You still see it around. You find it on bracelets, necklaces, tee shirts, book covers and Bible holders. It is the four-letter grouping, “WWJD”. What would Jesus do? A great question indeed!
It is perhaps the question Christians should ask themselves when faced with situations that require great wisdom and knowledge. We do ask it often of ourselves and of each other. Even non-believers will ask this question of Christians, especially when Christians are engaged in activities that the non-believers do not agree with. Usually in those situations though, the question is asked more like, “Hey, I thought you Christians were supposed to be mild, meek and nonjudgmental!”
What would Jesus do? The only way to answer that question however is to know just who the real Jesus is. Therein lies the problem. The only way to know that is to have a deep, personal relationship with Jesus the Christ! For how could anyone possibly know what Jesus would do if they don’t know the real Jesus, as He is found in the gospels? This morning, in John’s Gospel account, we meet the real Jesus. The story is an account of the first temple cleansing that Jesus performed during His stay on Earth. Jesus enters the Temple Court of the Gentiles, finds some very dishonest business going on there, rips off His belt and drives out the moneychangers and merchants who were taking advantage of the poor people who had come to make their sacrifices there. Jesus will do this again near the end of His ministry. Both events were meant to be prophetic statements to the people of Israel. This first time was to show them that the Messiah had come to His Temple. The next time was to show that Israel had rejected her Messiah and Israel’s house would be left in desolation.
When I was a little boy, one of my favorite television game shows was, “To Tell The Truth”, hosted by Gary Moore. On the show, three people would come out and each would say something like, “I am John Smith.” Then the celebrity contestants would ask questions and try to discover who the real John Smith was. At the end of the show, the MC would say, “Would the real John Smith please stand up?” At that, all three of the individuals would shuffle around a bit, so that for a moment you couldn’t tell who was about to stand. Then the real John Smith would stand and many times there would be gasps and awe from the contestants because the real guy was not the one they had thought.
In today’s Gospel reading, the real Jesus stands up and He is not what many, many people think, and far too many preach He is. I mean, would the gentle-to-a-fault, mild-mannered, milquetoast Jesus that so many people teach actually stand up in anger, devise a whip out of His rope belt and physically drive merchants out of the Temple Court? Why, I thought it was “love, love, love, all you need is love”, to quote John Lennon. How can this fit of anger be right? It is right! It is right because Jesus Christ came to us so that we could see God the Father. He came to us that we might better understand what God the Father expects of us if we are to be like Him.
All of us have some kind of picture in our minds of what Jesus is like. But none of us has a complete, perfect picture. We are all in the process of knowing Him better, of gaining a more complete understanding of who He is and what He expects of us. But no matter what our concept of Jesus is right now, we must allow the inspired Word of God as a whole, not just the pieces we agree with, to bring us to a more complete understanding of our Messiah. The temptation is that we come to God’s Word with our preconceived notion of what Jesus is like and then discount any passage that doesn’t fit that preconceived concept. The question becomes, “Will I try to shape Jesus into my image of who He is, or will I allow God’s Word to shape and mold my image into God’s reality of who Jesus is?”
As a reaction to the stoic, solemn portrayal of Jesus that heavily legalistic Christianity had given to them, many of those involved in the hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s decided that Jesus was a lot like them. They portrayed Jesus as just a guy with no purpose, who only wanted to be hanging around with His buddies, having a good time. Like those of the ‘60s, we too have a tendency to view Jesus as being a whole lot like us.
Before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus had been to the Temple many, many times. He was there when He was twelve years old, astonishing the elders with His wisdom and knowledge. We find Him there in the Temple over and over again. And I am sure He was grieved by what He saw there. But He had held His peace in obedience to the Father. His time had not yet come. However, on this occasion He had been anointed by the Holy Spirit, His mission had started, and it was time for Him to announce His arrival to Israel! How does He do it? Does He perform a kind, gentle miracle that will win everyone’s favor? Does He do it with a kind word of encouragement straight from “How to Win Friends and Influence People”? Does He make His entrance and go about shaking hands with everyone, telling them that whatever they are doing, however they are living, is okay because God loves them anyway and everyone is going to Heaven no matter what? Is that what he does? NO! It is not.
Jesus Christ makes a whip out of rope and proceeds to drive people out of His Father’s house because they are desecrating the Temple and the name of God! But do not misunderstand. This is not just some man losing his temper and attacking those he disagrees with. This is righteous anger aimed at those who are blaspheming God, and this is all done in perfect obedience to God the Father.
Listen again to verses 14-22. “In the Temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the Temple area, both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ Then the Jews demanded of Him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken 46 years to build this Temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple He had spoken of was His body. After he was raised from the dead, His disciples recalled what He had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.”
Some very shrewd merchants had set up shop in the Court of the Gentiles. The Gentile converts were not allowed to go beyond their court. It was in this area that merchants would sell the animals, from doves to lambs to oxen, to both Jews and Gentiles for the sacrifice. There was indeed some legitimacy in what they were doing. People would come from all over the Roman Empire to the feasts and festivals and it really was not practical for them to bring their own animals with them over such vast distances. So a real need was being served by having animals readily available on-site.
