March 23, 2003

Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church
March 23, 2003

Pr. Jens Dale

When the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, they had a tent for a sanctuary, the tabernacle. King David dreamt about building a house for the Lord, but it was his son Solomon who realized the plans of the first temple in Jerusalem. That became the meeting place between heaven and earth, time and eternity. There, the glory of God prevailed and his presence was there. In the temple, people brought forth their offerings, prayers and worshipped.

Psalm 84 gives us a vivid insight into how the people of God felt about the temple. My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Psalm 84:2 & 10.

At the time of Jesus there was an even more beautiful and greater temple in Jerusalem. It had large open places surrounded by rows of columns. At the celebrations, people came from far and near to the temple. Some say there might have been up to two million people. In this place, teeming with life, some were on their way with private offerings to the inner courtyard. There, the priests were busy with services from dawn to dusk.

Sacrificial animals were slaughtered and the prescribed parts burnt on the altar. Women and handicapped people were not allowed to go in there. They had to hand over their offering at the beautiful gate that led from the women’s courtyards to the men’s. It was by this gate the blind and lame beggars used to sit. Many came to the temple to seek counseling by the priests. There might have been questions about morals and worship, or problems in family life or work.

The temple had space for those who copied the holy books, the high council had its meetings there and around at the courtyards, levites, scribes, and rabbis were busy teaching groups of disciples or foreigners. Jesus and his disciples came to the temple in the hectic time right before the Passover. In "the royal row of columns", they saw the hectic life of trading. The pilgrims who came to Jerusalem had to pay temple taxes as all Jews did over 19 years of age. They brought money from Rome and Greece, Egypt and Persia, etc. But it was only silver coins made in Tyros which were considered "holy shekels", valid currency with which one might pay the temple taxes. Accordingly, there was a great need for changing money.

You who have been in the Middle East and experienced trade there, know what bargaining means. The money transactions at the temple might lead to very loud discussions. The money changers used an exchange rate that directed enormous sums of money into their own pockets. It was even more lucrative to trade with sacrificial animals, doves, sheep and oxen. Poor people who couldn’t afford a sheep might use a couple of doves instead (like Joseph and Mary when they came with the baby Jesus. Luke 2:24).

But what was meant to give the poor an opportunity to participate in the services was ruthlessly exploited. It has been told about Simon ben Gamiel in the first century, that he intervened in the free forces of the market at the temple. At that time, the price of doves was 100 times higher than it should have been. The place happened to be called the Bazaars of the Sons of Annas. That indicates who made the profit on this over-pricing. Annas was the chief priest, and his family exploited religion for personal profit. It was not easy to get rid of the greed. It was protected by the highest religious power of the country.

There’s good reason to believe that it aroused sympathy when Jesus made a rope whip and drove all the money changers out and overturned their tables and drove out the animals. The enormous fury of Jesus reminds us of the prophet Jeremiah 500 years earlier. He also criticized the hypocrisy in the temple. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say " We are safe! – only to go on doing all these abominations? Jer. 7:9-11.

The people recognized the words of Jeremiah when Jesus said: Stop making my Father’s house a den of thieves. The word den of thieves sounds criminal. The usual translation now is marketplace.

Marketplace is a positive word. Life at the marketplace is willed by God. Economic life and growth are a blessing. But the economic life must not live its life independent from morals.

Jesus got angry when he saw that the money changers misused their power. They charged far too much and exploited the poor ones for their own benefit. How is this with us? Are we honest and just when it comes to money and business? Jesus warned about the deceit of wealth. It may be so wrong that money takes power over a human. In the letter of James, those who live in luxury when the workers are underpaid, are criticized.

The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out… you have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure…you have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. James 5:4-5.

This is frighteningly current in our time when one third of the world’s population has less than $2 a day, and human rights are constantly dismissed. Faced with the unbelievable poverty of many parts of the world, it might be appropriate to question how much we should spend on our own security. A couple of weeks ago, Rev. Don Rudrud from Community Emergency Services visited our church coffee hour, and told about how it is to live in poverty in this neighborhood. There is an increasing group of people who don’t earn enough money to afford a place to live. That’s a challenge to our solidarity and concern.

In a democracy we all have a political responsibility. What do we do to the most needy when the budget drowns in red ink? The church is not supposed to do politics, but politics have to be based on Biblical ethics.

Having said this, we lose the main point if we consider the clearing of the temple as a political riot. It’s not only orderly relations between business and faith Jesus has on his agenda. He overturned some tables and drove out people and animals. But in his words he went much further: Destroy this temple! We know that Jesus predicted that the Romans would destroy the temple in the year 70. Matt. 24:2. But that’s not what he had in mind here. He would build a new one, in three days.

Last Sunday, we had a text where Jesus told about his coming death and resurrection in plain words. Here is one of the texts where he does it in a mysterious way. The body of Jesus will substitute for the temple. It won’t any longer be necessary to go as a pilgrim to Jerusalem or any other place to meet with God. Wherever the name of Jesus is preached in Word and Sacrament, he himself is present.

God is not bound by geography. When we name the church the House of God, it’s a practical matter. The holy room helps us to see and understand what the gospel says. But the important thing is that Jesus lives, and wherever and whenever we might meet God in Christ Jesus. The church is an old house, we sing in a Norwegian hymn. And the same hymn admits: We are the house and church now, built with living stones.

When Jesus cleared the temple, he notified that a new presence of God by people would come. And it’s this open and confident relationship to God Jesus gave us through his death and resurrection. That was what John looked into when he described the new Jerusalem: I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. Rev. 21;22

Glory be to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716