"How Foolish" given March 4

How foolish it was for Jesus to get so angry that day in the Temple Courtyard. How foolish of Jesus to expect to see anything at all in Solomon's Temple-- except precisely what He did see that day. How foolish, how naive, how misguided-- to allow Himself to get so angry, to lose control in such a manner. And How foolish to think that the powers that be would allow a traveling faith healer from the sticks to get away with such a provocative, confrontational, downright revolutionary act. How foolish it was.

Jesus should have known better. He should have understood how things were done in Jerusalem at that time in History. He should have understood that was the way of the world. How foolish. How shocking, if you think about it.

This story doesn't fit the picture that most of us have of Jesus at all. Somehow I just can't imagine that "gentle Jesus meek and mild" we sing about in Sunday School, using a whip to drive anybody out of anywhere. Yet all four of the Gospels include the incident of the cleansing of the Temple.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell us that one day Jesus walked into the Temple and was so enraged by what He saw, that He apparently lost control. Jesus just blew up and started overturning tables and whipping people with his belt, and stood in the middle of the Temple courtyard refusing to allow anyone to pass, refusing to allow anyone to bring any sacrifices to the Altar, refusing to allow any of those small business people to make any money, refusing even to let anyone cut through the courtyard on their way into town, refusing to allow normal routine, the normal business of the Temple in Jerusalem to proceed.

How out of character for Jesus to act like that, how surprising, How foolish. Jesus should have known better. Unless of course, Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. The truth is, that in the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus was confronting directly the powers and principalities than ran First Century Palestine.

From the Passover tax every Jew had to pay, to the twenty percent charge for exchanging Roman money for shekels, to the fifteen hundred percent mark-up on sacrificial animals, to the inspection fee on those animals, to the pay-offs and kick-backs that the merchants paid, worship in the Temple was a well organized, highly profitable, but seedy system under the direct control and supervision of the High Priest.

So when Jesus entered the Temple that day, he was confronted with a very real and well established system of economic exploitation. There in the House of God, Jesus saw the merchant and professional religious classes profiting from the piety of the people-- the rich feeding on the faith of the poor.

Jesus' reaction that day, was more than just a spur of the moment denunciation of this exploitation of the poor. His cleansing of the Temple was also a direct challenge to the religious authority of the High Priest-- on his own ground.

And, How foolish it was of Jesus to also attack the collaboration of the religious establishment with the Roman occupiers. The appointment of theHigh Pries had to be ratified by Herod, the puppet of Rome. He held his office, and thus derived his authority directly from the Romans. To attack the Temple hierarchy was tantamount to attacking Rome. All the more so, since at that time, prayers were actually being offered in the Temple for the well being of Caesar and the Roman people.

Finally, how foolish it was of Jesus to attack the desecration of the Temple itself. The courtyard of the Gentiles-- where all this took place-- was situated so that it made a convenient short-cut through the Temple, rather than having to go around this absolutely enormous structure when you entered the city.

As a result, the only part of the Temple open to Gentiles was also serving as a common thoroughfare. Jesus let the Temple clergy have it with both barrels.

"This is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations. But you've made it into a den of robbers!"

With this act-- the cleansing of the Temple-- Jesus challenges any society built on an economic system that does not allow ordinary people power over their own lives and destinies. In the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus challenges any theology that supports such exploitation. With this act, Jesus challenges any religion, any system of belief, any way of thinking or acting that excludes-- that discriminates against anyone because of their race, tongue, gender, faith, class, origins or anything else.

With this act-- the cleansing of the Temple-- Jesus affirms the value and worth of Jews and Gentiles alike-- of all human beings in the sight of their Creator. With this act-- he revealed to his followers what kind of Messiah they followed. He was not a Messiah for Jews alone. He was a Messiah whose heart and sacrifice would lead everyone to God!

A House of Prayer-- for all peoples, for all nations. That was what God expected. That was what Jesus was demanding.

"You have desecrated this Temple, you hypocrites. You have despoiled the holiness of this place of worship. And you think you will destroy me. But I will raise up a new Temple, a new Body, a new sanctuary to God in three days. Just wait and see."

John tells us that Jesus was speaking here of His own Body-- of the worship that would take place around Him and His relationship to God. But Jesus was also speaking of the Temple of us-- of you and me. He was speaking of the sanctuary that we are called to build by the doing of His will in the world-- feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, sheltering the homeless, visiting the lonely and imprisoned, organizing the oppressed and the powerless, ministering to the grieving and the dying, AIDS and Alzheimer’s, the Cancer and Stroke and Parkinson's victims, touching the lives of the dying and comforting the grieving.

How foolish of Jesus to try and address all this. How naive to expect to be allowed to get away with loosing His cool and allowing His anger to get the better of Him that day. Then and again, maybe Jesus knew exactly what He was doing as Throughout His ministry, Jesus affirmed to his generation-- and to ours-- the preciousness, the sacredness of our life and relationships in this world.

Matthew, Mark and Luke place the cleansing of the Temple right before the Passion-- as if to imply that maybe Jesus had just gotten sick of it-- tired of the long battle, fed up with all the hypocrisy-- as if to imply that this provided a justification for the Lord's execution. Only John places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of the narrative of Jesus' ministry-- as if John sees in this incident, Jesus setting the tone for all of what was to come.

Maybe that indeed was the case. Maybe Jesus wanted to challenge that wrong, that exploitation, that ignorance of God and God's will and coming Reign, right from the start. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus knew exactly what effect this act would have on those who ruled Israel. Maybe, in order to witness and inspire and call the hearts to those around him to true religion, true faith, true sacrifice-- Jesus thought it was worth it.

