March 19, 2006
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the Road to Jerusalem: With Wisdom and Passion The gospel of John begins with a marvelous introduction that tells us who Jesus is and how he will live with us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory as of God’s only Son full of grace and truth” (John 1.1,14). John wants us to know that Jesus has made his home with us, and that he is God’s anointed one, and so he does two things early in his gospel. First he has Jesus perform a “sign” his first miracle at a wedding reception. He keeps the wedding reception going by turning huge vats of water into the best tasting wine in town. It was an incredibly gracious thing for Jesus to do. In fact, turning water into wine was a miracle that signaled that the presence, a touch, a word from Jesus can make our lives fuller, richer, bolder and can in face revive us when we are a little tired and worn around the edges. He rests a few days, then he does the second attention getting things. Jesus goes to Jerusalem and the Temple to celebrate the annual festival of the Passover. He will attend a Passover celebration three times in John’s gospel, that is why we believe his ministry lasted three years. Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem. “People ‘go up to Jerusalem’ in two ways: first the city is on a mountain so people literally go up to get there. Second, it is the holy city, so a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would have a sense of going up into the presence of God” (www.lectionary.org/john2.13-22 p.3). It is while he is up in Jerusalem that Jesus gets so disturbed that he takes drastic and dramatic action. It wasn’t the buying and selling that bothered Jesus so, he certainly understood whey they were there. After all, “only first-rate unblemished animals are acceptable for sacrifice, and it would be difficult to maintain an animal in perfect condition even on a journey from nearby Galilee – impossible for those coming from Rome or Egypt or other far away places. “A money exchange is also required, because travelers bring coins from many nations and it was required that a specific coin be used for the temple tax (the Romans would not allow Jews to mint their own coins).” “With over a hundred thousand pilgrims in the city to make their sacrifices at the temple, it seems likely that there would be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sheep and cattle – although poor people, of whom there were many, could sacrifice doves. What comes to mind is an atmosphere like a street fair with perhaps hundreds of vendors, except the vendors are feeding, grooming, and cleaning up after large animals instead of serving soda and hot dogs. There is always danger that a crazed animal might break loose and desecrate the holiest parts of the temple. The noise and smell would be overwhelming, and could not be walled off totally from the sanctuary. In fairness, we must acknowledge that the sacrificial system as prescribed by Torah is a messy, bloody, smelly business, but the presence of these vendors in the temple aggravates the situation by adding overcrowding and a commercial emphasis” (lectionary.org, p.4). Think of the crowd at Red, White, and Boom, with thousands of animals from High Street to COSI. It had been the practice for vendors to sell their products out in the Kidron Valley. But now, they have brought them into the Temple courtyard. What bothered Jesus was that sacred space had become a marketplace. We get calls here all the time from companies wanting us to by taped programs, t-shirts, phone systems, furniture, and anything else they can thing of. They may be necessary on some level, but the question is should the church and its people be treated as simply one more potential market of buyers? No. And of course, it is true that we can so to some churches in the city and buy spiritual things, we can purchase books and tapes and DVD’s and CD’s in church bookstores. What would Jesus do today? Would he drive them out, shut them down, send people to the nearest Barnes & Noble, B Dalton, Border’s or Cokesbury? We don’t know. We do know that it disturbs the heart of Jesus when our purpose is distorted, and that is what was happening in the courtyard that day. Selling animals and changing money from the coin of Rome to a token acceptable for offering were not bad things. The problem was they had begun to sell more than a service. They were creating a means of making a profit at the expense of pilgrims. They were creating a kind of spiritual laziness – “I can bring less than my best to the Temple because I can always trade up for a better animal and sell my inferior one to someone else”. Jesus in a sign of his authority that will get people talking, drives the animals and merchants out of the Temple and as he does, he lets everybody know that the Temple is not for buying or selling, it is a place for believing and serving. Bring an offering, absolutely, but bring it because you love God and God’s people, and because your offering no matter its size is an act of worship. Share your time and talent with us, that is a great thing to do, we want you to use your gifts and talents here, but use them for the glory of God. