A
homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John's Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 8, 2014.
“A
MINISTRY GONE AWRY”
(Homily text:
John 2: 13 - 22)
But our gospel reading today reminds us of some
of the ways a ministry might go wrong.
The temple in Jerusalem existed to be a place of ministry, a place where
God was served, and a place where God’s people were to be served. But this ministry had gone terribly wrong….it
seems as though the temple’s purpose was undercut by an improper focus on
making money.
This last statement requires some explanation:
1.
The temple was the only place[2]
within ancient Judaism where the sacrifices that were required under the Law of
Moses could be conducted. In addition,
the temple occupied a unique place in people’s regard for God, for it was in
the Holy of Holies that God’s presence dwelled.
The temple was the place where people came closest to God’s presence,
and it was the place where various offerings (such as making atonement for sin
and offering thanksgivings) were made by virtue of the Law’s establishment of
that place as the only place[3]
where such activities could take place.
2.
Yet another set of circumstances pertained to the temple, and that was
the reality that worshippers often traveled a very long distance to attend the
major festivals (such as Passover, as we read in today’s gospel). Oftentimes, bringing animals such a long
distance in order to offer them for sacrifice was impractical. So the temple authorities offered a service
to the worshippers, selling them animals in the temple’s precincts.[4]
3.
In addition to its establishment within the Law as the unique and only
place for sacrifices to be made, the temple in Jesus’ day also operated under
another set of unusual circumstances: It
and the Jewish people lived under Roman occupation. Living in such circumstances made it
necessary for people, in their everyday lives, to use Roman currency which bore
the images of people like the emperor.
Since that was the case, Roman currency could not be used to pay the temple
tax. Hence the need for moneychangers,
who would convert the Roman coins into special coins (that were minted in the
city of Tyre).
Our description of the temple’s ministry is, in
all the respects we’ve just examined, all well and good….the temple reminded
people of God’s presence among them, the provision of the Law against having
graven images (the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments), and the need to
meet the practical needs of worshipers who’d traveled a long distance, both
rich and poor, were being met.
But something had gone wrong, as we
said a moment ago. The temple’s ministry
was a ministry that had gone awry.
It is against the abuses of the
temple’s unique status that were being put to self-serving uses that Jesus
takes action, driving out the moneychangers and the animals which were offered
for sale. The abuses had to do with the
fact that the temple’s existence and purpose had come to do more with making
money than with worshipping God. Notice
the Lord’s comment as He wields the whip of cords, “Take these things out of
here! Stop making my Father’s house a
marketplace.”[5]
Evidence that the temple had become
big business can be found in the following:
1.
The temple priests controlled the rate of exchange of the Roman coinage
into the acceptable temple currency.
2. The
temple priests also controlled the price of the animals being sold for
sacrifice.
3.
The temple priests also had the power to declare an animal that had been
brought in for sacrifice to be either clean and acceptable, or to be blemished
and unacceptable. If the animal was
declared to be blemished and unacceptable, then the only option was to submit
to the temple’s monopoly and buy one.
Apparently the temple’s priestly
caste was making a nice profit on all of this.
We might say that they had a nice, cozy monopoly going for themselves.
To be called into God’s service,
carrying out a ministry, is to be called into service to God and to others, as
we said a moment ago.
The temple’s leadership had
apparently forgotten all that. They had come to see the temple’s existence as a
pretext for personal gain….they seemed to be making the ministry all about
themselves, not about God and about God’s people. (That the temple’s leadership was manifestly
corrupt will be seen in the days to come, as they plot to murder Jesus, for He
had become a threat to their positions, status and control of the religious
life of the Jewish nation.)
Now what might today’s gospel text
have to say to us? I think that’s an
important question to ask whenever we hear a text from Holy Scripture. Perhaps these thoughts will spur our own
reflection on the ways in which God asks us to hold and uphold the ministries
He’s entrusted to us:
1.
Any ministry, no matter how noble in its character, can be undermined by
self-serving motives. As we look at the
situation in the temple in Jesus’ day, we can see some evidence that the
temple’s leadership was exploiting the good aspects of the temple’s existence
and purpose, in order to make personal gain.
So one way we might reflect on this ever-present danger would be to ask
ourselves the question, “Am I doing what I’m doing for the right reasons?”
2.
Serving God and serving others is what ministry is all about. The temple’s practices in our Lord’s day
looked to be right and proper from an outward point-of-view, but the underlying
motives for doing those things seemed to center around something else entirely. One way we might assess our own ministerial
conduct would be to ask the question, “Is this about God and about God’s people
or is it about me?”
As we make our way through this Lenten season,
we have the opportunity to ask ourselves some questions that go to the heart of
ministry:
1.
What ministry has God called us to do?
2.
Does our ministry connect God and people?
3.
Do we need to ask God to purify our hearts in order that our work of
ministry is done with proper motives?
This prayer is an excellent way to
offer ourselves to God in ministry[6]:
“Almighty and everlasting God, by
whose Spirit the whole body of thy faithful people is governed and
sanctified: Receive our supplications
and prayers, which we offer before thee for all members of thy holy Church,
that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and godly serve thee;
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in
the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
[1] The title for this passage is usually given
as “The Cleansing of the Temple”. Known
in this way, Jesus’ actions did not purify the temple so that it could be used
for worship, for that state already existed.
But Jesus’ actions did attempt to drive out the business-like activities
that seemed to interfere with the atmosphere of worship which the temple should
have exhibited.
[2] The synagogues, by contrast, were scattered
throughout the known world wherever Jews lived.
The synagogues were places where the holy Scriptures were read, where
discussion took place, and so forth. But
sacrifices did not take place in the synagogues.
[3] We should be reminded that, before the first
temple was built under King Solomon (who reigned from about 970 – 930 B.C.), the
sacrifices that the Law required were carried out in the Tabernacle, which was
a sort of moveable temple, made of tents.
Also, in ancient times, various altars where sacrifices were made
existed in various places. But from the
time of King Solomon forward, sacrifices took place in the temple.
[4] The temple’s authorities fulfilled the
requirements of the Law by selling sheep and cattle, which were offered for
more well-to-do worshipers, and by selling pigeons and doves, which the Law
allowed lower income people to use for sacrifice.
[5] All four gospel accounts record this
incident. For other perspectives on it,
see Matthew 21: 12 – 13, Mark 11: 15 – 17 and Luke 19: 45 – 46.
[6] Entitled a prayer “For all Christians in
their vocation”, it can be found on page 206 in the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
