Cleansing a Temple, responding to a war.
Lent 3: 23rd March, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
When Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. (Jn 2:23)
Today on this third Sunday of Lent we have John's version of the Lord's cleansing of the temple. This is a striking action. We have heard that the Lord made a whip of cords and drove out the large animals and their owners, told the poorer sellers of birds to go, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Now the Temple was huge and the crowds at a major festival would have been enormous. Imagine the noise and the confusion and the anger. But hear the indignation and the offence at what was going on in that temple. Action, dramatic action was required. There seems to be no doubt that this happened, though the other gospels place it at the beginning of Holy Week – in other words at the end of the Lord's ministry rather than at the beginning. But there were not three such incidents, only one differently placed and recorded.
John is one for signs – clear signs – that make it obvious what is going on and who is doing it. The question is: is this of God? Yes, is the answer – read the signs, understand the scriptural associations, and believe. Like the prophet Jeremiah, here is one sent from God to protest and to shock people back into their senses. Here too is one acting with the authority of the Messiah. Here is one talking of a temple being destroyed and rebuilt in three days. Obviously ridiculous for a building that had taken 46 years to build, if the physical building is what is being talked about. But not ridiculous for Christian believers hearing this gospel after the resurrection, if what is being talked about by the Lord is his own body,
So John is here early on introducing themes of death and resurrection, of the new taking over from the old. So John too is already starting to prepare his hearers to see Jesus himself as the new Temple, the new place of meeting and connection between the believer and God. And that is a place wholly without all the clutter and corruption that was cleared away, however temporarily, in the events we have had described to us. From the beginning of the gospel John is making clear to us that here is a great new gift from God; the Word that was from the beginning is now here among us. And that is making a difference. There are signs and actions that are showing us that.
It is not difficult to understand how Christians perhaps in the Third World facing terrible injustice or seeing all around them a totally corrupt or dishonest political structure, can look to the righteous anger of the Lord in an incident like this and say, yes, there are times when true and honest followers and disciples of this Jesus would wish to do the same. This is anything but the stereotype 'gentle Jesus meek and mild.' And it is possible to look at this story and see good reason for offence to both God and to neighbour, that requires redress. But it does require prayerful discernment. One of the striking things about this is how unusual it is for the Lord to behave in this way. Any actions any Christian would contemplate on any such issue then would be likely to be very unusual, and sorely provoked. It would take very special times and very particular circumstances.
Our epistle as well speaks of signs and intellectual arguments. And Christ crucified is for many outside the faith a proposition that is either plain stupid or something that they simply cannot take on board. The action of God in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of the Lord is decisive for the Christian. There, as Paul says, is to be found for the Christian, the power and the wisdom of God. There is the hope. There is the basis for any action and any living out of the principles and teachings of the gospel in our own lives. There is the basis for reaching towards that developing corporate discernment that is of God, and the strength together to grow, that is of God also.
Our opening text reminded us that many came to believe in Jesus because of what they saw him do at this time. Signs made a difference. The actions pointed to deeper truths and some at least saw merit in this. They became people who wanted to follow this way.
Christianity is not a faith that is simply in the mind or the soul. If it doesn't show, it isn't there. Love God and love your neighbour. It will show. 'From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace'. It will show. "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you'. It will show. At any time but especially in Lent, we are all encouraged to try to engage these sorts of issues.
And now in these present sad circumstances in the life of our country and of our world, what are the resources and the insights that we can bring to bear? Where is the basis for our hope in the context of a world that seems to be falling apart? And what are the actions that Christians may in these circumstances feel compelled to engage in?
There has been comment in the press over the past several days since the outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf that this is the first time ever that our country has gone to war without the express blessing of any of the churches. Indeed it is quite the contrary. The leaders of all the Churches here, and in Britain and in the United States have joined to condemn. The Pope has declared this is not what is termed a 'just war'. The leaders of Christianity and of Islam are united. This has been the case for the last six months and the point has been most vigorously argued and clearly put. Yet this has made no difference, it seems, to the course of events. For many of us this is deeply disturbing and deeply frustrating. Over these days we have been drawn back to our televisions and radios and computer screens, watching the events unfold, in our name, and with some of our own brightest and best in mortal danger. And we watch what is happening to Baghdad, a city of 5 million people, over half of whom are under 16.
Now the perception in the wider world will be, and particularly here in our own immediate region, that three very Anglo-Saxon, very Christian countries, two with leaders who very articulately speak in the words of faith, have acted in this way, because they are powerful enough to do so. They have acted against the regime of an Islamic sovereign nation of which they do not approve. Existing international conventions, constraints and inhibitions are put to one side. There is said to be a greater purpose involved. So, in the context of growing international discord and terrible acts of terrorism unrelated to Iraq, we have ourselves been joined in a pre-emptive attack on another country.
Our dove of peace still is placed on our building facing the busy street. Some of us will join in demonstrations. Others will be uncertain what to think, now that the war has started and our troops are in action. But all of us must pray. We would all wish for a better way to address the issues that the Middle East raises for the wider world. It may well be that all many feel they can do is most earnestly pray. But we need to respond from the heart. Ours is a God who urged us to pray for those who hate us, to love our enemies, to be compassionate to those in great need or great danger. Ours too is a tradition that requires us to pray for those who exercise power over us.
In bringing the needs of this broken and divided world before God, it is possible that we will be given the discernment to see what actions or changed attitudes might be required of us. There are difficult times ahead and sharp divisions, that we have not seen since the height of the war in Vietnam could again come upon us. But we should learn from that sad experience and explore our responsibilities as we see them with great care. We would do this starting from the premise that God our Creator cares for this world and for all its people. Human life is precious. God calls all to peace, justice, love; to repentance and to reconciliation.
We prayerfully try to find our own way through these times and the issues they confront us with. Let that prayer show. And may our actions and our words be worthy of the one we seek to follow. Others will be watching us and listening to us and many millions like us, and coming to conclusions about just what Christianity is about. Compassion, mercy, forgiveness, life, death, resurrection, hope. We are those people and that is our God.
When Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. (Jn 2:23)
The Lord be with you.
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