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus cleansed the Temple late in their gospels. John places the incident early because it sets the tone for him ministry of being with God’s people at our most needy moments. When Matthew tells this story he says, “the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he cured them” (21.14). Like those first disciples, our call is to with wisdom and passion believe scripture that tells us of the love of God given to us in Christ Jesus, sustained by the Holy Spirit, encouraging us on this road to Jerusalem and beyond to believe the impossible, see with vision, and move with passion into the days ahead, bring with us all who have been hurt rejected by the church. Our doors are open, bring them in. It is time for us to go up to our Jerusalem, to our places of worship and faithfulness. We can go up and repeat the Psalm the disciples remembered as they watched Jesus, “Zeal for God’s house will consume me” (Psalm 69.9). Let’s make this Temple, this place of worship sacred, holy space. Let’s ask ourselves if we are selling anything that takes away from our ability to worship God in our spirits and in truth. Maybe we need to find that vendor that resides in our spirits and say, “no thank you, I’m not buying fear today. No, I am not interested in any doubt this morning. Know what? I’ll not be maintaining the status quo today. How about this? Got any faith and courage? Got any hope at all? Got any new and renewed vision, a new way to imagine and claim and live in this present moment and into the future God is holding out for us? I’ll take that and go into the heart of the sanctuary and thank and praise God for all that God has given us. We can go up to the status quo people, it sounds awful and bigoted when John refers to them as “the Jews” since what he means to do is to describe the religious authorities who opposed change and opposed Jesus who was himself by faith and culture a Jew. We can go up to those who want to maintain the status quo and say who Jesus is. We can go up and say, you think turning water into wine was something, wait and see what God will do through him. He said, “Tear down this Temple and it will be rebuilt in three days” (v.19). Listen as they try to understand in literal terms the spiritual truth Jesus is teaching. They think he is talking about the buildings that make up the Temple, the one built after the destruction of the first one, it is not even finished yet. How can you tear it down and rebuild it in a few days? We know Jesus is talking about his death and resurrection. What Jesus is saying seems ridiculous – and it will not be understood fully until after his resurrection. Guess what. We are, even in this season of Lent a resurrection people. We are here because we know the story ends as Jesus is raised from the dead and as he commissions the church to continue his ministry. After the resurrection it is clear that the Temple, the site of worship is Jesus himself. We want to worship God, to be open to God, to be still and to listen to God, to be honest in our conversations so that our discerning hearts will be received and honored by God, so that by the power of Christ and his death and resurrection, we will receive the signs of wisdom and passion that will ignite our own so we understand that . It is not always easy. So we understand that sign-seeking Jews and wisdom-desiring Gentiles denounce the gospel because it does not meet their norms for godliness, norms that turn out to be inadequate and, result in not really knowing who Jesus is. . On the other hand, the gospel claims that Christ crucified is that ultimate revelation of God’s wisdom and power. This symbol of defeat displays God’s true character and in turn provides bold criteria for perceiving the divine presence in human life (Texts for Preaching – Year B, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, 216). We can go along in this journey to Jerusalem knowing who Jesus is and what he is about. Understand that all this talk of crosses and death may seem foolish, it certainly makes no sense to our 21st Century mind. It was difficult for the early church to grasp too. That is why Paul writes to the Corinthians that what seems to people to be foolish and weak is in fact wisdom and strength. Our discernment process is helping us appreciate that the world’s wisdom is no match for God’s, an in fact it can be shallow and hypocritical. That is what was happening in Corinth, and that is why Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah to help make his point. Isaiah says, (Isaiah 29.13-14): “The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote; so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden” (Interpretation. I Corinthians. Richard B Hays. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1997, p. 29). What we offer here is not only our intellect, or our ability to debate or use all of the scientific or technical tools we have. As helpful and important as they are, they will not save us. What will lead to our salvation is that God graciously grants us the ability to tell the story of God’s good news lived in Jesus Christ and proclaimed in word and deed that will bring us into greater relationship with him. God through Jesus Christ wants to remove every stumbling block that prevents us from proclaiming Christ crucified, buried, and risen. Surely it won’t take a whip, maybe just a gentle nudge that reminds us that Jesus is calling us to come with him on this journey to Jerusalem, to say with him as he endures the cross and to celebrate with him three days later, when God’s lets us see the most incredible thing God has done. The journey continues, and even now, Jesus goes with us. Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Street Christian Church
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