Today is one of those sidetracks about which I warned us earlier this year. Much of the early part of our year will be spent in the Gospel of Mark, but every now and then we will switch for a week or two to the Gospel of John. As I have shared earlier this year, and often in the past, Mark and John are written for different purposes with a different intended audience. I re-mention that so none of you freak out if you read on the internet or hear from a friend that you cannot trust the Scriptures because they are so contradictory. Some folks like to make a great deal of hay out of the fact that the Synoptic Gospels contain our reading from today near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Some might even interpret what we read today in those Gospels as the straw that breaks the back of the Temple leadership, as the precipitating event that leads to Jesus’ Crucifixion and death during Holy Week. John, though, tells it in the second chapter of his Gospel. Why the discrepancy?
In some ways, we can really only guess. Tradition holds that John wrote his Gospel near the end of his life. As the last living Apostle, people were worried his knowledge of and his experiences with Jesus would be lost to future generations. So they asked him to write what became this Gospel. Is it possible he was confused in his old age and forgot when things happened? Perhaps. But I think it more likely that John had a plan when writing his Gospel. It becomes more apparent when we go to the end of the book. John tells us that Jesus did many more signs, so many, in fact, that he supposes no book could contain them all, but that these signs are written so that you and I might know Jesus is the Messiah, and that by believing in His Name, we will have life eternal. Those of you paying close attention are already putting the pieces of the puzzle together for today. The Temple leadership asks Him for a sign. They do not like His answer. Yet the work of Jesus in John’s Gospel for the next several chapters will be those signs which testify to both His identity and His authority. And, to push us a bit further into authorial intent, John does not choose all the signs that Jesus did, only those that John thinks are important to convince hearers and readers that Jesus is the Messiah.
Back to John’s story, then. Our reading today takes place in John’s narrative right after the miracle at the wedding in Cana. I should not have to explain this to Episcopalians, but maybe some visitors today are from another tradition. Jesus’ first miracle in John’s Gospel is the changing of the water into the finest wine at the wedding in Cana. As we reminded ourselves in the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany, God is beginning a new creation in Christ Jesus. The language of the first chapter in John’s Gospel intentionally takes us back to the beginning of Genesis. The new adoption into God’s family will be made possible by Jesus rather than being dependent upon one’s relationship with Abraham, right? Good. I see lots of nods.
Once done with the relation of Jesus to a new Genesis, John gets back to the important work of sharing the signs that point to Jesus’ role in God’s plan of salvation. Ironically, in a book about signs that direct us to Jesus, Jesus refuses to show a sign in our story today, even though the leadership demands one and the context is the Passover.
Just to remind ourselves, John states this all happens during the Feast of Passover. The Passover was a perpetual feast, meaning God intended for it always to be celebrated and remembered by His people. The Jews were never to forget His deliverance of them from the oppression of the Egyptians. Everyone who was able was expected to come to Jerusalem, once the Temple was built, and join in that festival reminder. Those faithful people of God living in the Diaspora, meaning anywhere else not Judea, were expected to make it to Jerusalem at least once in their lives. Y’all know humanity and the pressure we put on ourselves. You want to be seen as a faithful person, you need to be seen at as many celebrations of the Passover in Jerusalem as possible. You are snorting, but how many of us showed up at church in our younger ages “to be seen” or to convey to others we were “good Christians?”
Those of us at Wednesday’s Lenten study heard Amy-Jill Levine describe the Temple at high festivals. She talked about the cacophony of noise, about the press of people around you, about the animals, about the bankers. She did a great job except appealing to your sense of smell. We forget the challenge of the scene on the noses of those there to worship. People did not bathe as often as us today, so there was that smell. Some wore perfume; some wore too much perfume! The animals added to the smell. And every now and again someone would come into the Court of the Gentiles, offer their accepted sacrifice to be shared by others. In a culture that did not get the luxury of eating much meat, there would be wafts of barbecue or tailgating, to use the language of the SEC.
