Saturday, August 9, 2014

Saturday, August 9, 2014

John 2:13-25:  Jesus Cleansing the Temple 

I remember today’s Bible story from childhood Sunday school, when it was amusing for me to think about all the animals running through the Temple.  In reality, however, this incident report and the very adult riddle that accompanies it convey great insight into the person and work of Christ.  To help us grasp some of this meaning, let’s start by translating parts of the story into a modern context.

Imagine you are visiting London, England, in the precincts of the Houses of Parliament, and you go into Westminster Abbey, the church which through the centuries has marked coronations and other Royal events, which commemorates national history, a place where many famous people have been buried, and which, more than anywhere else, symbolizes the deep connections among the spiritual authority of the Church of England, the Royal authority of the Queen, and the legal authority of Parliament.

Imagine, as you and other tourists walk through Westminster Abbey and listen to its history, a young man suddenly produces a spray can of paint and starts to deface some of the grave markers, shouting that the people buried there were scoundrels unworthy of being honoured by the church.  He goes on to say that Westminster Abbey is a consecrated Christian church in which people from all nations should come to pray, but instead it has been turned into a circus for tourists and a souvenir shop for making money.  Needless to say, this vandalism and outburst would be quite a scandal.  The staff, guards, clergy, and visitors would all be shocked and offended at the vandal’s act of desecration.  Suppose, before the guards hustle the vandal away, one of the priests rushed up and demanded, “What gives you the right to act like this, desecrating our sacred place?”  The young man, glancing around at the beautiful stained-glass windows, the magnificent columns and arches, replied cryptically, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  “What?” declared the priest, “It took hundreds of years to build this church, and you will raise it up in three days?”

The Jerusalem Temple in Jesus’ day was more central for the Jewish faith and national identity than Westminster Abbey has ever been for Britain.  Jesus’ actions, even if short-lived and symbolic, offended the functioning of the sacrificial system, and his final statement, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up” was a strange riddle that made no sense to his hearers.  This incident was quite a scandal, especially for the religious rulers who ran the temple.  And this account is very important in the story of Jesus, one of very few incidents recorded in all four Gospels (see also Matt. 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18, and Luke 19:45-46).  Why would all four of the evangelists decide to include it?  John is the one who lets us know why, by including Jesus’ riddle and giving us its solution.  Before we go there, let’s consider a few side comments.

If you look at the context, you will immediately see that John places this incident very early in Jesus’ public ministry, while the other three gospels (called the synoptics) place it very late, during the final week before Jesus was put to death.  There are at least four possibilities, at most one of which could be correct:  (1) It was early; (2) It was late; (3) Jesus cleansed the Temple more than once; or (4) It never happened – the evangelists were misled by some colourful early preacher.  Few people would support (4); this incident is just too shocking and scandalous for any follower of Jesus to make it up.  (3) is also unlikely, since, burned once, the Temple rulers would have tried to prevent Jesus even coming back to the Temple, much less upsetting its commerce a second time.  Some people support (1) on the grounds that the synoptics portray Jesus going to Jerusalem only at the end of his ministry, so anything happening in Jerusalem must be presented as late, whereas John says Jesus goes back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem several times, so his chronology can be more accurate.  But, to me, (2) seems more likely for the same reason (3) is unlikely:  The Temple rulers could not tolerate an “incident” like this and would initiate some kind of legal action against Jesus.  This is confirmed by the fact that all three synoptic evangelists (none of whom places Jesus’ riddle with the incident itself) all state that the riddle was used as a serious accusation against Jesus at his trial (Matt. 26:61, Mark 14:57-58, Luke in Acts 6:13-14).  It makes sense, if the incident occurred during that final week, that Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas and the Council used this accusation to establish that Jesus was a seditious rebel and a blasphemer against God.  These were the primary grounds on which Jesus was put to death.

Of course, we can never be fully certain which of the four possibilities is correct.  Except in case (3), however, the gospels do disagree with each other concerning chronology.  This happens elsewhere in the gospels, as it does in other historical parts of the Bible.  Although correct chronology was one criterion ancient writers used, it was not nearly as important for them as it is for us.  They employed other criteria in organizing their accounts, usually without explanation.  Events about one family or one nation, for example, may be put together without regard to chronology.  Or theological reasons may intervene, such as John has here, placing cleansing the temple (his second sign) right after turning water into wine at the Cana wedding (his first sign).  These two signs, together with the prologue in Chapter 1, say a great deal about the nature and mission of Jesus, and there are several parallels between the two accounts that further strengthen the connection.  This incident fits much better here than it would in John’s presentation of the last week before the crucifixion, in which Jesus privately teaches and counsels his disciples.  It makes good sense for John to present this public, confrontational incident early, while he is establishing that Jesus was unique and powerful in his radical actions and teaching.

