"When Jesus Got Angry"

     Meditation on John 2:13-22

Third Sunday in Lent

     A Christian friend challenged me with questions about faith this week.  He had read an article about a man who says he is a Christian, but doesn’t believe in religion.

      “Is that possible?” my friend asked. “Can you be a Christian and not believe in religion? And what is religion, anyway?”  

        He wondered if the man was talking about a denomination, like our own PC (USA). I told him that religion refers to a broader system of beliefs and practices.  Christianity is a religion. So are Buddhism, Judaism and Islam.

      That led to questions about how someone could claim to be a Christian, but not believe in Christianity?

      What does it mean to be a Christian? Are there essential beliefs and practices?

     This question was already on my mind because our confirmation class will begin working on their faith statements tonight.  While we want these statements to reflect their own personal beliefs, we hope the statements will contain certain foundational beliefs, taken from the Bible and our creeds.  These beliefs include Jesus being God’s Son, His being born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, His being sent by our loving Creator God to call us to repentance and die for our sins.

    The essential practices of Christianity are more difficult to define. Do we have to read the Bible, pray, and go to church to be saved?  

     No, we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. BUT to live as Christians, we build our faith through godly pursuits, which include reading the Bible, praying, worship, and serving God and the community through a church. Christ calls us to “be one in Him” and to be known by our love for one another. How can we love one another and serve God in shared mission if we don’t gather to worship and pray, sing His praises, build loving relationships, and be equipped with faith and other spiritual gifts through the Word and Sacrament?

     After this conversation, I began to wonder what was really at the root of the man’s claim to be a Christian, without ties to religion.  When people debate what it means to be a Christian and how one is saved, they are sometimes trying to defend why they don’t go to church and their distrust of religious people and organizations.  They may be people who have been hurt by churches before—sometimes by the very people they trusted as their shepherds. 

      Christ had to deal with the issue of God’s people being hurt by their religious leaders in His time. John’s gospel today describes when Jesus got angry and had to “cleanse the Temple.” Religious authorities had become so greedy and corrupt that the entire sacrificial cult of the Temple had been transformed into a tool of oppression for the people of God.

     More than 2 million people, many of them the working poor, would have made the pilgrimage to the holy city each year to keep the Passover.  Every Jewish man had to pay the Temple tax.  The tax was one-half shekel—equivalent to about 2 days’ wages.  But it had to be paid in Galilean shekels or the shekels of the sanctuary, money that people who lived outside the area wouldn’t have.  Currency from other places was fine for ordinary purchases and debts, but it was foreign and therefore “unclean” in the Temple.

      So, there inside the Temple courts, sat the moneychangers. They charged high fees to exchange the foreign currency for the Galilean shekels, making considerable gain on every transaction.

     In addition to paying the Temple tax, worshipers made a sacrificial thank-offering for specific blessings in a family’s life.  So, along with the moneychangers, there were sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves in the Temple courts.

     Law required that all sacrifices be perfect.  The Temple hired their own inspectors to examine for imperfections sacrifices bought outside the Temple.  The inspectors charged a fee for this examination, and, if the sacrifice was declared imperfect (as it often was), then the pilgrim had to pay the fee and buy another sacrifice from religious authorities.  Animals sold inside the Temple would cost as much as 15 times the usual marketplace price.

      It was a shameless social injustice. And the worst thing was that it was done in the guise of religion, as if the Lord required it! 

     So Christ made a whip. He drove out all the moneychangers and scattered the people selling animals. He told them to get out of His Father’s House.

     He poured out the coins. He overturned the tables. 

     He did what Scripture said the Messiah would do.  His disciples would recall this later on—after His crucifixion. This would be further proof of His true identity.

       And the Jewish authorities, knowing that with this show of anger, Jesus was declaring Himself to be the Messiah, said, “Prove it. Show us a sign.”

      “Destroy this temple,” Christ answered, referring to His own body.  “And in 3 days I will raise it up.”

       Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection, which would render the entire sacrificial system of the Temple obsolete.

      As expected, the Temple authorities weren’t about to voluntarily give up their corrupt fortune-making system.  They didn’t care that they were stealing from God’s own.  They didn’t care because their so-called “religion” did not penetrate their hearts.

     After our scripture reading today, I cannot help but feel compassion for God’s people during the time of Christ. They were just trying to do the right thing—please God and obey the authorities in the faith.  

       I also think about God’s people today, who might not have a home church because of some hurt in the past.   They might not even be looking for another church—if the hurt went deep enough. 

     But Christ calls us to reach out to the hurting and help them heal. Help them forgive. How can we do this, if they don’t want to trust the church again? By modeling authentic Christianity through relationships and showing them love, acceptance, and patience.

     This is what I have hoped the confirmation students would learn from listening to all the personal faith stories of their mentors and other Christians in our community. Christianity isn’t just a system of beliefs and practices. You aren’t a Christian because you have memorized the right answers to the catechetical questions. Nonbelievers can do that!

     Christianity is a matter of the heart. The Spirit dwells within us and changes us! We respond to God’s love and mercy by loving Him with all heart, soul, mind, and might—and loving neighbors as ourselves. God’s grace and mercy humble us; we learn to forgive when we truly understand how great a price God paid for our forgiveness.

     Christ came to call people to repentance—and draw their hearts back to God. The sacrificial cult of the Temple—and the 10 Commandments—failed to move people’s hearts. Then, one day, Jesus got angry in the Temple.

      God had another plan. He knew a way to set us free from the bondage of sin—and reconcile us with Him. The Lord would rescue the world through His Son, Jesus Christ, who took all of our sins onto His Body. He became God’s perfect sacrifice. 

 Let us pray.  Heavenly Father, thank you for our friends who challenge our faith with questions.  Prepare us with the heartfelt words to say when you bring unbelievers our way. Bring us opportunities to develop relationships with people who have been hurt by church and other Christians. Teach us your compassion, patience and love. In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.