John 2:13-22

The Cleansing of the Temple

I can remember as a child having a horrendous temper. I think I was a relatively calm person normally. But every now and again I would boil over with emotion. There was one occasion, when overwhelmed with furry at being told I had to wear my bike helmet. Throwing it at my mother’s feet. The furry rapidly turned to guilt and upset as I realised what I had done and how much worse it could be.

Of course, emotions are part of how we are made. Anger, like love and compassion is a gift from God. But like any emotion, when Anger is uncontrolled and overwhelming, it can make it very difficult for us to make wise decisions. Today’s Gospel passage is a reassurance for anybody who is concerned about being angry. Here we have Jesus – who we are told is without sin – who gets so angry at the state of the temple, he drives out the cattle, overturns tables, pours out money, while holding a whip that he has made. It is, perhaps, a little surprising, even shocking compared when we compare this passage to the Jesus we know elsewhere in the Gospels. There are a number of ways to read and interpret this passage – many of them have merit. I am going to offer you three in an attempt to see what Jesus was angry about.

In the Jewish revolt, which overthrew the Roman forces in 66 AD – only around 35 years after this incident, they reportedly went into the temple and burned the ledgers of debt and elected a peasant as High Priest. There is something, then, about the practices in the temple which were far from fair. The transactions were likely paying Roman Taxes. Paying for the Empire to continue oppressing them. This is where anger can be important and helpful.  Anger can drive us to challenge injustice. Jesus’ actions in the temple are driven by an anger that he feels about the oppression and mistreatment of individuals who have come into the temple. The animals being sold would have been for sacrifices, the people were coming and buying them, seeking to atone and to make good their relationship with God. Taking from them as they tried to conduct this noble act. Funding the very empire which oppressed them. Jesus was seeking for Justice, for an end to this system which saw the rich getting richer at the hands of the poor.

This story is one of the only ones which appears in all four of the Gospels, only this version from John comes at the very beginning of his story, just after the wedding at Cana, unlike the other Gospels which have this passage at the end of the Gospel, after Jesus entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Among the other differences between this and the other Gospels is Jesus refers to the Temple being a market-place. There is something there perhaps about the importance being placed on money. In our Old Testament reading we are told, among the commandments, not to worship any other gods and not to make idols which we can then worship ahead of God our creator. Money is, and has always been, one of those idols that we can make for ourselves – something we put ahead of others, something we even worship ahead of God. In this time of Lent when we are trying to clear out the things which distract us from loving God, money, or at least our use of it, should definitely be one of the things we consider. Jesus is angry because he seeks people so focussed on the wrong priorities, on wealth and power and status, that he wants to clear out the distractions. As Paul puts it in his letter to the Corinthians. We get confused between our human understandings of power and wisdom and the kind of power and wisdom that God wealds – power that comes from making the divine humbling himself to become human  and wisdom which sees vulnerability and death on a cross as the route to salvation.

Finally, the other bit of John’s version of this story which differs from other Gospels is that Jesus talks about the temple being his’ Father’s house. It shows an intimacy in the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. It also means something quite special when at the end of our passage Jesus refers to his own body as the Temple. The desire of the people to atone and be in right relationship with God is at the heart of our Christian faith. Here in the Temple people are completely caught up in the sacrificing of animals to atone for their sins. During lent, in Morning Prayer, we read a canticle form the 1st Book of Chronicles which ends with the lines: ‘For loyalty is my desire and not sacrifice, 
and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.’ As the passage points ahead to Christ’s passion, alluding to Christ’s body being the temple where God resides and that it is in his death and eventual resurrection that will bring us truly into right relationship with God. Jesus’ action in clearing away the material of the industry of Temple sacrifice he is driving out the dependance on this system and offering himself as the new temple where this forgiveness and atonement can be finally won.

In each of these three readings there is a placing of an idol before God, whether that be the power of an oppressive Empire,  human wisdom and trust in money and stuff, or the dependence on the mechanisms of ritual sacrifice, In each of these three readings of this passage Jesus’ anger is driving him to respond to the injustice which he sees before him in the house of God. Injustice driven by putting other things before God. A God which in our reading from Exodus defines Godself by the saving act of freeing God’s people from Slavery.

Of course Jesus also spends time discerning and praying, 40 days in the wilderness, before his anger manifests in the way it does in today’s Gospel. There are lots of things in this world to be angry about. Injustices inflicted by despots, and the person next door. So God calls us to spend time to discern how we should act – where we must shine God’s light and when we should speak up in our anger and thirst for righteousness.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams