Scripture: John 2:13-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Matthew 5:10-11 Series: Lent
Preaching on Jesus driving the animals and money changers from the temple, Wilson argues the Bible never actually calls Jesus angry; we project anger onto the scene to justify our own. The temple was a blood-soaked place of legitimate sacrifice, and the money changers and animal sellers served real religious needs, so Jesus’ real objection was not their practice but ‘mission creep’—holy ground gradually overrun. Instead of modeling anger, Jesus models the foolishness of the cross (1 Corinthians 1): willingness to make a scene, look a fool, and take a stand for justice. The deeper claim is that Jesus himself is the temple, torn down and raised in three days, now the source of holiness and reconciliation given freely for all. In Lent, the call is to let the cross break our own status quo rather than mine scripture to rationalize worldly anger.
Illustrations: iliad-wrath-of-achilles, the-waterboy-funneled-anger, temple-as-butcher-shop, money-changers-graven-images, mission-creep, colts-owner-oppressed-billionaires
March 3, 2024
3rd Sunday in Lent
John 2:13-22
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. - John 2:13-22
Anger had a very important position in the ancient world. The beginning of the Iliad, almost the Bible to the Greeks starts with the word for anger or wrath.
“Wrath—sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles, that inflicted woes without number upon the Achaeans,”
The whole long poem is about anger, different levels of anger. A lot of pagan mythology is about anger and righteous indignation. Modern mythology is filled with positive portrayals of anger. The classic film from the 90s, The Waterboy, turns around a young Louisiana man funneling his anger towards football and hitting people. Anger is not as prominent in the Hebrew scriptures, in the Christian scriptures. It takes place from time to time, but it is not essential.
When we talk about Jesus, anger virtually absent. The one exception, often mentioned, is this passage today. Jesus is going to the temple. There are animals all over the place as well as money changers seated. The posture of the money changers is important because to sit in the temple is the position someone takes when they are reading Torah. It is a holy position. This is a contextual situation.
If we take away the context of second temple Judaism, this whole episode seems like a strange affair. If we put ourselves and our church in Jesus’s shoes, we could also understand anger at the situation. Imagine lots and lots of tables of money changers and cows and doves and goats all peeing and pooping throughout the sanctuary, right? Like it’s pretty repulsive. It’s a lot worse than someone having a cup of coffee in the sanctuary, right?
What we need to hold on to is that the temple in ancient times was filled not with cleanliness, but with animal blood. There was a lot of animal blood. There was a need for animal blood. There were a lot of sacrifices going on. The high priest, in second temple Judaism, was very close to a modern butcher. Not in the pejorative sense, but in a proper sense. The High Priest was like a butcher who can take a cow and turn it into beautiful cuts of meat and can separate all of the parts swiftly and thoroughly. There’s a sense that the temple at the time of Jesus looked more like a hot butcher shop than any church we have today. I mean hot because there was no air conditioning, and so it was open air, but it’s not a cool room to prevent infection. There’s probably some infection going on. There were also money changers. The name itself sounds wicked to the ears of folks who grew up in the church. Money changers were a necessity because there were Jews of the diaspora who had come from all over the world to visit Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. These visitors brought a bunch of different money from around the world. There wasn’t a Euro. There wasn’t a dollar. Almost every different region had a ruler who minted their own money. Many of which had said ruler’s face on the coin. There was a concern for many Jews about giving any money to the temple which had the image of a person on it because of the 10 Commandments where it says, “thou shall not make graven images.” So people wanted to change money from graven images to non graven images so that they could get animals to sacrifice. The money changers helped people follow the Ten Commandments. Another issue visitors to the temple was acquiring the right animals for the sacrifice. People didn’t travel from Alexandria to Jerusalem bringing their turtle doves with them for their sacrifice. There was an industry set up in Jerusalem that raised animals in order to be sacrificed. Like any small business, they couldn’t just give the animals away. They had to feed for their family, right? Jesus’ actions in the temple was not against the practice of money changing or the practice of animal sacrifice. He had sacrificed animals before. His family had made sacrifices before when he was a baby and came and offered at the temple, his parents paid for the sacrifices. The angel Gabriel didn’t tell Mary, “don’t sacrifice anything for your child.” No, she made the sacrifices. That was the practice of her faith. Jesus’ issue in the temple is not with the sacrifices. It is not with the animals. It is not with the money changers.
