It is
reasonable to see the Temple as the real focus of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.
He came to Jerusalem with the intention of challenging the Temple with its
encoded values and bringing down the privileged social group that controlled
the Temple. Jesus' disturbance in the Temple signaled the new social
arrangements of God's reign.
His
statements and threats against the Temple, his attacks on the Temple
priesthood, and the implicit authority in those claims threatened the control
of Jerusalem and the people by the priests of the Temple. The political
infrastructure would be dismantled with the coming of God's reign.
It
was a corrupt infrastructure—coopted by the Roman Procurator and a group of
ruling, elite temple families. It
represented the values of the covenant, yet as the largest employer in all
Israel, it made compromises. It
compromised the values that Jesus grew up believing…………It oppressed
people—Taxes and spiraling indebtedness
Forgive us or debts.
Give us this day our daily bread
The
Gospel accounts narrate that Jesus caused a disturbance by driving out those
who sold sacrificial animals, overturning tables of money changers, and
stopping workers from working on tile Temple. I would call this action a type
of street theater or messianic theater. It was a symbolic acting out of God’s
reign.
Any
real effort to stop the trade in the Temple would have required an army. Jesus'
action did not bring all buying and selling in the Temple to a halt. It was
not substantial enough to interfere with daily routine. If it had not been
limited in scope and rather was an attempt at seizing control of the Temple,
the Temple police and the Roman soldiers looking down from the Antonia
Fortress would have arrested Jesus on the spot.
In anger, Jesus
overturned some tables to make a point; it was a demonstrative action and not a
cleansing as traditionally interpreted. By this act of overturning tables, Jesus symbolized the
destruction of the Temple. His action was premeditated and carefully
orchestrated and staged. I often imagined Jesus sitting down with a couple of
disciples: perhaps Mary Magdalene and the beloved disciple, discussing and
planning his action. Mary or the beloved disciple would argue against such an action:
“Jesus, do you realize the repercussions?
Your enemies will use this as an excuse to move against you. This is dangerous. Please rethink this.”
Jesus: “I need to do this. I am need to represent the true message of
God’s presence as a compassionate presence, not exploited for religious
profit. There are too many
suffering. I can do no other, no matter
the cost to me.”
There are three
components to Jesus' symbolic action or messianic theater: the overturning of
the money changers' tables, the driving out of those selling sacrificial
animals, and the stopping of those working on the rebuilding of the Temple.
On
Passover, it was incumbent on pious Jews to offer a sacrifice and payment of
the half-shekel Temple tax. It was not permissible for Jews to use the coins of
everyday commerce; they were required to obtain Tyrian half-shekel coins for
the purpose. By overturning the tables
of the money changers, Jesus symbolized the destruction of the Temple, its revenue
system, and the socioeconomic exploitation of the Jewish peasant. His action
was a provocative assault on the priesthood and aristocracy, who made an
exploitative living off the Temple. In the coming reign of God there would be
no religious hierarchy or priestly elite. Religious and economic privilege
would be abolished in God's reign. Jesus demonstrated his own Galilean
resistance to paying taxes and the resulting social burdens of taxation. No one
could serve God and money (mammom) in the new reign of God, he preached.
The Temple was at the center of the Jewish economic system in which Jewish
peasants supported the priests and the priestly aristocracy through their
tithes. The poor would no longer be financially burdened with service to God
through the Temple taxation and tithing system. Exploitation of people's
devotion and piety would come to an end. The lame, the blind, and the outcast
would no longer be excluded from God's reign as they had been in the Temple
(Matt. 21:14-16).
Jesus
stopped the selling of sacrificial animals. Was Jesus a proto-type of animal
rights activist? The Temple was a
slaughterhouse, as many as 1200-1500 animals were sacrificed each year. In Mark
12:15 and Matthew 21:12, he stopped the selling of pigeons; in John
2:14-15, he stopped the selling of sheep, oxen, and pigeons. The disruption of
trade represented both an attack on the divinely ordained sacrificial system
and the economic exploitation of the Temple by the Jerusalem elites. This
gesture pointedly attacked the priesthood. In the new age, there would be no
need for priesthood, for cult, or for mediating God's presence. Animal
sacrifice would replaced by sacrificial love.
In
the reign of God, God would be accessible to all; God would be present within
the new community. In addition, Jesus
challenged the economic exploitation over and control of the Temple by the
Jerusalem elites. In God's reign, the new social order would belong to God and
the people, not to the privileged and the elite.
Jesus
stopped anyone from carrying anything through the Temple (Mark 12:169. The
Temple was a building of great beauty; it was the central national institution
of Israel, the locus of Jewish religious and political life. During the reign
of Herod the Great, the Temple was vastly expanded. The building program
burdened the Jewish peasant with heavy taxes. Work on the Temple was still
continuing a half-century later on Jesus' final visit to Jerusalem. The Temple
was the largest employer in Jerusalem; it was central to the
economic life of the city, and merchants prospered from its trade. During Passover and other festivals, the inns and
the merchants made a lot of money. Just
like when a convention is in St. Louis, the hotels and the restaurants do a
booming business.
Jesus'
stopping workers and work on the Temple was not only an affront to the Jewish
religious life but also a challenge to the economic benefactor of the city, for
the entire population of Jerusalem had some financial interest in the Temple.
His demonstration was a blatant attack against the Temple and the financial
interests of Jerusalem citizens.
With his
disturbance in the Temple, Jesus utters a prophecy, combined from Isaiah 56:7
and Jeremiah 7:11: “My house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples. But you have made it a
den of robbers.” The gospel recounts that the blind and lame came to Jesus, and
he healed them. It reflects the
theological intent of Isaiah 56:8 where God gathers the outcasts into the
Temple. The Temple priestly elite
excluded the outcasts and failed to include the vision of Isaiah 56:8.
Jesus'
arrest resulted from his angry demonstration in the Temple. (11) He disrupted
the Jewish political order at its heart. His demonstration signaled the total
disruption of the Jewish political order with God's coming reign. His demonstration
was directed against the wealthy priestly aristocracy and Jerusalem elites,
their exploitation of the poor and their exclusion of "throw-away"
people. He antagonized the guardians of Jewish religious and political values
with his transgressive actions. The chief priests and the Jerusalem elites took
the initiative in arresting Jesus and bringing him before Pilate. They
perceived Jesus' action as threatening to and contemptuous of the Temple. Such
a challenge to the Temple clergy and the Jerusalem elites had to be decisively
met. From one perspective, Jesus' demonstration within the sacred space of the
Temple failed and directly led to his arrest, legal proceedings, and
execution. Jesus' staged demonstration models transgressive practice for queer Christians.
MCC St. Louis - Check Us Out!
Get your own, Free Homepage