Flipping Tables & Hearts
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John 2:13-25
“Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple…”
This is not my favorite image of Jesus. I prefer a gentle image - Jesus the Good Shepherd, or smiling Jesus as he receives the children, or the empathetic Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.
But this story of Jesus cleansing the temple shows up in all four gospels. So, there is something really important about this story. And I think today, it’s important to notice what Jesus is doing…and even more important is, why.
Jesus flips the tables in the temple market. He drives out the animals. What is this all about? Is Jesus against selling things in the temple? Does that mean it’s wrong to have a bake sale at church or have a fundraiser for the food shelf? No, Jesus isn’t objecting to simply selling stuff. Is Jesus saying that sacrifices are wrong? But weren’t the sacrifices commanded by God?
I believe Jesus flipped these tables for two reasons– Injustice and to Reveal who he was.
Revealing a new temple
Let’s start with what Jesus is revealing. AS Jesus flipped the tables he said: “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Jesus is referring to God as “my Father”. That’s revealing! The concept of God as Father existed in Judaism, but there are very few references in the Old Testament - more aof a metaphor for God as the Creator – but Jesus speaking about tis intimate relationship with my Father…that was new. Jesus is revealing himself as the Son of God!
Tables are flipped and chaos erupts. Then, the Jewish leaders demand an explanation, “What sign can you show us (to prove your authority) for doing this?” Did they understand Him to be saying He was the Son of God? Are they asking for a sign that he is the Son of God? Jesus’ response – seems almost poetic – it points to his future death and resurrection. But to them it sounds like nonsense, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They definitely did not understand.
This is more than poetry, and the gospel writer notes that Jesus’ disciples only understand what Jesus meant AFTER His resurrection. Jesus was refering to His body as the temple of God. I want to pause and help us understand what he meant…because it’s important.
What was the purpose of the temple? To understand, we need to remember that this started in the wilderness after the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt.
1. God commanded them to build a tent – not because God needed a tent to live in, but the tent would be a symbol of God's presence accompanying God’s people.
2. Later the tent was replaced by the beauty and majesty of Solomon’s temple.
3. But God’s ultimate goal was not the tent or even a magnificent building itself. God was using these physical things to build a saving relationship with God’s people.
Jesus replaces the temple. Jesus is God’s presence among us. Following Jesus becomes all important, and replaces the need to make sacrifices at the temple. Jesus offers Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, and shares the Holy Spirit with all who follow Him. Through the Holy Spirit, God now dwells in every believer (1 Corinthians 3:16).
The gospel writer, John, is pointing to all of this, beginning the recounting of Jesus’ ministry with Him flipping the tables and saying “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” Jesus flipped tables to reveal who He was, His authority and the new way God was working.
Revealing deception
There was another dimension to this too. I believe Jesus was also angry at the injustice and deception happening in God’s name. Sacrifice was not a sin, it had been commanded by God. But there were merchants and even the highest authorities in the temple, (the religious government of Israel) – using the need to sacrifice an animal, as an opportunity to cheat the poor. Effectively, the religious leaders were misrepresenting God, twisting religious teaching to cheat the poor.
Jesus flipped tables – not out of hate – but out of love…a love that refused to let injustice stand. Jesus flipped tables - standing up to bullies, while not becoming a bully himself.
Tomorrow is the day our nation honors Martin Luther King, Jr. for his leadership in resisting bullies without becoming a bully himself. I’m going to read a small passage from a sermon he preached on Christmas, 1967. Listen for the Christ-like love…the love of oppressors, love of those who deceive and even do violence… and indeed the power of Christ’s love that Martin Luther King Jr. claimed in 1967:
“I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and I've seen hate on the faces of too many sheriffs, too many white citizens' councilors, and too many Klansmen of the South to want to hate, myself; and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you…Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country, and make it appear that we are not fit, … and we'll still love you. But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."
I believe Jesus still calls His followers to flip tables today.
Resisting injustice done in Jesus’ name
There are crimes happening outside today. People filled with hate, being driven to snatch people from their homes, their cars, their schools, their work, and even on the street. People are being snatched, beaten, and some even killed. Some of the highest leadership in our country is using the name “Christian” or “Christian Nationalism” to say that what they are doing is right.
But this has nothing to do with what Jesus taught. In fact, I believe Jesus would be flipping tables today to insist that love of neighbor does not look like this. Christianity without love of neighbor is no Christianity at all…it is deceit. Like those religious rulers of the temple who used religion to deceive and cheat the poor. Like the white supremacists who beat MLK and all those in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s while going to church. The persecution of our migrant neighbors today is in no way Christian.
The first followers of Jesus didn’t even call themselves Christian. They were followers of the way… a different way of being.
The north star of “Jesus’ way” is love.
We can protect against the virus of religious extremism with healthy religion. It's hard.
The north star is love.
Things like, love, peace, and hope…they require strength training…a gym for the heart. Every week we gather here to sing songs of faith, share stories of faith. In this sanctuary we say prayers, we Sing hymns, we baptize with water and the Holy Spirit, share bread and wine…and we encounter again the love of Jesus Christ.
What can we do? We need to love our neighbors. Not everyone here will march and flip tables, with an active protest. But every act of kindness to our persecuted neighbors is an act of love.
· Greet your Somali neighbors with a smile.
· Open the door for your Hispanic neighbor.
· Some of us may even open our homes to people afraid, or
· we may offer to drive a neighbor to work, school, or an appointment.
· Perhaps you and I can offer to do shopping for a neighbor too afraid to go to a store.
We must stand firm, not because we are fearless, but because we are resolute in what is right and what is just.
Let us turn over the tables of hearts today, by loving acts for immigrant neighbors.
Let us drive out systems that exclude others, by advocating for an end to the surge and chaos in Minnesota.
Let our zeal for God’s love fill our hearts, and move us to acts of love.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Doug Cox