By Greg Jones
Long before the Temple in Jerusalem was built the first time, the Israelites worshipped the God of the Universe in a tent. A tabernacle they called it. And they believed that the God of the Universe maintained a sacramental presence with them, pitched the sacred tent with them, wherever they went. The place where God was pleased to dwell was in their midst, as His people, who followed His word, his lead, his ways.
Around 957 B.C., Solomon built a stone temple to symbolize God’s dwelling, tabernacle-ing, abiding presence with the people of God. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar led the Babylonians into Jerusalem, and they tore the Temple down to the ground. Fifty years later, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the Babylonians, and allowed the Jews to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
That temple was ruled by a high priesthood – which would become corrupted and perverted by the Greco-Romans and by deep seeded greed and pride. In a nutshell, the Temple operated a highly structured economic system in which it was claimed that God would put people’s sins away – for a price. It was claimed that the People of God could stand near God’s official dwelling place – and by using Temple-currency, could purchase Temple-approved sacrificial animals, to be offered up by the Temple-priesthood, for the sake of receiving Temple-certified forgiveness of sins and redemption.
The economic structure of the temple involved thousands of priests, central regulation, complex transactions, rates of exchange, and a host of lawyers and middlemen taking a cut at every step of the way. It also came with a special police force and armed guard. At the top were the chief priests – who also happened to be completely under the thumb of the King and the Roman Empire.
So, to be sure, when Jesus the son of a carpenter rides into town on donkey, and walks into the temple, overturns the entire commercial enterprise within, and starts teaching the word of God in a way that invites individuals to form a relationship with God quite apart from temple economics — it’s no surprise the secretaries of the temple treasury come down on him with some questions.
Yes, the chief priests who run the Temple come to him with some questions, not because they honestly want to hear the truth, but because they are afraid of what the truth might actually be and mean. You see, they know, that if Jesus is truly teaching and acting with authority in the Temple – in God’s House – than it means two things: 1. That Jesus is the Messiah; and 2. That the Chief Priests are now out of a job.
Because if the Messiah is standing in the Temple – than there is no more need of a chief priest, a temple priesthood, or a complex system of spiritual supply and demand which seems to make the folks in charge wealthy, the people no better off, and the word of God very hard to hear.
Yes, “If the Messiah has come,” think the chief priests, “then the reign of God has begun, and we are out of a job.” Yes, if the Messiah has come – if God has come in human form to dwell truly not just in a building or a tent but in fully present form amongst his people as Lord and King – then the worst crisis since Nebuchaznezzar destroyed the first temple is about to be upon them.
No, the high priests of a selfish system of ambition and conceit, masked as religion, and marked by temple-taxation and spiritual-prostitution, absolutely don’t want to know if the God of all things has come to dwell amongst them for real.
But, as Jesus has entered Jerusalem and the Temple to show – He has. The Messiah has come. Not with a bail out to preserve a failing temple economy, but to offer a whole new economics of salvation. For the Gospel economics of salvation is not capitalism, or socialism, or religious hypocrisy. It’s grace.
Jesus the Messiah came to pour himself out, pouring out the power of grace, which is God’s total love of a people totally confused about how to live. The Lord and savior came to wipe out selfish ambition and conceit – by pouring out his blood on the cross – by tearing down the temple of corruption – and by raising up a temple of new life in Him. That’s what Jesus came to be and say and do. And he calls us to do the same – to share with Him in lives of grace.
And that’s what we celebrate every Sunday – when we gather as the whole congregation of God’s people around the eucharistic table. We go there not as spiritual consumers go to receive spiritual goods, or take out spiritual loans, or to pay back spiritual debts. Rather, we go to connect with the Spirit and each other, and prepare for lives of grace – so that God can work through us – so that we might be better – so that the world might too.
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones (“Greg”) was educated at the University of North Carolina and the General Theological Seminary, where he is on the Board. Greg is husband of Melanie, father of Coco & Anna, rector of St. Michael’s Raleigh, and author of Beyond Da Vinci (Seabury Books, 2004). He blogs at fatherjones.com.