1. Jesus clears the Temple

Today, the third Lord’s day of Lent, our lecturing potion is the second half of the chapter 2 of the Gospel according to John. The passage concerns Jesus’ act of clearing the Temple of Jerusalem. Jesus thrown traders out, who were selling cattle, sheep and doves or were exchanging money in the Temple’s yard. Whereas John situated the event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministries in Galilee, synoptic Gospel writers, Mark and Matthew and Luke, recorded it happened just before the very Passover. According to Mark, for example, it occurred during the week of Passion. Mark says Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday* and cleaned the Temple the next day. Such an provoking act upset Jewish authorities so much that they arrested Jesus on the following evening and executed him on the next day, Friday. Perhaps it might be more natural to accept Mark’s stance because, in fact, it was that act which pushed the hight priests to kill Jesus.

John should have known other Gospels, which preceded his. Nevertheless he didn’t take the same position as others’. So,to read today’s passage, we must seek the reason for which John situated the occurrence in earlier time.

John wrote ;- When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (John 2:13)

For Jewish people, spring starts with the of Passover. To celebrate that festival numerous pilgrims came from all over the country in Jerusalem. Jesus too came up to the city and went to the Temple like others. It is said that inhabitants in Jerusalem in Jesus time counted almost 100,000. Numbers of dwelling persons in the city was tripled due to pilgrims. The Temple complex should be filled with a mass. Moreover there were vendors of animals for sacrifice and moneychangers there, which generated a chaos. Their calling voices must be terribly loud.

Indeed such tradring was indispensable for Jewish people. Because they purchased animals for sacrifice and those who came from other countries must exchange their coins to Judaean money (shechem) ** for offering. Two acts were recommended to get forgiveness to sins.

But trading activities degraded the atmosphere of the Temple. It became a spot of commerce, no more the place of prayer. Therefore Jesus gat furious by seeing the chaotic scene ;-So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!"(John 2:15-16)

Normally Jesus is a serene and good-tempered person. Nonetheless He showed violent reaction. John explains why by quoting a verse from Psalm 69:9 ;- for zeal for your house consumes me, (cf.John 2:17)

In reality it was not traders but high Priests, or religious aristocrats, who changed the Temple into a place of trading in order to get profits form that. In that time the Temple kept about 7000 priests and Levites (assistants to the priest). Their daily life required a big amount of money. The necessity has led religious authorities to focus on gaining money by increasing the Temple taxes. They allowed many vendors and moneychangers to trade in the court yard.

But Jesus find their attitude blaspheming, which made the faith a way of money gaining. It is also a problem of today’s church in Japan. Actually, in average, 70 % of expenditure of a church goes to the pastor’s salary. the amount is so hight that sometimes it reduces preaching activities. Indeed it might be inevitable for small size churches, which are majority in Japan. But we must recognize it is one of important problems of Japanese church organizations.

2. The Passion and the Resurrection

That cleaning act is known as ” Cleaning the Temple”, and we must remark it symbolizes Jesus’ real intention, the reform of the Temple. It is said that the Temple complex had have at first 80,000 m2 of area then was almost doubled by Herod the Great***. It seems impossible to threw out all of traders from there. Even if Jesus has done once those men could come again the next day and continue their activities. Therefore it might be convincing to understand the event as a symbolic act, by which Jesus tried to criticize the attitude of Hight Priests of the time.

Normallly the act provoked strongly the authorities ;- Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"(John 2:18)
And, afterwards, this response lead Jesus to be charged and put on the Cross.;- Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."(John 2:19)

The word “raise” here is ”ἐ¦Ã¦Åί¦Ñ¦Ø” in Greek text, which have another meaning ” to arouse from the sleep of death”, in other word or to resurrect. The expression suggests the concealed meaning:’Kill me, and the Father God will resurrect me in three days’

The Temple, once the place for sacrifices and prayers, was degraded into money gaining site by High Priests’ policy. Then, thanks to Jesus’ death on the Cross and human redemption there won’t be any need of animal sacrifice. The Temple will become unnecessary for God’s forgiveness. Therefore Jesus could predict the destruction.

In fact the Temple was abolished by Romans, in 70 C.E., 40 years after the concerning event and it was not restored in the similar magnificence.

By reading the lecturing part we now commence to understand why John situated the passage at the beginning of the ministries. The Gospel was written in around 90 C.E. At that time the early church was under oppression of Jewish religious authorities. By putting the cleaning act in beginning part of the Gospel, John intended to emphasize the fact that the Cross and the Resurrection allow humans to get rid of animal sacrifices, rites of the Judaism. And he tried to encourage Christians of the time by insisting on the righteousness of the faith in Jesus, the resurrected Lord.

The precise meaning of the Passion and the Resurrection might give us a new interpretation of this miracle performed in Cana
;-Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.(John 2:6)

John’s message is that the purifying water was replaced by Jesus’ blood, which redeem our sins. Now we have need of neither water nor animal sacrifices thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice.

3. To live as the purified

Today’s invocation verses are 1 Corinthians 23-25 ;- but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Since the first arrival of Christianity in Japan, already 150 years has past. But, despite all preaching efforts, the proportion of Japanese believers remains less than 1% of the national population. In contrast other Japanese new religious movements have made greater progresses in spreading their faith.**** Why? I think it is because they are keen on fulfilling human desires, which seek earthy happiness, a state without sufferings and pains. Different from that, The Bible teaches us that we must look for spiritual peace even in remaining under harsh living conditions. Though humans need bread for body the Bible tells us to make efforts to obtain the eternal life, which is much more important than material food.

And the very life is offered by Jesus, the Lord of the Passion and the Resurrection. We are able to obtain such a life through the faith in Him. That teaching is very difficult to understand and accept for us, who live in today’s rational world. So much so many churches have the tendency to focus on God’s love and Jesus’ gentleness rather than significance of the Passion and the Resurrection. As a result they give much more importance to Christmas than to Easter. But the Gospel writer John compels us to keep in our mind that the salvation is only through the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. From today’s lecture we must be convinced that Easter, the Passion and the Resurrection, is the priority in spreading Christian faith.

As John says Crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”. So is the same to modern Japanese people. Nonetheless we continue to strive for passing on the message to the world because the power and wisdom of God empowers the called persons. However humans can not recognize directly God. Therefore we should achieve our mission by showing our way of living. We have been chosen before others. To preach is to live as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It does not signify a kind of stoicism, which put on ourselves many moralistic yolks. On the contrary the life proposed by Jesus is one which is filled with blessing and joy. The miracle of changing water into wine represents one of facets of that life. Sobriety is not compelled by the Bible. It is a part of heritage of Puritanism taught in Japan.

John says us to stop asceticism, which sacrifices joy, but enjoy the life by worshipping God. When we come to church and participate in the Sunday service, the Passion of Jesus will be interpreted in symbol of gratefulness and joy. The Passion is the happy event which open the way leading on to the Resurrection. Therefore the day of the Passion is called “Good Friday”. Though ” the Crucified Savior ” is a very difficult notion for the Japanese to understand let us continue witnessing to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In this way we will be able to show ” the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.”
——————–
references
*Palm Sunday - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_sunday
**Schecem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechem
***the Temple Mount - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_mount#Persian.2C_Hasmonean_periods_and_Herod.E2.80.99s_expansion
**** The Gospel according to Matthew - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John
**** Souka-gakkai - http://www.sgi.org/about.html
Kofuku no kagaku - http://www.kofuku-no-kagaku.or.jp/en/