Scripture: John 2: 13-22
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.
We resume the Lenten journey of self-examination and spiritual renewal by hearing the
story of the cleansing of the temple by Jesus. It was an ancient tradition to hear this
story on the third Sunday of Lent as a part of the preparation of believers planning to
unite with the church on Easter Sunday when they would be baptized. The outward cleansing
of the temple in the story has long been taken as symbolic of the inward purification
required of believers as they prepared for their baptism. As the people prepared to unite
with the risen Christ, becoming a part of his body, the old temple would be stripped down,
overturned and cleansed, and they would become a new temple, symbolized in the purifying
waters of baptism.
As we journey toward Easter, keeping our eyes on the cross, our preparation of
self-examination must contend with the object of Jesus' rampage in the cleansing of the
temple.
Now what is that object? Martin Luther astutely observed, "There are three
conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind and purse." Of these three,
it is the purse that is most problematic for 21st Century Christians in affluent America.
The object of Jesus' cleansing of the temple is money and its power to distort and mangle
our relationship with God.
As progressive and open-minded people of faith that we all are, who pride ourselves on
our ability to talk freely and openly about all manner of difficult subjects - sexuality,
death, and our inner psychological states - the greatest taboo is money. It is the most
forbidden subject.
As an illustration take out your check books. No I'm not going to ask you to write a
check. I already did that earlier in the service. What I want you to do is exchange your
checkbook with somebody close by. Now rummage through it. All right now, I need a few
volunteers to read aloud what your neighbor is writing checks to. Better yet, I'll read
it.
If anything anymore is private, the matter of our money is private. Yet Jesus spoke
about money more frequently than any other subject. He did not consider money a private
matter. We are told that Jesus intentionally sat in front of the treasury at the temple
and watched people put in their offerings. He saw a widow put in a small coin that she
could not afford and extolled her faith. He said, "You cannot serve God and
mammon." He said, "Do not lay up treasures on earth" and "it is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven."
Then, in what must be one of the hardest sayings in the whole Bible, - one that strikes
fear in the hearts of would-be Christians everywhere - to the rich, young ruler who
earnestly asks him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus says, "Go sell all that you have and give it to the poor and you will have
treasure in heaven."
The young man goes away crestfallen and we suspect in our heart of hearts that maybe,
we too, could never measure up to the demanding standards that are rife in Jesus'
teachings about money. Must we go away crestfallen? Do we have to go out and rattle tin
cans? Do we have to sign over our salary checks to the poor in Calcutta?
We're not that greedy - we're not greedy at all. We always wish we could do more. You
and I strive after good things. We try to obey the law, even stupid laws as best be can.
We try to do good works as best be can even in the face of ingratitude and inefficiency.
We prize intelligent compassion. Without flaunting it we respect hard work, culture,
responsibility, and education. We may not be rich, but there are many things that enrich
us and with which we would be unwilling to part.
Then there's the children's tuition, the mortgage, the aging parents, the doctor bills,
the volatile stock market it can't last for ever like this. What about the future? What
about our fear of the future?
The most difficult thing that we have to deal with when we look at Jesus' teachings on
money is fear. There is good reason for fear. Jesus' teachings about money fly in the face
of virtually everything we have been taught about what constitutes the good life. They
challenge our economics and politics. They challenge our privileged status in the world.
They tap into our own fears about not having money and our fear of failure. Jesus'
teachings about money challenge to the very core whether we are controlled by a spirit of
fear or a spirit of trust.
Then Jesus enters the temple and turns over the apple cart and tells us the whole
enterprise is corrupt. He enters the temple of our own heart and we discover that this
cleansing of the temple is not simply about those who have more money than we have, or
about religious corruption, or about materialism, or the growing divide between rich and
poor, or that when the stock market burps we fear a heart attack, but it is about the
temple of our soul, this cleansing of the temple.
It seems to me that Christians distort Jesus' teachings about money in at least two
ways.
The first is that we act as if all of his talk about money is really not about money so
we skirt around it. We avoid it. We keep it a private matter, more private than the
bedroom. Some of us feel a little guilty hiding behind the locked doors of our privacy,
our gated communities, and our hard-earned affluence, but not guilty enough to really
change. We've heard the harangue from preachers, read the scriptures, and feel a little
guilty and a little angry, and "besides, Dr. Mark, I don't see you selling your Taj
Mahal up in Altadena and living in a tent!"
But Jesus' teachings are about money. As far as he is concerned, money is like nuclear
power. It may be able to do a whole lot of good in world, but only if surrounded by thick
walls and highly regulated safety valves. Most of us do not know how to handle it. We get
contaminated by its power , and we contaminate others with its power. We want it too
desperately or manipulate it too connivingly, or we fear its lack too clingingly.
Sure we know people who handle it really well - that's why we have a Board of Trustees
- but the chances that we aren't going to get snookered by its awesome power are about as
slim as stuffing a camel through the eye of a needle.
You see Jesus spends a whole lot of air time talking about money - and he is talking
about money. But the second distortion is to believe that he's only concerned about money.
If that's all he was concerned about, then we would all cash in our chips and buy eternal
life. We can keep all the commandments to perfection. We can go sell all that we have and
give it to the poor and earn our place at the heavenly banquet table. Whether we are rich
or poor or just managing we could buy our way into the kingdom.
What is painfully clear when Jesus goes on a rampage in the temple, when Jesus cleans
the deck and clears the playing field, is that it's not just about those who are corrupt
money changers and religious con-artists flashing appeals for cash on the television
screen, it's about us.
It is about money, but not only about money. It's about us. Go, sell all that you have
and give it to the poor. Give away your talent, your time, your brains, your looks, your
SAT scores, your tenure, your degrees, your title, your children, your spouse, your
dreams, your ambition. Give them up and follow me, he says.
We weigh these possessions against the claim to follow him and we hesitate and grow
sad. The whole temple operation is predicated on us lugging around all this paraphernalia
as a way to earn our way to salvation and it appears to be nothing more than a ball and
chain.
Then Jesus comes along and turns the whole social order upside down and says that's not
how it works. No wonder we crucified him. We prefer our possessions to our freedom. We
prefer captivity to liberation. We prefer disease to healing. The opposite of money is not
poverty but freedom. So we end up tending the money changing tables until he drives us
with a whip of cords into the place where we are furious at his judgment but desperate for
his freedom and something deep inside turns a switch.
For some, it comes when the economy goes bust, as it will again, and we discover that
survival comes not from the salary but through prayer and the love of family and friends.
Or a fire comes along and guts your home and you think that it is life itself that is
important rather than what you possessed.
Or you discover that someone you really love is desperate for help and not giving is
out of the question because your heart is wrapped up in theirs and you give and you give
some more because you know God is in it.
Something happens and the temple is purified. The temple is cleansed. You head with
Jesus toward Jerusalem less burdened, lighter, the ball and chain cut from your leg.
Yes. I know. I know. The children, the mortgage, the aging parents, the economy may
turn sour. Following Jesus may seem impossible. Yet your salvation and mine, does not
depend on our wisdom, our striving, our riches, our knowledge, or our fears. This is the
wisdom of the world, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. God saves us in
spite of ourselves because God is God. If God can create the universe out of nothing, than
think of what God can do with you and me. Who can be brave enough to be free of all that
possesses us? No one. No one but only God in whom all things are possible, who cleanses
the temple of our souls and sends us on the way. Thanks be to God. Amen.
