First Presbyterian Church      Rev. Michael J. Imperiale
Salt Lake City, UtahFebruary 19, 2006
“Profits or Prophets in the Church?”
John 2: 13-25
Introduction
One could say that Jesus was a very religious person. Yet, throughout his life, he was very hard on institutionalized religion. True religion is often contradicted by the behavior of its clergy and its people. Every institutional church (like First Presbyterian) and every denomination or association (like the Presbyterian Church USA) are plagued by the conflicts between being a spiritual fellowship, the body of Christ, a genuine community of faith and being a socio-political organization with rules, regulations, traditions, and the misapplication of genuine faith.
So Jesus forced the issue when he said things like, “The Sabbath was made for us; not us for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). And, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’ (quoting Hosea 6:6 in Matthew 9:13). And here he says, “Go ahead. Destroy this temple. And I will raise it again in three days.” Jesus had little tolerance for so-called religion that actually kept people from experiencing God’s grace and forgiveness, his love and life.
When Mahatma Gandhi was a university student in South Africa, he decided to give Christianity a try and went to a worship service at the Anglican cathedral. While sitting in a pew in the back of the church, one of the ushers came and tapped him on the shoulder and politely told him that colored people were not allowed to worship in that particular cathedral.
Reflecting on the event, Gandhi later remarked, “That poor usher. He thought he was ushering a colored man out of a cathedral, when in reality he was ushering India out of the British empire.” I dare say he helped usher Gandhi out of a relationship with God in Christ as well as setting back the ministry of the church in India for generations to come.
On the other hand, Bishop Desmond Tutu was asked why he was an Anglican. “In our country, most black people are either Baptist or Methodist,” he was told. Then he recalled that in the days of apartheid, when a black person met a white person on the sidewalk, the black person was expected to step off the pavement into the gutter to allow the white person to pass. “One day”, the bishop said, “when I was just a little boy, my mother and I were walking down the street when a tall white man, dressed in a black suit, came toward us. Before my mother and I could step aside, this man stepped off the sidewalk and, as my mother passed, tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to her! I asked my mother why that white man did that. She explained, ‘He’s an Anglican priest. He’s a man of God. That’s why he did it.’ I decided then and there,” said this Nobel Peace Prize winner, “that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God.”
I sometimes wonder what would happen if Jesus himself wandered into this church some Sunday morning or on a major holiday like Christmas or Easter. What would he think? What would he do? What would he say to you or me about our being here? Which experience would he see at work here – the experience of Gandhi or the experience of Bishop Tutu?

I. Jesus’ Symbolic Action (vs. 13-16)
John tells us that “it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,” the festival commemorating the miraculous departure from slavery in Egypt. Israelite families were spared when the angel of death “passed over” the homes that had been marked by the sacrifice of a lamb (you can read all about it in Exodus 12). By Jesus’ day, Jewish families were expected to travel to Jerusalem and participate in sacrifice, share a symbolic meal, and engage in reflective study of Israel’s salvation.
But now as these pilgrims needed approved animals for sacrifice, a whole commerce and considerable business grew in Jerusalem to take care of all these religious needs. Not only did Jewish men have to pay a half-shekel temple tax each year and pay for the sacrificial animal, they had to pay in temple currency. So, money changers and sellers of animals were all too ready to profit in the process.
It really was an amazing religious structure and system for the Hebrew people. Jerusalem, the holy city, was the center of the Jewish life, religion and culture. The temple was an impressive, inspiring sight. The daily, weekly, and seasonal rites and rituals not only secured the commitment of the faithful but also assured the livelihood of the temple hierarchy. The high holy days were particularly exciting as people from near and far filled the city not only with religious interests but also business and political.
“In the temple courts, Jesus found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and he found others sitting at tables exchanging money” – not in the temple proper but in the court of the gentiles. What an awful witness to the worship of the living God this must have presented to visiting gentiles.
What Jesus did was just plain outrageous! He fashioned a mock whip out of pieces of rope, drove these sellers from the temple area along with the animals on sale for sacrifice, overturned the tables of the money changers and was quite direct. “Get these out of here. How dare you turn my Father’s house in to a house of trade, a marketplace!”
It has been said that Christianity started in Israel as a religion, was then taken to Greece and was turned into a philosophy, then to Rome where became an institution, later to Europe where it became a culture, and then to America where it has been made into a business enterprise.
Jesus constantly wants to challenge, replace and fulfill0 religious institutions and festivals. Water jars for ceremonial cleansing were transformed into wine, really good wine (remember the wedding at Cana). The temple is not needed for sacrifice anymore, for rituals or ceremonies. Tabernacles, Hanukkah, Passover all pointed to Jesus, the bread of life, the light of the world, the Lamb of God. Jesus is our Sabbath, our Passover.

II. Jesus and Religion Today (vs. 17-22)
“Then the Jews in Jerusalem demanded of him,” remembers John. “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” First of all, Jesus doesn’t have to prove to anyone that he has authority to call the shots when it comes to religious faith. God does not have to justify to any one of us his existence, his will, his plans, his god-ness. How arrogant it is when we humans demand such response from the divine.
Yet Jesus’ answer is quite surprising. He doesn’t point out the deficiencies of the temple or of the people themselves. He refers to his own destruction and resurrection. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” Then, as is typical of most of Jesus’ interaction both with his followers and his critics, his audience misunderstands.
After the destruction of Solomon’s temple hundreds of years before Christ, the hope and plans for a new temple could never be fulfilled when it was rebuilt. Because the Messiah himself would be the new temple. Jesus was referring to his own body, the giving of his life as the perfect sacrifice for all who would trust in him and the resurrection reality vindicating himself as Messiah and offering eternal life and hope to his people.
Jesus came not to establish another religion. He came to establish relationships. By faith in Jesus Christ, you and I can have an ongoing relationship with God. Jesus, in unity with the Father and the Spirit is the creator, redeemer and sustainer of our lives. Then, by faith in Jesus Christ, you and I can have ongoing relationships with one another as true brothers and sisters in the family of God.
The question is whether our church helps or hinders those relationships. Have we created rituals and customs that help people connect with God in Christ? Or do they inhibit, turn away, block, or reject others from the experience of God in their lives?

Conclusion
Does it matter how someone is dressed when they come to church? Not to God; better not matter to you or me. Does it matter whether a person has a church background or faith tradition before they come to First Presbyterian Church? Not to the Lord; better not matter to me or you. Does ethnicity, economic standing, level of education, style of music, manner of speaking, familiarity; does any of this matter? Not to our Savior; better not to you or me.
May Jesus come into our lives and into our church and drive out all that keeps others from worshiping the Lord our God in spirit and in truth. May Jesus continue to overturn the tables of the money changers who demand payment for religious standing. “My Father’s house is a house of prayer,” said Jesus. Let it be so here. Amen.