This passage has been read in a very anti-Catholic fashion for the last four or 500 years with the Catholics representing the priests and the money changers at the same time. Martin Luther makes a big deal about this passage, but I think Martin Luther is missing the point. I think a better understanding of Jesus’s frustration is mission creep. Mission creep is a term that was first coined in the early 90s around US involvement in the Somali Civil War, though it is a fairly obvious idea once you hear it. It takes place when people are given a mission and said mission slowly expands over time if unchecked. Mission Creep is the “is the gradual or incremental expansion of an intervention, project or mission, beyond its original scope, focus or goals.”1 The folks who raised the animals had grown comfortable inside the temple. The money changers had grown comfortable inside the temple and their function had creeped to become a larger part of the temple practice. The performed a function that was helpful and necessary. The issue was not their practice, but the boundaries and self-understanding about where the normal world ended and the temple began. Where was the holy ground? Where did it start? I think many of us want Jesus to be angry in this moment, if we’re being honest with ourselves. We want Jesus to be angry like Achilles was angry because then it justifies our own moments of anger and frustration. Maybe we can’t love our enemies like Jesus, but surely we can be angry like Jesus.
The Bible never describes Jesus as angry anyway. We read into it that all his actions are from anger, but it doesn’t say that Jesus is frustrated with what has happened to the temple. He pours out the money from the money changers. He drives the animals out of the temple. He drives the animals out, not the people. He gets a whip that’s designed for animals. It’s a specific word in Greek for an animal whip. It’s not a person whip. He sends animals out. He cleans house. Instead of anger, what we need to realize is that Jesus is looking foolish. He is not accepting the status quo. He is not letting boys be boys in the Temple. The righteous practices of the temple have suffered mission creep and have expanded so that there are money changers in the temple and animals being sold in the temple. This is not the intention of Torah. Jesus is frustrated with the status quo and he’s not just going to let it continue.
I think this is what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians when he says 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.”
Jesus does not give us an example of anger. He doesn’t give us an excuse for our anger. He gives us an example of the foolishness of the cross that is willing to make a scene, to take a stand for justice. He gives us an example of someone who is willing to be lampooned for justice. In our world today, it is easy to look out and to see your perspective, Whatever your perspective is, under attack. They are against it. However, you see the world, however you see politics, however you see faith in public life, they are attacking you. They are attacking your beliefs. There’s evidence of almost every political or religious perspective under attack. Very few times is there an editorial or a viral video where someone is like, you know what? My demographic? we’re good. The owner of the Indianapolis Colts gave an interview that said, billionaires are the most oppressed group in the country. If anyone wants to be angry about something, they can easily find something to be angry about.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, ”“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.“ Matthew 5:10-11 NRSV
Jesus doesn’t say, “get angry about it.” If that is what he wanted us to do, the sermon on the mount would be the perfect opportunity to say it. Anybody can find anything to be angry about. Jesus is showing us the foolishness of the cross.
When we think about the foolishness of the cross, we cannot fall in the trap of thinking about the us and them. The foolishness of the cross is foolishness to you. It breaks your status quo, your assumptions.
The most important thing about the money changers and the animals is not the money changers and the animals. It is the temple. It is Jesus’ claim that he is the temple. There’s this transfer that takes place that many of us have trouble with. It goes from the temple of God being a place that should be protected to the temple of God being a person whom we should worship. It is the evidence of the crucifixion and resurrection, that he is the temple. He is the source of holiness, and that is what the temple was. The temple was the source of holiness. The temple was the way that Jews could set themselves apart from the world. The temple was the way that Jews could make themselves right again. When they sinned, they could go to the temple and find reconciliation. All of that is now found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the temple torn down and rebuilt. and he is not in Jerusalem. He is not in Washington dc. He is not in downtown Austin. He is here for you. He is not asking you to be angry. He is not giving you an excuse for your anger. He is offering you new life. The temple has been rebuilt and it is given for you. In this season of Lent, may we not look at the Bible as ways to justify our desires, but see in it an offering of life given freely. Even in the midst of unrighteousness and injustice, life has been given freely for not just us, but for all.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life you have given us. Help us not to rationalize worldly anger but to be willing to look a fool for Christ so that others can see the truth of his love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen