Let’s talk about that Gospel Reading…

For a lot of folks, this is an uncomfortable depiction of Jesus.  Angry Jesus.  Outburst and even violent Jesus.

While this story is in all four Gospels…only in John does Jesus make a whip and flip over tables and pour out the money.  And yet, it’s such a powerful image that it sticks in our imaginations even when we read the other versions.

This is also a troubling story because for a great deal of Christian history, this is one of those texts that over and over again gets interpreted in ways that support subtle (or as church history shows, not so subtle) anti-Semitism.

I will confess, I have done this myself…good intentioned Christians see in this story Jesus rebuking or rejecting the Temple system.

A view that, Jesus is denouncing the Temple, and saying that it doesn’t matter, or even that it is actively exploiting the people.

But that analysis contributes to a false idea that Jesus came to “start a new religion.”  The idea that Christianity somehow supersedes or is an advancement from the Old Testament and Judaism.

Scholar Dr. Amy-Jill Levine points out that we have no historical evidence that the Temple system was actually overtaxing or exploiting the poor… and she goes on to say

“the vast majority of the Jewish people loved the Temple, visited it on pilgrimage festivals, protected it from Roman profanation, and mourned its destruction.  According to the book of Acts, Jesus’ followers, including Paul, continued to worship there.”

The truth about Jesus was that he did not come to start a new religion, and it would make no sense to him to say that Christianity is some kind of advancement beyond the Old Testament and Judaism.

Jesus came within the Jewish world to proclaim that the time had arrived for the Jewish people to be reconciled to God and to aid in the reconciliation of all nations with the God of Israel.

In other words, that the messianic age which Judaism was waiting for had arrived.

So what happens if we read the story from that lens?

Well, the first thing we notice is that when the text reads that Jesus saw that people were selling livestock and changing money in the Temple…we should hear that as:

“It was a typical day in the Temple.”

Nothing nefarious was going on.  Pilgrims had just traveled hundreds of miles to get to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, and they needed help to prepare to participate…they needed appropriate livestock for sacrifices, and they needed the appropriate currency to pay their Temple contribution.

It was a festival, Passover to be exact, and so the energy of the Temple would have been one of joy, hope, and excitement.  You know, that energy that is in the air when we’re getting ready for a big event.

Then out of nowhere, there is a disruption.

Some guy named Jesus starts flipping over tables, and chasing the livestock away.  He’s yelling at everyone for not honoring God’s home.  But it’s not exactly clear what he is upset about.

But Jesus isn’t acting erratically.  Jesus’ actions are part of a long stream of Old Testament prophets who used strong language and provocative actions to shake up the people in order to aid them in being reconciled to God.

When Jesus uses that phrase “den of robbers” he’s referencing the prophet Jeremiah, who said to the people of his day,

“will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before God in God’s own house, and say “We are safe!” only to go on doing all these abominations?  Has this house become a den of robbers?”

So Jesus, in the tradition of prophets like Jeremiah, is causing a disruption.

But the point of the disruption isn’t punishment or condemnation.

The disruption happens in the hope that true reconciliation can happen.  In the hope that the people can begin to live as a community of justice and love.

Jeremiah also said, just a few lines before the ones I quoted earlier:

“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place.”

With that orientation now in place,

What I actually want to talk to you today about is the disruption.

You and I know something about what experiencing a disruption is like.

It’s unsettling.

Like, a year ago when you got that e-mail that said Church wasn’t going to be gathering…

Or that message that school was going to be closed for two weeks…and then longer and longer…

But we know more than just COVID.  There is a disruption when someone dies…when we fall ill…or when a friend tells us the truth about some hurt or resentment they’ve been hiding.

Throughout our lives, there are all these small and big moments of disruption.

Moments when we were just going about our business as usual, and then wham something unexpected changes our course, gets our attention, makes us see or hear something we weren’t aware of.

And then, how do you react?

That’s a real question…when a disruption happens in your life:

Something doesn’t turn out the way you expected,

You are confronted with shocking news or a personal revelation,

How do you react?

Your first response might be “it depends”…which is fair.  Sometimes we do respond to a disruption positively, when the normal order of things has gotten stale or oppressive, and something has come and set us free.

But I imagine when Jesus chased away the livestock and dumped the money all over the ground and flipped over everyone’s tables…I don’t think those merchants and money changers found it to be a life-giving, liberating disruption.

And for most of the buyers in the market, this wouldn’t have been a welcome disruption either…they still need the livestock and the appropriate currency which Jesus has just completely disrupted.

So think about that kind of disruption…when your plans have hit a big snag, and you’re feeling confronted…

How do you react?

Some people try to simply ignore it.

Function over it….just keep going…don’t stop.  This can be fixed.  This is a minor hiccup.

Others will out right resist it:

No!  I refuse to accept this.  This is unjust, unfair, and I will fight this.

And yet, still others might respond with despondency, with catastrophizing:

Everything is ruined!  Now we’ll never get this done.

And while each of these responses may be helpful in specific circumstances…I wonder if Jesus in our gospel today is offering a fourth way of responding to disruption.

When life flips the tables of your heart and mind, and disrupts with surprise, anger, and fear…

Can you ask the question, “what is God inviting me to in this?”

An alternative to resisting, ignoring, or catastrophizing a disruption, might be to look deeper into it…

To trust that God is showing up in the disruption, and is inviting you to something….

“what is God inviting me to in this?

Jesus was inviting the people to honor the holy and sacred ground they were standing on…to recognize that God was there with them, in their midst, waiting to be in relationship with them if they would turn and be reconciled.

What is Jesus inviting you to when you find out that your friend has been hurt by something you’ve said or done?

What is Jesus inviting you to when an unexpected change triggers your anxiety or depression?

What is Jesus inviting you to in the midst of life’s disruptions?