Lent 3 B + Uncomfortable with Jesus + 3.7.21
Melissa
Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(Exodus 20: 1–17; Psalm
19; 1 Corinthians 1: 18–25; John 2: 13–22)
Upon hearing the version of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple
this past Tuesday as shown in the radio play “Un Tal Jesús”, some of our Bible
study felt that it portrayed Jesus as too revolutionary and violent in his way
of speaking (although his actions are technically still non-violent). For them,
this image of an angry Jesus speaking so harshly to the priests of the Jewish
temple did not fit with the image they have of a Jesus who always shows love
and forgiveness. I relate. My relationship with Jesus is that he always reminds
me that I must seek to look at situations and people with compassion. But I was
also reading the book of Ecclesiastes this week, which reminded me that there
is a time for everything - a time for peace and a time for anger.
If you are like me, you are very swift to understand and seek
peace, but sometimes anger makes you uncomfortable. What to do with this difficult
emotion? Jesus does not always seek to reassure us but at times he reminds us
that we have work to do to improve society. To combat inequity.
What does this have to do with the gospel, you say? Well,
Jesus was reacting to a situation of injustice in today's reading. It was a
situation that began with an understandable theology but turned into a system
of oppression. Let me explain. The money changers filled a role in the temple
because the currency of the Roman Empire had the image of Caesar, and a title
that seemed to make him a God. This is why the chief priests were offended by
receiving payments in the temple with the currency of the empire. So they had
to exchange it for the special temple currency. This might have been fine, but
what happened is that the money changers had to earn a living so they charged
something to change the money, and since buying sacrificial animals was part of
Jewish life at that time, good Jewish people had no choice but to pay the high
price. Therefore only certain people had the privilege of being money
exchangers and sellers of the sacrificial animals. Father Roberto Martínez
referred to this this week to "a mafia" like the one sometimes found
in a tightly run swap meet. Jesus was against all of this not so much for maintaining
the sanctity of the temple building so much as for how the system was taking
advantage of and harming God's people, who are the temple of the Holy Spirit,
something he refers to later in the passage when he speaks of his body as a
temple.
When Father Roberto described this this week he made me think
of another situation that we have experienced in our country recently. This
past summer I joined a march for the Black Lives Matter movement. And I was
completely in favor of putting on a public show because I feel that for too
long White people like me have supported an unjust system for our Black and
Brown siblings. But then the march arrived at the police department. And they
started yelling at the police with very foul language. And I felt very uncomfortable
because I am part of the inter-faith council put together by the chief of
police. And I tried to calm down those who were yelling offensive words. But I
realized that this moment was not really about individual police officers but
what they have done elsewhere and what they stand for. For some it reminds them
of the slave-pursuers who would capture slaves who were fleeing their homes. I
realized that the Black Lives Matter movement is not about my comfort level but
in fact should make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Just enough so I decide to
make a difference and do what I can to change the unjust structures of our
country.
The unfair structure of money exchange system in the temple also
made me think of the more modern example of redlining, a discriminatory
practice especially exercised by government agencies who provide mortgage loans
and those who decide in which communities they are going to invest. With this
process, beginning in the 1930s, the US government drew red lines around
communities of people of color and decided not to give them federal loans to
buy houses. This also sometimes applied to credit cards, student loans, and
insurance. The courts have ruled that this process is illegal, but the effects
continue in society, and because of this more white people can buy their own
houses and leave them to their children than people of color. [1] In the same way as with the money
changers in the temple, an unjust system was developed that gave certain people
more opportunities while other people suffered.
Now, redlining as I said is no longer legal, but the
injustices of the past continue to be reflected in present realities, as with
so many effects of systemic racism in our society. So what to do when the
money-changers have been cast out of the temple but the new structure is not
yet rebuilt? In the gospel story in some accounts this event happens shortly
before Jesus’ arrest. So we do not know what Jesus would have done to bring
about a more just system. That is our work to do, in concert with the Holy
Spirit. The good news is that if we ask these questions we are once more
putting ourselves into step with Jesus, and we do not work or walk alone, but
with the Spirit’s guidance.
Let us ask ourselves: how can we cleanse the temple today?
How can we honor the temples of God that are the human beings in our community?
Sometimes this is an uncomfortable process but the more we learn and grow
closer to God, the more we can do to make this a more just and loving world for
all. And we do not do this alone. Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus, guide us
forward. Amen.
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