Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Cor 1:22-25; John 2:13-25
Gentle Jesus, eh? “Making a whip out of some cord, He drove all of them out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over, and said to the pigeon-sellers “Take all this out of here, and stop turning my Father’s house into a market”.
Clearly, the Prince of Peace and advocate of non-violence was prepared to allow righteous anger to lead Him into conduct which, in our more squeamish age, would lead to criminal proceedings. I am reminded of the early days of Pope Francis, when he proceeded to withdraw power and influence from Cardinal Burke, who had long been striving to turn us into a Church of the scribes and Pharisees. The American far right, who loathe the Holy Father because he constantly challenges us to become more Christ-like, set up a cry of “Where’s your mercy now?” It is easy to imagine the original Pharisees asking Our Lord ”Where’s your non-violence now?”
What made Jesus so angry? Interestingly, it wasn’t sexual sin, with which the Church seems at times to have been pre-occupied to the exclusion of practically everything else, but two aspects of failure to observe the Commandments which He stated to be fundamental, love of God and love of neighbour. The Pharisees incurred His wrath for their hypocrisy in rejecting love of neighbour in pursuit of an adherence to petty rules: in the present instance, His ire was aroused by lack of true respect for the Temple as the dwelling place of God.
Yet the buyers and sellers in the Temple believed that they were performing a service to God. The coinage issued by the Roman state, and blasphemously bearing the head of the “deified” Emperor, had to be exchanged for the Jewish coins which alone were acceptable in the Temple, and the people needed cattle and sheep, or pigeons, to offer in sacrifice.
Thus there are two elements in Our Lord’s attack on these aspects of Temple life, one obvious and the other less so. It probably seems clear to us that all this trading in the Temple displayed a lack of the reverence due to a holy place. Business which had begun in the interests of worship in the Temple had “growed” like Topsy and far outstripped its original purpose.
Here we might pause and ask ourselves whether there are similar instances in the Church. There are times when money-raising, which is necessary, can seem like the chief aim of a parish or diocese: far more serious are the financial scandals in which the Vatican has been embroiled in recent years. Yet far more dreadful than any of these is the clerical abuse scandal, of which the Church needs to be thoroughly cleansed and purified, to say nothing of the lesser, but still serious scandal of Pontius Pilate-like bishops and leaders of religious congregations who refuse to become involved in supporting falsely accused members.
Yet there is a second implication of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple, which is less obvious but, in its way, more far-reaching. In driving out those who provided the animals or fowl for sacrifice, Jesus was implicitly indicating the end of Temple worship. He had come as the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy of the Messiah entering His Temple, and had been rejected. Now He declares His own body to be the true Temple, which is to be destroyed and built up again, unlike the stone-built Temple, which will be destroyed and never rebuilt. This was St. John’s understanding of Jesus’ actions: the Temple has had its day, and now the new Temple is here in the form of Jesus’ body, of which you and I are members.
This entails the encompassing of the Jewish Law within the person of Christ, the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments within the two Commandments of love promulgated by the Christ. Those who, for instance, at various times over the centuries have found their nether garments in a twist over what they have regarded as graven images have missed the point: in reverencing statues of their favourite saints, devout people, far from indulging in idol worship, have been and are engaged in celebrating the Communion of Saints, their and our unity in the one Body of Christ, the true Temple, with those who have gone before. Paradoxically, by a violent act, Jesus has proclaimed the triumph of love, as the two great commandments of love are to be fulfilled in membership of the Temple which is His Body.
