“BEYOND OUR RITUALS”
January 8, 2012 ~ The Rev. David Moore
Scripture: John 2:13-22 | PDF print version

As it is still a bit the New Year, I wanted to talk a bit about new habits. Some habits we develop, a jump shot that I used to practice over and over and over, the ability to do math in our heads, the habit of reaching out to neighbors to help them, to greet them, the habit of baking on a particular day during the week. Some habits we fall into like watching the news while we eat breakfast, or in the evening mentally disappearing into the television for a while, going to a particular gas station, or even sitting in a particular place during a class or a worship service.

Some habits begin as a choice, and then we sometimes lose the power to choose over time, like having a cigarette or a drink or perhaps even when and where to vent our frustration at the way things are happening.

There are habits in worship as well, as you probably are aware. Many of us long for the worship we remember from many years ago, myself included. We feel like we are worshipping when we do what we’ve always done in worship. This is a temptation for us and it was for the ancient Jews as well. They were content doing what they had always done, and yet, Jesus came and exploded all the old ways of worship, redefining them in Himself. So I want us to think about that this morning as we look at John 2, starting in verse 13.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Let’s pray.

One of the things I have been and will be harping on as we go through John is that John is different than the other gospels. The other gospels are pretty similar. The timeline is similar, the miracles recorded are pretty similar, in fact a great deal of time and effort has gone into showing that most likely Luke and Matthew used Mark as their basis, and then elaborated from Mark in different directions, and also that there is a great deal that Matt and Luke have in common, so much so that people have put even more ink and effort into showing that perhaps there was another source for all the other stuff Matt and Luke have in common. The scholars don’t make any claims about this with John. John is very different, very different miracles, very different perspective. One significant difference that you will see, that maybe I should have mentioned last week, is that in all other three gospels you will find the last super. It isn’t in John. What is in John is Jesus washing the disciple’s feet, that sacrificial act. John knows the church is already celebrating the Last Supper, so instead of adding another recollection, John adds Jesus’ other act in that upper room.

Another way John is different is that in Matt, Luke and Mark Jesus is always heading toward Jerusalem, and it is only recorded that He went there once. In John however, we learn that Jesus went to Jerusalem on a number of occasions. Jesus attends Passover in Jerusalem three times; once here, once in John 6 and for the last time in John 11. Luke, Mark and Matthew are focused on Jesus ministry in Galilee, and then getting Jesus to Jerusalem and the cross. John is showing us a bigger picture. In fact, at the end of John he tells us that Jesus did many other things that weren’t included, but these in particular were in the gospel so that we might believe. So in John we’re getting a little bigger, a little wider picture of Jesus, which I appreciate.

So for further context, I want to talk about Jesus cleansing the temple. If you know your Bible, you would know that in Mark, Luke and Matt that Jesus cleanses the temple at the start of His last week, that the cleansing happens just a few days before Jesus is nailed to the cross. What do we make of it that John says it happened on this first trip of three Passovers that Jesus has in Jerusalem? One of the commentators said something I’ll elaborate on, which is this: John was more interested in truth than in facts. That’s an interesting thought, and one that is still true in the Middle East. For us Americans, the facts are important. Exactly how many people marched in the “Million Man March”? I’ve seen estimates as low as 400,00 and as many as 2,000,000. To us, it is important. But to the Middle East people, the exact details are less important than why an event happened. Why were the million men marching? Why were they putting forth all that effort and what did they hope to accomplish? That is what Middle Eastern cultures tend to report. Exact details are less important.

So when John places this event in Jesus life at the beginning, what are we to make of that? Maybe that Jesus brings change, was concerned with justice, that He is the fulfillment of prophesy (Malachi 3:1-4). If I were to guess, I would say that the Synoptic gospels are correct on the timing, but that John is making some points. John wants us to know it happened, but the reason before it is more important than the timing. There are enough people who want to kill Jesus by the end of John that John puts it here instead to tell us up front that Jesus is passionate about worshipping God correctly, and that the worship of God isn’t about money, or dead animals, but is about who we are before Him. The old ways of worshipping God no longer apply, no more ripping off the poor and keeping them away from God, no more sacrificial animals, no more profiting off honest pilgrims seeking God.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Jews were required to go to Jerusalem for Passover if they lived within a certain distance of Jerusalem; the figure I read was about 15 miles. Of course, there were Jews from much further than that, and they would attend the Passover in Jerusalem when they could. Jerusalem appears to have had a population of about 50,000, which would swell with about 125,000 visitors on high holy days like Passover. And I’ve read estimates that are even higher. Jews from all over would come; Jews from Egypt would come up, and from Babylon would come down and all places in between.

All the Jews over the age of 19 would have to pay their temple tax, and then would have to buy an animal for sacrifice. They could bring their own animals, but then the animals could get hurt or eaten on the trip up to Jerusalem, or the animals could be rejected by the priests for not being of good enough quality for sacrifice. So many pilgrims would simply buy an animal that was “pre-approved” for sacrifice. Both the paying of the temple tax and the buying of sacrificial animals involved money. The Jews from all over the Mediterranean would come to Jerusalem, carrying the coins they had up to the temple. The money they brought would have to be changed into proper coins, because foreign coins were considered to be unclean.

The temple tax had to be paid with a shekel; actually the price was a half shekel. A half shekel was about two days wages. The moneychangers would charge a half days wage to change money into a half shekel, and then another fee of a half days wage if the coin was a larger coin. So a person wanted to buy three half shekels to pay for himself, his wife and son, say, with a larger coin he would be charged a half days wage to change the larger coin, and the three half days wages for three half shekels. So you can see he had to pay a lot of money to have his money changed. This was a lucrative business, as was the selling of approved animals, which of course cost more than un-approved animals. A trip to the temple in Jerusalem was an expensive trip.

