I don't know about you, but the gospel I just read has always made me just a little uncomfortable.
Why is Jesus that angry? Surely this has to be your question.
Jesus, after all, was a master at focusing on what was really important. He always seemed to keep his cool, didn't he?
Remember the feeding of the five thousand? Facing that enormous crowd, Jesus gave all his attention to preaching and healing and teaching about the coming kingdom of God while the disciples were so concerned about there being enough food for everyone.
At the wedding in Cana, when the wine runs out, does he loose his cool then? No, he casually turns all that water into wine.
When arrested on trumped up charges and tried by a kangaroo court, Jesus faced tormentors who tried everything to get a rise out of him.
They taunted him, they mocked him, spat on him, hit him, humiliated him -- but they never succeeded in cracking his composure.
Jesus didn't seem to have any hot buttons to go off when it came to protecting himself.
But today's gospel text demonstrates that Jesus definitely had hot buttons that could be pushed.
Confronted with the busy, bustling scene on the temple steps, seems Jesus was suddenly struck by the futility of all that activity: the waste, the deception, the manipulation of God's intentions for selfish human purposes.
The terminal sickness of the religious system of the day hit Jesus in the face and lit up his hot button.
It seems obvious that in Jesus' mind, the moneychangers had broken The Rules, right?
Rules. During the season of Lent, we begin our liturgy with the Ten Commandments. They are also known as the Decalogue (deca- means ten).
Today, now you know that they come from the Old Testament as related by Moses in the Book of Exodus.
One of Father Brad's "rules" of thumb ...the Old Testament is all about rules and regulations.
Every once in a while, there is a movement to post the Ten Commandments in our schools. The thought is that if we just lay out the rules, we'll get people to behave.
If you took a survey, I think that most people would admit that they see the Ten Commandments as encumbrances placed on personal behavior--they're all the things we not supposed to do.
And while most of us can't name all ten of the commandments, we are persuaded that at the center of each one is the all-important finger-wagging "thou shalt not!"
For some, the commandments are heavy yokes to be publicly placed on the necks of those who are rebellious (or those for whom we disagree). Just ask Rush Limbaugh.
Understanding the Decalogue as a set of burdens overlooks something essential though--namely that they are prefaced not by an order, "Here are ten rules. Obey them!"-- but instead by a breathtaking announcement of freedom:
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Ex. 20:2)
What if...what if we referred to the commandments as "descriptions of the life that prevails when you're in the zone of God's liberation"?
"Because the Lord is your God," the Decalogue affirms, "you are free not to need any other gods. You are free to rest on the seventh day; free from the tyranny of lifeless idols; free from murder, stealing and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in this world."
The Decalogue begins with the Good news of what the liberating God has done, and then describes the shape of the freedom that results.
The commandments are not weights, but wings that enable our hearts to catch the wind of God's spirit and to soar.
Last week, we heard about the covenant that God made with Abraham.
Later, with Moses' help, that covenant was carved into stone tablets. There was the old covenant.
Jesus then came as the new covenant, a new testament to the relationship that God wants to have with us.
"…and he took our nature upon himself, and suffered death upon the cross for our redemption."
It's all about the new relationship with God being tied up in the likes of a human being who also was divine.
"…take our nature upon him". In other words, "human, like us."
Jesus was so very human. Could you identify with the feeling of anger that Jesus was feeling in the Temple?
If you are a parent, I would bet it might be especially easy for you to feel the same sort of anger.
Is it anger? Or is it profound disappointment--frustration?
Do you ever get frustrated when someone just doesn't hear you?
You repeat what you have to say over and over again, and,before you know it, you are raising your voice to that person in frustration?
You're not angry with the person; you are profoundly disappointed that you aren't communicating.
Why was Jesus profoundly disappointed at the Temple? He saw that the money changers were damaging the purpose of the Temple.
It wasn't about breaking rules at all; it was about breaking up a specific type of relationship, a relationship between God and his children.
Moses brought the Law. But Jesus brought us the Relationship.
Yes, we must have laws and rules for civil conduct. But keep in mind, we are creatures who just love to worship the Law and we love to impose our particular interpretation of the Law on others.
Scripture says that Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
I suggest to you that Jesus came to reflect a whole new paradigm of faith.
Jesus placed himself between ourselves and God.
The Law is no longer the main thing between us and God!
Jesus is.
It is as if we were trying to see something in the distance--let's say "the Law"--and Jesus keeps getting the way: "Excuse me. Lord, but I was trying to get a good look at the rules and you keep getting in the way!"
In the next moment, it is not Jesus I see blocking the view...but my neighbor.
And then another person...and another, each more different than the one before. What's going on here!?
Hearkening back to what I said last week, our God--being the god of contradictions--whenever we are wanting to see things narrowly, Jesus again gets in our viewpoint and compels us to look in a new direction.
Let me offer another example of what I'm trying to say.
It is as if everyone of us possesses a tiny mirror, a piece of a mirror. Can't see the whole picture without the help of all the pieces of the mirror.
Jesus was upset with the money changers because the worshippers were engaged in bringing their best mirrors to God in hopes of establishing, or re-establishing their relationship with the Almighty.
But the rules got in the way.
And Jesus got so upset over that, that he broke every rule in the book that day, crying out and saying, "Let nothing come between my people and my father."
That sort of rule-breaking eventually cost him his life.
I struggle with what all that this means. I'm not clear on what the God of contradictions has in mind for me. I'd rather have a divine email waiting for me on a daily basis, but...
I do think it has everything to do with placing our relationship with our fellow human beings above just about every rule and law and norm out there.
I sense that as soon as we encounter someone who wants to put us in a legal box of their creation, our God of Contradictions wants us to turn and face the opposite way.
So what, or who are the Temple money changers in your life? Where are they worshipping the Law at the expense of our relationship with each other?
How have we reached out to look into the mirrors of the people right around us, much less people we don't know yet?
Seeing the Ten Commandments as declarations of freedom, as a call to contradict the forces of this world is far more satisfying than hauling around tons of carved stone tablets, worrying about how long our backs will hold out.
Open yourself to a fresh, new perspective. Ponder this during Lent. Decide for yourself.
Amen.
Scriptural Texts: Exodus 20:1-7; Psalm 19; I Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22
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