Also, the money used for the temple tax of half a shekel had to be Jewish coin. Other money at that time had the imprint of either Gentile leaders or even false gods and could not be brought into the temple area. But the spirit behind what was taking place there was anything but legitimate. The priests, merchants and moneychangers had a monopoly on all of the business and they soon learned to take extreme advantage of the situation. See, the animals had to be inspected and approved as acceptable by the priests before they could be used in the sacrifice. So all the priest had to do was to reject the animal a person had brought in to offer and that person was forced to buy an “acceptable” animal from the merchants there. The priests and merchants struck a deal and soon very exorbitant prices were being paid for “acceptable” animals and very, very high fees were being charged to exchange the money. These guys had turned religion into a highly profitable business. The result was that instead of the Court of the Gentiles being a place where the nation of Israel was a blessing to all who came, it had become a huge disgrace.
Do you remember why God had chosen Israel and blessed her as a nation? He had done it so that through Israel, “all nations could come to know God and be blessed.” Israel had lost sight of her purpose and her calling. Instead of reaching the Gentiles with the message of the one, true God, they were ripping them off even as they tried to come to God. It was this that brought about the righteous anger of Jesus Christ that day.
Wait a minute. Couldn’t Jesus have just reasoned with these people? Couldn’t He just have sat down with them, patted their hands and said, “Now guys, I think you really need to take a look deep down and see if you don’t agree that well, maybe you should rethink what you are doing here.” Couldn’t Jesus have done that? Can’t we do that? NO! The covetous hearts of the people were so hardened as to be beyond reason. Jesus walks into that court, sees all of the abuse and extortion that is going on right there in His Father’s house, makes a judgment and reaches down and picks up some rope. The more he sees, the more His spirit rises up. Suddenly Jesus overturns a table and the game’s afoot. Whip cracks! Coins scatter! Animals and people running everywhere! What a scene! Above all of the noise Jesus’ voice shouting, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
Why didn’t the merchants stand up to Jesus? Ever wonder about that? There were certainly many, many more of them than He. I believe it was, and is, because under the anointing of the Holy Spirit there is an authority that can be felt. Yes, Jesus is definitely stirred up here in these passages. But why? We rarely see Him like this. Usually Jesus is compassionately touching the leper, healing the blind, and forgiving the adulteress. Why is this different? Jesus is motivated here because the honor of the Father is at stake. Don’t get me wrong though. The abuse and oppression of the people by these merchants, moneychangers and priests are indeed important to Jesus and do invoke some of the indignation He feels, but something even bigger than that is at stake. It is the honor of God Almighty.
Scripture says that, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” These merchants and such had no fear of God and it was Jesus’ deep reverence for His Father in Heaven that caused Him to be so deeply disturbed by their disrespect. So Jesus erupts in all of His Godly righteousness! What we see here is an accent to the full picture of who Jesus is. We usually see Jesus’ love, mercy and tenderness. But here we find the perfect blend of grace, mercy, truth, love and righteousness. When the situation calls for it, Jesus is tender, kind, forgiving, merciful and loving. But when the situation calls for assertive leadership, Jesus does not shrink from the task.
Many leaders in the Church today define godliness as only complacency and passivity. It is easier to just “let it go.” But when something needs to be addressed, just letting it go is not the answer. Confronting it redemptively is. For instance, our children need love most of all. But sometimes they need some unyielding leadership that defines, establishes and enforces boundaries. Jesus is doing just that, right here. Here is an outstanding opportunity for these people to repent and get right with God. But instead of them doing some self-examination and repentance, these guys start to cross-examine Jesus! “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”, they dare ask Jesus. What sign? What sign? What had just taken place in front of their eyes was a sign taken straight out of Malachi 3! The sign had just happened and they had failed to recognize it! This happens again later, but Jesus already knows that no sign is good enough, so He jumps ahead a few years and tells them of the ultimate sign, His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus tells them, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days!” That answer gives us some insight on what Jesus was thinking at that moment.
As Christians today, we are surrounded by people who also deliberately dishonor the name of God Almighty. They do it loudly and proudly. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing tendency for Christians to just sit back and “let it go.” We’ve done it for far too long and because of it our kids are tormented if they should dare utter a prayer in school. They can have condoms, but not Bibles.
Every day for the past 30+ years, yet-to-be-born lives are snuffed out under the guise of “choice”. So much so that 1/3 of the population of the last 30 years was killed before it could draw its first breath. How many Einsteins, Mozarts, Rembrandts and Madame Curries have been murdered, their vast contributions to society never to be realized? Did the cure for AIDS, cancer and other horrible diseases die with them? We may never know.
Christ burned with the passionate fire of God that day. He has passed the spark on to us as His brothers and sisters, His eyes, ears, hands and feet on Earth today. Let’s fan the embers! Let’s rekindle the fire in His Holy name. Amen.