AJL explained to us on Wednesday that the marketplace she described used to take place on the Mount of Olives, right? Then she said that we are not really sure why, but sometime over the last couple centuries before Jesus walked in the Temple, the marketplace moved. AJL is right in that we have no extent literature explaining the move to the Temple, but it does not take much imagination to figure out why it moved. Imagine being a pilgrim. You determine faithfully to go to Jerusalem for the high, holy day. You need a sheep or ox or other appropriate sacrifice to make atonement for your sins since the last time you visited the Temple, but the distance makes it challenging for you to bring the appropriate sacrifice. On your way, you stop at the Mount of Olives and exchange your currency into Temple currency. You purchase your sacrifice. Maybe you buy food or purchase other needs. Then you head over to the Temple to offer God your sacrifice. Priests, of course, were charged with making sure the animals offered were without blemish. We all know that sometimes business interests and God’s interests do not align, right? Of course, we all also realize that sometimes the clergy get a little too focused on business rather than the things of God, right?
It is not that hard to accept that maybe some well-meaning priest, who was tired of some shady sheep dealer or purveyor of oxen at the Mount of Olives was ripping off too many of the faithful, made the innocent suggestion that the priests check the animals before they were sold to pilgrims. Similarly, it is not hard to accept some group of priests, thinking they deserve more for their work, deciding the priesthood should go into the business and sell their own animals, right? Whatever the impetus, good motivation or bad motivation or indifferent motivation, we can all well-imagine how subsequent generations of priests would lose sight of their primary responsibility in light of the pursuit of their own creature comforts. I see nods, good.
One last bit of evidence, and AJL overlooks this because of her rejection of Jesus as the Messiah of God, is the way that Jesus condemns and confronts the Temple leadership. He calls them whitewashed tombs. He warns that those who stand on street corners saying flowing prayers or those getting the good seats at banquets have already received their reward. He tells the people to listen to them but not do as they do. Jesus has all kinds of criticisms, including today’s, because they have made the worship of God, which should be a joyful and liberating experience, a festival, burdensome. At the Passover, that freedom and joy should be at a crescendo, not the money-making marketplace experience. In the end, it is those criticisms which lead those in authority to plot to kill Him. But we are unsurprised, right? In our culture, how many of us like to talk church budgets? How many of us are encouraged to question budget priorities in our churches, especially in those denominational settings that are more congregational than related through synods or dioceses?
Back to Jesus and those who witness Him flipping the tables. They are understandably upset and annoyed that He has interrupted pilgrims on their Passover pilgrimages and worship. But is that their focus, or are they more irritated at His interruption of commerce? It would be like me insisting to the Vestry that we would not pass an offering plate on Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday. Can you imagine the pushback? You are laughing at the prospect, so clearly you get it. The Temple leadership asks for a sign to prove that Jesus is acting and proclaiming appropriately and authoritatively. And Jesus tells them if they destroyed this temple He will rebuild it in three days’ time.
Keep in mind, at the time of this story, the Temple had undergone more than 40 years of renovations. Herod the Great, in his efforts to prove he was a worthy successor to David and Solomon and true king of Israel, set out to renovate the Second Temple. All those present had been living under that renovation for 46 years when Jesus makes that statement. It is no wonder they do not believe Him. It’s taken teams of construction workers and painters and sculptors and woodworkers 46 years to renovate the Temple, and now this yokel from Nazareth claims He can do all that work and more in three days? It is, of course, preposterous. Common sense tells everyone that there is no way what He says is true. You and I know how the story ends, and we know the sign that Jesus is giving them, even if neither the Temple leadership nor His disciples understand Him now.
For those hearing this for the first time, and as you see in John’s account, Jesus’ followers remember this claim of Jesus after His Resurrection. The claim, of course, is far more significant than just rising from the dead. No doubt some of His disciples remembered Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well; maybe some remembered the attempt to trick Jesus into taking sides in the lawful tax question; maybe some remembered Jesus’ teaching on the sign of Jonah and connected the dots; maybe they remembered an encounter we do not have. But AFTER the Resurrection, they remember this encounter. They realize that Jesus was referring to His Body and not the edifice!
