of the cross, Jesus came to this earth to tell the truth, to open the doors of faith to all people, to all nations, the way of redemption and salvation.

And because Jesus did this for you and for me, the powers of this world, the religious authorities & the Roman Government put him on a cross to kill him.

And what’s happened on the cross: Golgotha had everything to do with the Temple: for when Jesus died on that cross for you and for me, the scriptures tell us that the tall curtain that hung in the Holy of Holies of that Great, beautiful, doomed Temple, that separated God from everything else, were cut in two.

By the power of the Spirit, and the cross of Jesus Christ, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD.

CONCLUSION:
There are no more barriers between us and God… God’s gift of HOSPITALITY. Opening the doors of the kingdom of God for you and for me. And Jesus lives today by the power of the Spirit, within us. And nothing in this world can separate God from You.

That is what Jesus is about. That is what this church is about. Amen.

Kevin Higgs