Today’s question is about the gospel story we just heard. But I might warn you, some of you may think it’s a “trick” question. The question is this: when did Jesus drive the moneychangers out of the Temple? Some of you might say he did it towards the end of his ministry. Sometime at the beginning of what we call “Holy Week.” Shortly after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some say his actions probably contributed to his being crucified soon afterwards.
And you would be correct, if today’s gospel reading came from the writings of Matthew, Mark or Luke. But today’s reading is from the Second Chapter of the Gospel according to John. The Passover about which John speaks, occurs at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not at the end. This is the first of three Passovers John describes in his writings. It’s from John’s Gospel we deduce Jesus spent three years in ministry rather than a single year – which is the impression we can have from reading the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
But rather than discussing this difference between the synoptic gospels and John on the length of Jesus’ ministry, I have several other questions:
● What were those “moneychangers” doing in the Temple in the first place?
● Why was Jesus so disturbed by them that he was angry enough to drive them out with a whip?
● And why would John place this event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry? What might John be focusing on?
To understand what moneychangers did in the Temple, we need to recall the purpose of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was the site where the Israelites made their sacrifices to the Lord God. It was here holocausts or burnt offerings were made. Animal sacrifice was seen as the essential way for humans to communicate with their God. This was true ever since the days of Abraham, who sacrificed a ram instead of his son to the Lord God.
Passover was the most important time of the year to offer up an animal sacrifice:
● to please the Lord God,
● to thank him for the blessings of the past year,
● to take away sins, and
● to continue to receive God’s blessings in the coming year.
Passover was a time to remember the Exodus and what God had done to free them from the Egyptians.
In order to offer animals for holocausts, Jews returned to Jerusalem from not only outlying regions of Israel and Judea, but also, from all parts of the Mediterranean world: from Antioch, Athens, Rome, and Alexandria. The returning Israelites were very practical. They knew they could not bring with them the purebred animals needed to be offered up to the Lord God. Instead, it would be necessary for them to buy these offerings in Jerusalem, at the Temple, itself. But they could not use the unclean money they brought with them from Antioch, Athens, Rome and Alexandria to purchase these sacrificial animals.
This is where the moneychangers entered the picture. They exchanged foreign, unclean, coins for the shekels used in the Temple. And as any banker might want to do, they often made a profit in the exchange. By the time of Jesus, the whole practice of exchanging coins, buying and selling sheep, oxen and doves to be sacrificed by the priests – all this had become “big business.” The Temple seemed more like a marketplace than the house of God. Jesus, rightfully, was angry with the change in the focus of their worship.
And, so, in all four gospels, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we have a story of how Jesus showed his displeasure with the change. However, in the gospel written by John, this evangelist wanted to show that Jesus had come to change not only the practice of the moneychangers, but the whole focus of how humanity should interact with God.
No longer would worship occur through animal sacrifices on the altars of the Temple in Jerusalem. Now this relationship of God and humanity would occur in the Temple of the Body of Christ, within the hearts of those who now called the Lord God by a new name: Abba, Father. This is the focus of John’s gospel: the new commandment of love and the relationships it embodied.
The end of Temple worship and the establishment of this new commandment of love brings us back to today’s First Reading from the Book of Exodus. In this reading, we heard those words which are usually called the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. If you listened closely to them, you might have recognized that these commandments, these laws which make up the foundation of Torah, the Law, itself, … they all describe the relationships needed for our human existence with God.
The first three laws state the relationship which should exist between God and humanity, itself. There is but one God, the one who freed you from enslavement. The one, who alone, is to be worshiped, whose name is sacred and not to be used for secular purposes. The one to whom your life is to be totally dedicated on the holy, seventh day. The remaining seven laws state the relationships which should exist among all members of society. The relationship of children and parents. The relationship between men and women with respect to life and property.
These ten laws became so important for the survival of society that they have become a foundation for all secular laws as well. Replicas of these Ten Commandments are found in courthouses and parliaments through out the world and, in particular, here in the United States, where certain groups fail to see the intrinsic relationship of these laws with the stability of society, itself, with the secular state, itself. Instead, these groups call for the so-called separation of state and religion.
Yes, these Ten Commandments which provide a basis for our secular laws, focus on the relationships needed for the harmony between God and his Children and for the harmony among his children – these Ten Commandments may be the center for all of our relationships. However, for Christians, there is a new center, a new core, a new cross. Here we come to the words St Paul addressed to the Corinthians some two thousand years ago. “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified.”
Yes, even today, some demand outward signs of an inner reality. Signs not unlike depictions of the Stone Tablets carried by Moses to the Israelites. Yes, some seek answers through signs written on stone; others seek answers written in our hearts. And while the tradition of the past and the advances of the present have their essential places in our life and society, we also need to recognize both life and society will continue into the future only by following the relationship provided by Christ’s commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
During this season of Lent, we are called to set aside mere images of Temples and of Stone Tablets and remember:
● the law of God is written in our hearts,
● our reality depends on our proclamation that Christ suffered, died, was buried and is risen.
● the cross of Christ is not a piece of costume jewelry but rather his cross is the sign of our reality, a sign given in the Name (†) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Third Sunday of Lent; March 19,2006
Ex 20:1-17; 1 Cor1:22-25; Jn 2:13-15