I cannot begin to explain to you how transformative this understanding was. In the cultures around them, temples were THE sites of the gods and goddesses. All the ANE gods HAD to defend their temples, or they lost the power necessary for them to contend in the heavens. Add to that the cultural acceptance that matter was yucky, that no god would want anything to do with the physical form or world in which you and I live, and you begin to understand the cultural difficulties. But then think on the Master’s claim that we render to God the things of God, ponder the claim of the Incarnation—that God condescended to take on human form and experience life like us and reveal Himself completely to us—, and remember Jesus’ instructions about true worship. As a result of Jesus’ work, the location or focus of the worship of God has changed radically. No longer do we go to a building for “right worship,” we worship God in how we interact with the world and those in the world in these, our bodies! When we see those oppressed by various conditions, we should be reminded of our Lord’s Passion and Suffering and Death. What is our response? To add more to their suffering? To hurl insults? To offer a meaningless claim of “thoughts and prayers?” Of course not, we work to lighten their burdens. We pattern our behavior after the One who lightened our own burdens.
The great teaching of John’s passage today is that our bodies matter to God. Gloriously! Just as He took on human form to save us, in all its frailties and all its yuckiness, so He chooses human bodies, in all their weaknesses, to be His kingdom of priests! You know this, even if you never considered it in John’s Gospel, right? When we are baptized and confirmed, what happens as a result? Great, some of you are still getting A’s on your Confirmation classes. We express that God binds Himself to us and us to Him. Some denominations assert that Jesus comes in lives in their hearts—their will; others may say it is the Holy Spirit which comes to us, right? We may not use that language precisely, but we know that God gives us those charisms, those gifts, we need to glorify Him in our lives. Better still, we know that God asks us only to honor Him in our lives. And when we dishonor Him, we repent and try again. We recognize that teaching alone cannot transform us, so as Episcopalians we gather and eat His Body and drink His Blood, recognizing we need His mystical nutrition to strengthen us for the work He has prepared for us to walk in this week, right? I see considered nods. Good.
Then what? We are sent back outside these walls to do the work He has given us to do, that all might be drawn to His saving embrace. Anybody feel like arguing with our BCP now? It’s almost as if our spiritual ancestors understood the importance of our gathering, that our participation in the Eucharist prepares us and equips us to honor God better in our lives.
But even as you and I are being changed into whatever God intends for us, we are also vaccinated against the attitudes of the culture around us. Our world places absurd emphasis on physical appearance. How much money is spent on plastic surgeries and other efforts to change the outward appearances of our bodies? How much rejection is piled upon others who look “different,” be it colors of skin or haircuts or piercings or tatoos or whatever we decide is “different” for that day or that time? How many in the world around us use exercise, what we might call “temple maintenance” in light of today’s reading, for vainglory efforts rather than for preparation to honor God in our daily life and work? How many in the wider Church forget they were created in the image of God, to say nothing of those in the wider world who have never heard that truth? How many of us forget that Jesus’ form was unremarkable and un-esteemed, as we remind ourselves this season in our observance of the Stations of the Cross? And you and I are bathed in this understanding week in and week out by virtue of our liturgies! Imagine what it is like for those who never hear the truth of this sign!
My friends, the truth is that you and I are incarnations with little “i’s”. Because Jesus went to that Cross, willed Himself to stay on it even when we tempted Him to come down, and gave up His life, you and I share in His death and are promised a share in His Resurrection. You and I are reminded each and every time we gather of this truth. That we would know its truth, God raised Jesus from the dead, signifying to us that all that He taught and all that He did was of the Father! And reminded of His work, of His Death, of His Resurrection, and of His Ascension, you and I are nourished and instructed to do the things of God in the world around us. Make no mistake, that work may not make sense. That work may seem to the wider world or even the wider Church an abject failure. But it is in those failures and those seemingly senseless ministries where God loves to be present and redeem! It is in those situations precisely where our faithful obedience meets His redemptive purposes, and the world around us is given its sign. As we faithfully obey His call on our lives, we point those around us and those whom we serve to the Sign, the One through whom believing in Him, gives us abundant life and immortality! Best of all, as you and I engage in that struggle to glorify Him, to honor Him, in our daily life and work, we become better aware of our need for Him and of His real presence in our lives. We become fit heralds. We become those who proclaim the Gospel, the Good News, that God has acted in Christ Jesus to redeem the world and to fulfill the promises made to Eve, to Noah, to Abraham & Sarah, to David, to Mary, to all who came before, and even to us!
In His Peace,
Brian+
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