Foolishness to those who are perishing

Jesus went up to Jerusalem to attend Passover, one of the most significant pilgrim feasts, and, “In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money” (John 2:14). Although this practice arose from a desire to fulfil the commands as literally as possible, its outworking gave rise to some serious issues:

• Firstly, the shekel that was used to pay the temple tax was the Tyrian shekel, used because of the purity of its silver—but it was a coin with the image of a person on it, and its inscription exalted the city of Tyre, which was one of the historic foes of Israel. Its very use would have been offensive. The temple was a place of worship, where people were to come to worship the one true God.
• Secondly, with the money changing and animal sales, the temple amassed a huge treasury, and many people became indebted to the temple authorities to fulfil their obligations. The merchants and money changers were dishonest and over-charging. This was not how God’s temple was supposed to be.

This practice suggests that the temple authorities had lost sight of the purpose and significance of the temple, and the fact that they were allowed to do this by the religious authorities and teachers of the law suggests that they were complicit in supporting it. The focus had shifted from worshipping a Holy and awesome God to what had become nothing more than a commercial enterprise for some and in the place of worship.  Remember Jesus’ words recorded in both Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

Not only that but their presence and practice detracted from the opportunity to worship. How was this demonstrating wisdom, responsibility, and a holy and rightful reverence for God? They had turned the house of God into a marketplace! This ‘mess’ is an inevitable consequence of when we seek to apply worldly wisdom and collude with its folly. What message would this have sent to people coming to Jerusalem to attend Passover?  That allows us to pause for thought and reflect on what the message is that people receive when they come to our Church. We cannot and should not seek to define the Church in our image and on our terms. We should be mindful that we are the body of Christ and that he is the head of the body, and it is him whom we are called to worship.

‌Sometimes we need to have a short, sharp shock to stir from complacency and spiritual slumber and come to our senses.  I think there’s something of God’s grace in that. That’s precisely what happened with the temple. There are so many parallels between what Jesus did next and the practice of purging the leaven and people ‘getting their house in order’. Jesus brought that short, sharp shock: “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  To those who sold doves, he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me”” (John 2:15-17).  Jesus was cleansing the temple, and in a time of Lent we have an opportunity to ‘purge the leaven’ and ‘get our spiritual house in order too’.

We should always be mindful that “…it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17) Judgement begins in the house of the Lord because we should all know better. As the Church, we are called to be a light to the nations. It was only by ‘destroying the temple’ that Jesus would be able to restore free and unfettered access to all believers to God in the right way and in the right spirit. This could only be achieved by Jesus himself becoming the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for all mankind. The eventual destruction of the temple in 70 AD was the final evidence that the old system had been superseded by Jesus’ work on the cross and in the lives of those who believed in him.

‌We are reminded that “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, may we together pray for wisdom and discernment recognising that God has “made foolish the wisdom of the world.”  We need to fervently desire to be blessed with Godly wisdom. May we always seek to worship a holy and awesome God in spirit and in truth, with fear and reverence.  And in this, we might “continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 12b-13). Let’s remember that we don’t worship God because God needs it, we worship God because we need it.

Collect

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.