“Raise it Up” Colchester Federated Church, March 3, 2024, Third Sunday in Lent (John 2:13-22)

On this Third Sunday in Lent, we journey with Jesus up to Jerusalem.  We journey with Jesus to the temple itself—the holiest place in the holiest city.  Now there are various ways to understand this story.  The way that makes the most sense in my view is that Jesus’ actions question the temple sacrificial system and the exploitation of the poor.  Jesus wanted to send a message, and if nothing else, Jesus was successful since we are still talking about what he did two thousand years later! 

What was Jesus so mad about?  Well, the animals that were present for sacrifice in the temple had to be unblemished and pure.  Foreign currencies were exchanged for the official half-shekel of the temple tax.  Some of the moneychangers took a little off the top.  Jesus questioned some of these practices.  He drives the sheep and cattle away with a whip of cords.  He pours out the coins that the moneychangers had collected from this enterprise.  Jesus overturns the tables on which they conducted their business.  He tells the people who were selling doves (notably the only animal that the poorest of the poor could afford to purchase), “Get these things out of here!  Don’t make my Father’s house a place of business.”[1]  That is a significant detail—Jesus yelling at those who sold doves.  Because when Jesus was a baby, Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to Jerusalem for circumcision.  As was the custom, Mary and Jospeh offered a sacrifice in the temple—a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.[2]  Was Jesus especially irritated by those who sold doves knowing that his parents had to scrape together what little money they had to purchase doves as an offering?  Then we see Jesus as a fully grown man saying to those selling doves to the poor (like his parents), “Don’t make [God’s] house a place of business.”  Jesus’ disciples remember the Psalmist declaring, “Passion for your house consumes me” as they see what Jesus has just done.[3]

Now in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), this event occurs at the end of Jesus’ ministry.  This was the event that sealed Jesus’ fate less than a week before Jesus is crucified by the Romans.  How it’s presented in the Synoptics is probably the most historically accurate.  Jesus had this dramatic upheaval of the temple sacrificial system right around Passover.  When Jews (including Jesus himself and his disciples) would travel from all over the countryside to Jerusalem to observe this holy festival.

Passover was a week-long festival in the spring, where people celebrated the Exodus from Egypt and the harvest of barley.  It was a celebration that expressed the themes of liberation from oppression and divine salvation.[4]  People would gather in Jerusalem, and the city would have been bustling with people and activity.  There would have been extra Roman soldiers on hand to keep the peace.  If there’s one thing the Romans despised more than anything, it was rabble rousers who disturbed the Pax Romana (the peace of the Roman Empire).  Not only that, this Jewish festival of Passover that celebrated themes of liberation from oppression would have made the Roman soldiers uneasy.

So here comes Jesus into this charged religious and political atmosphere, going into the temple complex and causing a scene.  Overturning tables, releasing sacrificial animals, using a whip, and yelling at those taking advantage of the poor.  It’s no wonder that this was the event that led to his crucifixion.  This dramatic display of disapproving economic exploitation of the least of these made the Romans and religious leadership realize just how troublesome Jesus of Nazareth really was.  And for them, Jesus had to go.

In the Gospel according to John, John uses this story to set the tone for the rest of the life and ministry of Jesus.  This dramatic event happens in Chapter 2 to put us all on high alert for the signs to come.  In John this story is Jesus’ first public appearance.  This event happens right after the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine.  It foreshadows the destruction of Jerusalem when Jesus speaks about raising up the temple (though Jesus means the temple of his body).  The Romans will eventually sack the city in 70 C.E. and destroy the temple that had taken so many years to build.[5]  Overturning the tables so early in the Gospel makes us all sit up and pay attention.  We are going to see amazing signs of Jesus’ power in the pages to come.  Jesus is going to face opposition right away.  What will seal Jesus’ fate in the Gospel of John isn’t this temple episode—it’s raising Lazarus from the dead.  Resurrection and new life may be more frightening to some than disturbing the peace.

Whenever this event may have happened, Jesus’ actions bring up a larger question of the merits of righteous indignation.  This is how this story may be still speaking to us.  Indignation is a specific kind of anger—it’s anger that’s provoked by unfair treatment.  When others are denied dignity and respect, indignation is a good response.  Jesus taught us to love God, love our neighbors, and love ourselves after all.

Jesus wasn’t going up to Jerusalem and throwing a temper tantrum.  This display of righteous indignation was purposeful and deliberate.  Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in standing up for those who got taken advantage of by people in power.  Jesus ultimately paid with his life to show us the way of compassion.

Perhaps we are called as his followers to question and do something about unjust societal beliefs and practices.  What makes us indignant?  What are the issues that cause us to feel angry because of unfair treatment that people are experiencing?  They won’t be the same for every person, and that’s good because people have various gifts and passions.  It’s like Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  What makes you feel indignant and fiery?  What makes you come alive, and how do we think God can use our gifts to help make the world more loving?

At the end of the day, if folks believe that Christians need to just chill about social justice—we can look to the example of Jesus who got indignant about people being economically exploited by those in power and literally poured money on the ground, overturned tables, and drove animals away using a whip.  Getting indignant to stand up for others is part of our faith tradition.  Because we’re called to look out for the lost and the least.  We’re allowed to be indignant when dignity is denied to our fellow children of God.  May it be so with us, and thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] John 2:16, CEB.
[2] Luke 2:24, NRSV.
[3] John 2:17, CEB.
[4] The Jewish Annotated New Testament, 161.
[5] Warren Carter, “Constructions of Violence and Identities in Matthew’s Gospel,” in Violence in the New Testament, 99.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.