When I was a campus minister, one year I had a couple of students who were planning to walk in the local Crop Walk. They had their registration forms, but they didn’t have any donations. Maybe they didn’t really know how to get them. Their pastor, however, was a seasoned veteran of asking people for money, so I put these young women in my car and I hustled them over to a church I knew well. It was after the worship service ended. We crashed their fellowship hour, and I challenge the good people of this church to lend a helping hand by opening their checkbooks. I knew they would respond. I took advantage of these Christian people and their sense of responsibility. Was it for a good cause? Of course. But did that make it right? I leave that to you.
I was not the only person who did this sort of thing. There were always kids and their parents walking around this church with their fundraisers and their missions, hitting church members up for a few bucks. Some days it did feel like being at the temple in the midst of the merchants and money changers. Which, we know, Jesus does not like. And that is a little bit puzzling because it’s not totally clear that what they were doing was wrong.
We need to examine what was going on outside the temple that day. It was business, but in service to religion. There were merchants there, selling cattle, sheep, and doves because there were people coming to the temple to make their offerings. An offering required a sacrifice, and so they needed cattle, sheep, and doves to hand over to the priest.
And there were money changers there because these pilgrims who were arriving had come from all the surrounding lands, and they needed to exchange their various coins for a currency that would be acceptable at the temple.
Certainly, there were some very frustrated and bewildered Jews watching Jesus throw a fit and toss the tables and their wares all about the place. They wondered what they were supposed to do now. Where would they get their cow, or sheep, or dove to make their offering? Where would they exchange their currency, so they could make their temple payments?
These merchants and money changers were doing a good thing, performing a needed service, according to the religious system of the day. So it is not clear if Jesus took issue with the merchants and money changers, or if it was the whole temple system, itself, that bothered him.
Or, perhaps, both. In any case, I think it is safe to say that it had something to do with the people losing their purpose, because their institution was losing its grounding.
Institutions are important, because they keep people together, working toward the same things, grounded in a set of shared values. The institution of the temple in Jerusalem was very important for the people of Israel at that time; it was the center of their faith and the way in which they practiced their faith. No matter where they lived, the people had to make these pilgrimages to the temple because this was the way they practiced their religion. Very much like the way we attend church services.
We know now that the temple truly was in decline at that time. In the year 66, the Jews revolted against the Roman empire, which lasted about four years. It ended when the empire came in and destroyed Jerusalem, including the temple. The temple was never rebuilt.
When Jesus entered the temple on that Passover week, the temple was near its end. Within a few decades it would be gone. The institution of the temple would crumble.
Now let’s fast forward to the year 2024. We have come through the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatened all our institutions. Every way in which we were accustomed to coming together for work, for worship, for service, for play, all came to a crashing halt.
But, if we look back to a few years before we even heard of COVID-19, we know that many of our institutions were showing signs of distress, crumbling. Fewer people joined clubs and civic societies. Union memberships dwindled. Schools struggled to meet their missions. And church numbers were falling off dramatically. As our culture has changed, our institutions have been damaged. Many people have said that COVID-19 did not instigate these changes but simply hastened them along. And if things continue in this direction, it is conceivable that these institutions will meet their end just as the temple met its end.
But –
When the temple was destroyed, Judaism did not end. It was re-invented. The Jews found a new way. And the religion shifted from its central focus on the temple to a focus on the home and the community synagogue, away from the priestly leadership toward the rabbinical leadership. Which was something that probably seemed unimaginable before it happened. But it was a change that needed to happen.
The temple system that existed back in Jesus’ day had been compromised. Some of the leaders worked in league with the Roman empire for their own benefit. The system of offerings and sacrifices had become compromised, enabling some merchants and money changers to profit handsomely from it, exploiting people who had no choice but to do business with them.
A change needed to happen.
Jesus said the temple would be destroyed and in three days he would raise it up. And as John very helpfully tells us, he was referring to the temple of his body. On Good Friday, his body was destroyed, and three days later raised up again. This is good news. Jesus lives; in every work of compassion done in his name, Jesus lives. Through our hands and our feet and our hearts Jesus lives.
I believe what we need to hear today is that buildings can be destroyed, but we will continue. Bricks and mortar will crumble, but the church will continue. Even systems that we cherish, systems that hold us together and help to give us a sense of meaning and purpose, these can fall, but the church of Jesus Christ will continue. And the church will thrive if we care enough to defend it.
If we care enough to defend it. And sometimes defending it requires tearing down and throwing out what has been compromised, what does not serve us or glorify God.
Perhaps there are things that need to be torn down or thrown out.
The church systems, we can clearly see if we are looking, have been compromised. By church leaders who abuse, embezzle, and exploit. They have been compromised by churches that sell out their mission in all kinds of ways, from coercing members to vote for certain candidates to renting their electronic sign to firearms businesses. They have been compromised by churches that cut their mission budgets because they are afraid to ask people to support them. The church has been compromised by congregations that worship their buildings more than their God. The church has been compromised by people who care more about having the right language – whether we are talking about political correctness or legalistic dogma – than having a right heart. Let us count the ways the church has been compromised.
And maybe it is time for some things to be torn down. The important question we must ask is what will be raised up in their place?
We don’t really know what the church will look like in the future. But no one will ever know, if you and I don’t care enough to wonder about it and dream about it and try to live into it. If we don’t care enough to keep one foot firmly planted in the realm of God while we tend to the life of the church in this world. For all I know, this beautiful building may not last through the century. But the church, you and I, will find a way to carry on Christ’s ministry to the world if we care enough to do it.
We are the ones, you and I. Tell me: what will we, with God’s help, raise up together?
Photo by youssef naddam on Unsplash