Now back to the story.  The acts of worship in the Temple 2000 years ago were so vastly distant from our time and culture that we can barely start to grasp their meaning.  The sacrifice of many animals, the sprinkling of their blood all over the altar and elsewhere, the huge amount of smoke from burning all their carcasses – these things make almost no sense to us, although they were commonly practiced in many cultures and religions of the ancient world.  The Pentateuch contains many regulations about animal sacrifices for all kinds of reasons; these sacrifices were central to the worship of God.  Since God was believed to abide primarily in the Temple, it was the place where sacrifices were to be made, prayers were to be offered, and the people could reach God in a unique and powerful way.  In the Temple, people could seek and receive God’s forgiveness by presenting an animal for sacrifice to bear their sin away; they could give God a gift of thanksgiving for all their blessings; they could pray for God’s guidance and help in trouble; they could dedicate their children to God.  The Temple was the very centre of the religious faith and practice of the Jewish nation.

Remember that this incident takes place shortly before Passover, the very special time when Israel celebrated God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, when the practice of sacrificing a Passover lamb and sprinkling its blood on the doorposts began, when they passed through the Red Sea dried up, when they ate manna from heaven.  What a rich heritage of seasonal tradition!  

The Temple was divided into several sections starting with a very large outer court, called the Court of the Gentiles, and that is where our incident occurred.  This was the place where people of all nations could come and pray to the Lord God of Israel.  There is a wonderful statement in Isaiah 56:6-8 about foreigners coming to God’s holy mountain, being joyful in God’s house of prayer, with their burnt offerings and sacrifices accepted on God’s altar.  For, as Jesus quotes Isaiah in Mark 11:17, God’s “house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  What a sacred place of prayer and joy this Court of the Gentiles was to be.

Within this court there were other courts where only people of the Jewish faith could go:  a women’s court for prayer and worship, a court where the Jewish men would present their family’s sacrificial animals to the priests.  Inside that court was an inner sanctum where the priests would hold their special rites, and within that there was the Holy of Holies where God’s presence was uniquely powerful, where the Ark of the Covenant had once been (It had disappeared centuries earlier), and where only the High Priest could go, only once a year, to offer a special sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation.

People came from all over the Roman Empire to worship God and offer their sacrifices.  It was much too far for them to bring an unblemished animal from their own flock as a sacrifice.  Therefore commerce was necessary; there was a lively market for worshippers to purchase an unblemished animal for a sacrifice, and foreign money was exchanged for the proper currency used in the Temple.  All this commerce took place in the Court of the Gentiles.  It must have seemed more like a country fair, with animals and hawkers all over, than like a special place where people could pray and worship God.  Jesus showed his displeasure by disrupting this commerce and driving it elsewhere. 

Finally, after the commotion drawing everybody’s attention, Jesus uttered his mysterious riddle, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  What could he possibly mean?  Even his disciples didn’t understand until after he arose from the dead.  John (2:22-23) gives us the solution, which is really only a hint toward the deeper meaning: Jesus was speaking of the Temple of his body, which was indeed destroyed in his death, and which was raised again to life on the third day.

John has previously told us (in 1:29) that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and we are now expected to discern profound connections for our faith, coming both from the Passover setting of the story and from the riddle.  Here are a few:

• Jesus’ death is the eternal reality behind the sacrifice of a lamb at Passover, and indeed behind all the sacrifices in the Temple.  
• With the death of Christ, everything changes.  His body is destroyed and, with his death, the whole sacrificial system of Temple worship is destroyed too, made irrelevant by Christ’s eternal sacrifice, once offered for the sin of all the world and for all time.  
• Christ’s great sacrifice for sin is accepted fully by God, affirmed, vindicated on the third day when Christ arises from the dead.  
• The whole purpose of the Temple in Jerusalem was fulfilled; its mission was finished; and it is time for it to be destroyed (as Jesus explicitly predicts in the synoptics; see for example Mark 13:1-2).  Indeed, the Temple was destroyed a few years later, in AD 70, and the offering of animal sacrifices was halted and has never been started again, nor has the Temple been rebuilt.  
• From the resurrection onward, the true worship of God is to be centred, not in the Jerusalem Temple (or, as Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4:21-24, in any other particular location), but in spirit and in the person of Christ, by faith in Christ, as Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:14-17.  Christ himself is the new and eternal Temple.

Yes, this one incident, so misunderstood by those who accused Jesus at trial, brings with it the whole mystery and wonder of the work of Christ on the cross and in the resurrection, the whole substance of our faith in Him.  Let us give thanks.

-- Robert Kruse