And then Jesus shows up and drives out those who would seek to profit off religious ritual, those who would profit from those who are genuinely seeking God, genuinely seeking to please God. These are good people, who are being ripped off, who are being treated as suckers by the insiders, which always feels so wrong. It is cynics who are willing to profit off the sincerity of believers.

Talk about motorcycle preacher…

So this is not a new problem. We are tempted to place our faith in others rather than God, we are offered all sorts of stuff to buy, from blessed vials of water to special prayer handkerchiefs, all in a sincere but manipulated attempt to be faithful to God. I feel that same frustration that I imagine Christ must have felt, but He must have felt to more and deeper because it was His worship that was being twisted and subverted. It was worship of Him really, that was being cynically used to pay these moneychangers and the folks selling the overpriced doves and lambs. I get frustrated when I see this as well. In our language today this is called The Prosperity Gospel. Give the preachers enough money and your dreams will come true. Give them money and you will be health and wealthy. Give them enough money, and it will happen as long as you really believe, and as long as your own sin doesn’t get in the way.

And the people who followed the ritual of offering up animals for sacrifice were simply following along. I wonder if it really felt as though they were worshipping, or were simply going through the motions. As long as there have been followers of God it has seemed like some folks were wanting to know God, were willing to sacrifice in order to know Him more, and then there were others who simply wanted to do as little as possible to make sure that they were on God’s good side. This is what Jesus was fighting against, at least in part, that the people of God had become used to the form of religion, such that it replaced real worship of God. The worship of the Holy and Mighty God, who made everything in the blink of an eye, who was worthy of all praise and worship, had been reduced to a deity that wanted dead animals and temple taxes paid up.

I wonder if we do that with God as well. I wonder if we reduce God to a Santa Claus figure, I wonder if we reduce God to the deity who waits around for our requests so that He can say yea or nay to them… I wonder if we focus on the ritual rather than seeing the ritual as a vehicle to worship the God behind the ritual. Some rituals are helpful for people; some habits are great. But the ritual is never the end goal. The end goal of worship is not to do the rituals of worship, but it is to worship God. The end goal of our lives is not to do as many of the rituals of following God as possible, but to actually follow Him. The end goal for the ancient Jews should have been to express remorse for their sins that caused an innocent perfect animal to be sacrificed on their behalf, because of their sins. Instead, that act of worship turned into a ritual that could be done, and I’m sure often was, without any remorse at all. They just did it because someone else said it had to be done.

Is the goal of your life lifting God up? Is the worship of God with everything we have? Or have we settled for less than that? Have we settled for a comfortable habit when the worship of God can be wildly unpredictable, wildly free, wildly wonderful? If God didn’t answer any of our prayers, He’d still be worthy of worship. If God chose to let us stay in a wilderness of faith for a while, would we still worship Him? Or is it about us somehow, and what we get out of our worship of God? Do we come before God willing to give Him our whole lives, that our lives are at His command, and whatever He says to do we’ll do, or are we always looking to see how we are going to benefit?  

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The Jews were upset that an outsider had the temerity, the utter gall to criticize their way of doing things, their control of worship that gave them lots of money and attention. They were unhappy that their cynicism was exposed, unhappy that the forms of worship were torn down and exposed as being unhelpful, manipulative, a money making scheme. What sign indeed, will Jesus show that He has the authority to do what He does? The authority will be coming. The authority that what He says is true, that they have reduced the worship of the eternal and holy God to the emotionless slaughter of animals will be when He rises from the dead, when the proof comes that the tomb is truly empty and He is risen indeed.

The authority to throw out the old ways of worship comes from Jesus, it comes from the reality of Him beating death and inviting us, all of us, into a new relationship with God, one that depends not on the killing of animals but comes from his blood, poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. The authority to overturn the money tables, to make money a barrier to God, comes from Christ who died to bring all people to God through Himself, regardless of the amount of money donated, regardless of the type of car we drive or the size of the home we have in whatever zip code. The worship of God has nothing to do with money; if you have lots of money, it doesn’t mean you are right with God, and if you have nothing, it doesn’t mean you aren’t right with God. Money is a tool, but it can be a distraction from real worship.

So these were the habits of the ancient Israelites, the worship habits. I invite you to think about your worship habits; whether or not you want any particular thing in order to worship, whether or not your worship of God is dependent on some other person or thing. As we think about new habits, new patterns of life this new year, I’d ask you to think about the ways in which we live for God. I’d ask us all to think about the things we often do without thinking that are less than the ways God would have us live. Perhaps we get too angry during our commute, and it would be better to listen to sermons or a CD with Scripture on it. Perhaps we are harboring resentment toward relatives and our new habit needs to be forgiving those who have sinned against us. Perhaps we are not ethical in our business practices, and it is time to start. Perhaps we are in the practice of praying only when we’ve run out of options, and this year we should get into the habit of praying first, not dead last.

Perhaps we need to choose to make the most out of the time we’re given, rather than wasting it or killing it. Perhaps we need to start reading again, we need to start volunteering again, we need to take care of our bodies better this year because God made them and gave them to us. Perhaps we are to be more careful about what comes before our eyes, and what goes out of our mouths. Perhaps we need to think about how we should get closer to God this year, rather than relying on the forms of worship, so that our hearts would know God deeper, and serve Him more fully this year. Think about your habits, and I’ll think about mine. I know my habits can be changed for the better, and I hope yours can too, especially our habits toward God.