A House of Worship, Not a House of Trade

Readings: John 2:13-25, Secrets of Heaven #10143:3 (see below)
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Today we advance one chapter beyond the prologue to the gospel of John chapter two. Jesus has just turned water into wine at a wedding in the town of Cana. Now he enters Jerusalem and visits the temple. He is moved to clear it out of the people selling animals and changing currency. Which understandably causes quite a stir. Jesus clearing the temple is a story that is in all four gospels, although the gospel of John places it much earlier in the narrative than the other three.

Why were there sellers in the temple in the first place? Jewish temple practice at the time involved animal sacrifice. Observant Jews from all over the region would travel to the temple and would not be able to bring animals with them, so they could procure them from these sellers. Likewise, the temple tax could not be paid in Roman or Greek coins because of the human image of the emperor upon them, so foreign coins could also be exchanged at the temple. We must recognize that the presence alone of these sellers and exchangers was not the problem; they allowed regular people to participate in temple worship. Nor was Jesus’ issue with them a critique of Judaism itself; Jesus himself was an observant Jew and the gospels details many instances of him diligently following Jewish religious practice.

What was the issue then? The Jesus of the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke explicitly calls these merchants “robbers,” the implication being that they were taking advantage of a religious imperative upon regular people for their own gain. This is a super important critique of all religious systems. When such systems make some observance, practice, or theology necessary to one’s salvation, this opens the door to exploitation of many kinds. And we’ve all seen enough price gouging in our day to know that human beings will try to take advantage of others whenever they can.

But the Jesus in John’s gospel doesn’t call the sellers and exchangers robbers. He just says Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” In the Greek there is a measure of wordplay around the word house: he is saying you are turning a house of worship into a house of trade. This is a larger and more systemic critique. Rather than focusing on isolated abuses, he is lifting up how religious systems can themselves become transactional. A modern example might be what is called the Prosperity Gospel. It is a predatory form of evangelical Christianity that convinces vulnerable people that giving money to the church will incentivize God to provide blessings. But we know that’s not how God works. Charitable giving can certainly help expand us in empathy for those around us, but it doesn’t buy God’s favor.

So here, Jesus is making a social and religious critique of human systems, something he does a lot. We can also take it one step further in thinking about how it applies to our own spiriutal journey. In the Swedenborgian worldview, we understand the temple to represent our own mind. And it begs the question: in what ways do we allow our own mind to become a house of trade rather than a house of worship. What sellers and exchangers have taken up residence within our minds, our narratives, our perspectives that keep us focused worldly and transactional concerns rather than on a relationship with God, or on maintaining a safe status quo rather than the way God would have us evolve?

Perhaps we have experienced abandonment in the past and now we have created a hard shell to feel safe. That feels like a reasonable exchange but does it allow for growth? Perhaps we have experienced rejection and now we reject others in anticipation to protect our heart. That feels like a reasonable exchange but does it allow for connection? Perhaps at some point we came to believe that our accomplishments will bring us worthiness, so we continue to try to *earn* love and respect from others. That feels like a reasonable exchange but does it allow for inevitable imperfection? Does it allow for peace? Does it allow for the grace of God’s love?

Because God does not traffic with these sellers. God does not use them, God does not need them. So, God invites us to clear them out. This is not a judgment on them being there. We all have ways that we have learned to adapt to circumstances and to trauma, ways that we have learned to make our way through the world; all perfectly reasonable and understandable from a worldly point of view. But God’s relationship with us is not built on trade. God’s relationship with us is built on connection. And, as we learned last week, God’s purposes involve using God’s creative power to create newness within us and our world. For that to happen, for a path to be cleared for newness, sometimes these sellers of stories and these exchangers of worthiness need to be cleared out.

But as represented in our text for today, clearing out these sellers and exchangers that we have previously relied upon can create chaos. Again, like the people observing Jesus, we might have reasonable questions about whether the chaos is worth it, what it might ultimately serve, and why it needs to happen. 

So, the people asked Jesus by what authority he was acting. Because it is not unusual, as we well know from current events, for people to try to create chaos for their own selfish purposes. And what Jesus points to as his authority is the sacrifice he is going to make. His authority for clearing out the temple comes from his sacrifice rather than a desire for power. And this is a point that Jesus will make over and over again, with his words and with his life. When we human beings act with a desire for power, all that will come out of that is harm and destruction. When we act from an ethos of sacrifice (and by this I don’t mean being a doormat, but rather a holistic ethos that means we care about others just as much as ourselves), when we act from that kind of ethos of sacrifice, newness and change may *still* feel like chaos but they will ultimately lead to resurrection, they will lead somewhere better.

So Jesus says cryptically, metaphorically, that if the temple is destroyed (and chaos really can feel like destruction) then he will raise it in three days. When we act from an ethos of sacrifice, then Jesus promises that the temple can be rebuilt, meaning that a heavenly selfhood can be built within us. Swedenborg writes that the significance of three days (a number always signifying wholeness or completeness) points us towards the three pillars or tasks of our spiritutal growth: repentance, reformation, regeneration. Repentance: seeking clarity, accepting accountability. Reformation: working for change, making space for growth. Regeneration: allowing God to make us anew. As we heard in our Swedenborg reading for today, when we practice this kind of faith, love, and life, then “Divine Worship” is present in everything we do. Our life becomes the temple. Our life becomes an embodiment of Jesus’ ethos of sacrifice.

Now I didn’t necessarily intend to preach what feels like more of an Easter sermon right before Advent! But it can be helpful for us to remember where the Christmas story is heading. Birth is disruptive, as much as it beautiful, and hopeful. The sweet baby in the manger grew up and took out a whip (!) and drove the sellers from the temple, challenging us to remove anything that gets in the way of truly worshipping our God. This will be a life-long process for ourselves, and a process spanning many life-times for the human race. All we can promise is to do our part.

Amen.

Readings:
John 2:13-25
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.
24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.
25 He did not need any testimony about humankind, for he knew what was in each person.

Secrets of Heaven 10143:3
…purification from evils and falsities consists in refraining from them, steering clear of them, and loathing them; the implantation of goodness and truth consists in thinking and willing what is good and what is true, and in speaking and doing them; and the joining together of the two consists in leading a life composed of them. For when the good and truth residing with a person have been joined together their will is new and their understanding is new, consequently their life is new. When this is how a person is, Divine worship is present in every deed they perform; for at every point the person now has what is Divine in view, respects and loves it, and in so doing worships it.