Evne so, how foolish of Jesus to challenge the Temple hierarchy, the political establishment, the power of the military, the economic order of things. How naive. How foolish. How foolish of Jesus to expect anything else.

Anyone who's ever been to a tourist attraction could have told him. The locals will always try to make a buck off the tourists-- by hook or by crook. We saw it Manger Square. We saw it at the foot of the Pyramids.

We used to see it in Chicago when we lived a half block from the old International Amphitheater. I even saw it when I was a kid in Springfield- - my Grandfather lived within walking distance of the State Fairgrounds. Every year, he and his neighbors would turn their back yards into discount parking lots for Fair week.

Anyone could have told Jesus. From First Century Jerusalem to Twenty-first Century Washington D.C., or Chicago, or Springfield, government needs a little grease to run well. Call it baksheesh, call it campaign contributions, call it clout, call it soft money, call it favors. Call it you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Whatever you call it-- it’s all the same thing. It’s just the way things are. It’s just the way we human beings are.

As the movie The Godfather draws to a close, Michael Corleone says:

"It is tough to be an honest man. The higher I went even in the legitimate world, the more corrupt it became."

How foolish of Jesus to try and change human nature. But.. then and again, that was the whole point of Jesus coming to earth, wasn't it?

How foolish of Jesus to challenge racism and discrimination and nationalism. How foolish of Jesus to challenge the apparent wisdom of this world. How foolish of Jesus to challenge all that accumulated power and might.

Then and again. In this morning's Epistle Reading, the Apostle Paul writes about the seeming wisdom of this world.

This message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for those of us striving after salvation it makes perfect sense. The Creator has chosen what this world calls foolish in order to shame the wise. God has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. The Almighty has chosen things of little strength and small repute, yes, even things which have no physical existence, in order to explode the pretensions of the things that are-- in order that no one may boast in the presence of Our God.

How foolish of Jesus. And yet, I for one, can't help but believe that Jesus didn’t lose his cool at all in the Temple courtyard. I can’t help but believe that He knew exactly what He doing that day. I can't help but believe that Jesus foresaw clearly the eventual consequences of His actions. I can't help believe that He did it anyway-- did it for you and for me. And finally, I can't help but believe that He calls us in return-- to respond, to cleanse our own lives and spirits, to challenge the so-called wisdom of this world with a little bit of his own Divine foolishness ourselves sometimes.

There is a powerful scene in the movie The Godfather, Part 3. Michael Corleone, the Godfather, is forced to visit the distinguished Cardinal Lamberto to tell him the bad news that a legitimate business deal involving the Vatican Bank has gone bad. The bank is run by an Archbishop and a coalition of Catholic businessmen. The Cardinal listens to the Godfather.

Then the Cardinal says something quite profound. He picks up a stone and says "Look at this stone. It has been laying in the water for a very long time. The water has not penetrated it." Then he smashes the stone. "Look," he says peering at the smashed insides of the stone, "perfectly dry. The same thing," the Cardinal continues, "has happened to men in Europe. They have been surrounded by Christianity for centuries, but Christ does not live in their hearts."

Looking at Jesus that day in the Temple, John tells us that the Disciples were reminded of Psalm 61-- "Zeal for God's House will consume him." But I wonder if Jesus didn't have an entirely different Psalm in mind-- Psalm 51-- where the Creator says,

I’ve had enough. I don't want your sacrifices any more.

No more bulls or sheep-- No more fruit or grain offerings--

No more music or empty liturgies.

Instead, the only thing I desire from you is justice and integrity.

I want joy and health and life for all my people.

I have no need of sweet-smelling smoke.

No more meat or vegetables or roughage.

Give that to my hungry children.

Give your sacrifices to the poor widows and orphans.

Feed the poor in my name--

and you will be giving it to me-- as I suffer with them and in them.

That is all the worship I want. That is what I expect of you.

That was what Jesus was trying to tell them, trying to show them.

That's what the cleansing of the Temple was about. The Temple had been intended to be a holy place for all. But from now on, the real worship, the real sacrifice, the real prayers would take place in the lives of God's people.

By overturning the tables of the money changers Jesus was calling you and me to overturn the tables of greed and materialism within our own spirits. He was calling upon us to overturn the tables of prejudice and parochialism in our own hearts, to overturn all the pettiness and back-biting in our ways of living, overturn all our self-centeredness and self-involvement,

Jesus was trying to make us understand and respond. It’s not outward appearances and acts of public piety that makes us faithful. It’s our willingness to change our hearts and change our everyday attitudes and behavior. It’s our willingness to crack those hard stone-like shells we’ve built up around our deepest bone-dry hearts and let the loving, life-changing moistness of Christ Jesus penetrate and heal and transform us into His people.

By overturning the tables of the money changers Jesus was calling you and me to overturn the tables of greed and materialism in our own spirits, to overturn the tables of prejudice and parochialism in our own hearts, to overturn all the pettiness and back-biting in our own ways of living, to overturn all the hypocrisy and gossip in our relationships, to overturn all our grudge-keeping and refusal to forgive in our behavior toward one another.

With his setting free the sacrificial animals Jesus makes us a promise. If we will open our hearts to Him, Jesus offers to set us free to fly away like those temple doves-- free from all our false earthly values and wrong-headed priorities-- fly free to healing and wholeness, to integrity and true worship-- fly free to God.