Loving God, you call us to love, and yet we always try to find other, easier commandments to keep. Fill us with your love by the power of your Holy Spirit, that others might be drawn to you through us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Much has been made over the years of trying to interpret what Jesus' actions in the Temple mean for us in the church. Does it mean that there should never be any buying and selling of any kind in or near a church building? Does it mean that buying and selling is only discouraged if it involves the sale of animals for sacrifice? Does it mean that nothing that is for profit should be advertised in the church? Does it mean that you can't sell tickets to a dinner? When I was younger, I used to bring a dime with me to Sunday school in order to purchase a stamp and put it in a little attendance book. Was this a bad thing? We always seem eager to make rules about things, but what did Jesus' actions in the Temple actually mean? Let's back up for a moment and take a closer look.

The psalm that is quoted in order to explain Jesus' actions says, "It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me" (Ps. 69:9). It implies that God has somehow been insulted. God has been insulted, and Jesus is taking it upon himself to defend God's honour. But how has God been insulted? After all, animal sacrifices are prescribed in the Old Testament law. Aren't the people in the Temple simply making it so that people can travel to Jerusalem bringing money instead of animals? Perhaps - but listen to what Jesus has to say to them! "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (Jn. 2:16). Literally he says, "Stop making the house of my Father a house of business."

Ah... The house of God has become a house of business. Think about this for just a moment in terms of the reasons for which you would go to visit somebody in their home versus the reasons for which you would go and visit a business. If you go to a business, your purpose would normally be to buy and sell goods and services. However, if you visit somebody in their home, normally you would do so in order to spend some time with the person who lives there.

Now think about that in terms of coming to church or going to the Temple. Are we coming in order to conduct our business, or in order to spend some time in the presence of God? That was what had become an insult to God: People were coming to the Temple in order to conduct their business instead of to worship and to pray.

Now, there are at least a couple of cautions in relation to this story. First of all, Jesus - as the Son of God - is uniquely well-equipped to defend God's honour zealously. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that we are well-equipped to do the same. I came across a priceless quote which I think is well worth sharing. It warns us about feeling the need to defend God and comes from a Presbyterian pastor named Bill McNabb ("The Last Temptation of Christians," Wittenburg Door, issue 103). He writes:

I had an old seminary professor who began and ended his apologetics lecture with one sentence: "You defend God like you defend a lion -- you get out of his way." God, it seems, has never had much trouble with his enemies -- it's his friends who give him fits.... The theologian Karl Rahner put it this way: "The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable." Perhaps the best defense of God would be to just keep our mouths shut and live like He told us to. The gospel would then have such power and attraction that we wouldn't have to worry about defending it.

Harsh words, perhaps, but unfortunately there's a lot of truth in them. Jesus never told his followers to defend him. However, he did tell them to love one another as he had first loved them!

A second caution related to this story has to do with so-called "righteous anger." I have on occasion heard people point to this story as proof that Jesus used force because of his "righteous anger." The thing is, though, that nowhere does it say that Jesus was angry when he did this. If you imagine Jesus coming into the very large temple with the noise of people buying and selling and the bleating and mooing of animals and people talking and carrying on, is it any wonder that he might make a whip out of some rope and start driving the animals out in order to get people's attention? Do you really think that the money changers would have just got up and left if he had walked up and asked them nicely? Somehow I doubt it. And so Jesus had to get their attention somehow so that they would hear what he had to say: "Stop making the house of my Father a house of business."

It would be easy for us to focus just on this one thing and miss the fact that Jesus was doing far more than just objecting to using the Temple for business rather than for worship. In fact, Jesus was confronting the whole Temple system and letting people know that it was about to be replaced with something far greater. Jesus himself had become God's Temple - God's dwelling place - and God would now live among his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Temple and the whole system that went with it would be destroyed.

And so, Jesus' actions in the Temple were symbolic as well as giving a message about the proper use of God's house. Coming to God's house in order to spend time in worship and in prayer always needs to be our primary purpose. However, does this translate into the need for a list of rules about what you can't do in the church?

It seems to me that although people have often exhibited a fondness for such lists, Jesus never did. He could have given his disciples a list of rules as to what they must do or not do in order to follow him. However, instead he gave them a single commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). The apostle Paul recognized this, too, when he wrote: "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:10). Just as was mentioned earlier, the best defense of God is to live like Jesus told us to.

So love for God and neighbour is primary, and worship and prayer are to be a primary part of our love for God. Are other rules actually needed, or simply added because we find it easier to keep rules than to love? Consider for a moment the following story about keeping and breaking the rules:

Some visitors came a long distance to visit the Teacher during Holy Week. It was the custom of the entire community to fast the six days before Easter. As a way of showing his hospitality, the Teacher prepared a modest meal for his visitors. When some of the younger members of the fasting community saw the smoke from his chimney they approached the elders and said, "The Teacher has broken the rule and is cooking food at his place. You must speak with him."

One of the elders smiled and spoke for the rest. "Dear friends, the Teacher did indeed break the commandment that was established by the community, but in showing hospitality to strangers, he has firmly kept the commandment of God." [Stories for the Journey, by William R. White, p. 60]

Did you catch that? - Breaking the commandment of the community, but keeping the commandment of God. Things are often not as black and white as we would like them to be!

And so, to return to today's gospel, what can we conclude? Certainly, we are reminded to come into the house of God in order to worship and to honour God and to pray. Yet, we are also reminded that God does not live merely in buildings. God lives within his people by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, each and every person who has the Spirit of God within them deserves to be treated with the same love and respect as we would give to God. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:10). Amen.

Lent 3(B) John 2:13-22
March 19, 2006
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore
? 2006 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved