John 2: 13-22 Reformation Day Sermon

John 2:13-22 is the Gospel Reading for The Third Sunday in August, 2008. It is a familiar passage about the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus. The significance of the Johannine text is that it alters the synoptic chronology and places this episode at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after the wedding at Cana. John emphasizes the wedding incident as the first of the signs of Jesus. That sign showed God’s concern at the need of a family in their most important occasion in life. Jesus is making use of the water for purification, which was kept outside of the house for outward cleansing into something that empowers inwardly and the most important part of the feast. Rather than fulfilling the requirements of some age old cultural rituals, in the name of religion, as if to serve the glory of God, Jesus has shown that God is glorified when people are served, when their needs are fulfilled. Same thing he does with the temple cleansing. He starts cleaning up the temple so that it may serve the purpose for which it has been provided, a “prayer house for all nations, ” not a market place,” “a den of robbers,” to serve the vested interests of a privileged few in the name of religion and God. To the Jews who demanded a sign for his authority, Jesus said: Destroy this temple I will raise it in three days. Here God’s temple which was being built up for the last [46] many years beginning from 19 BCE)and continued to build (till CE 63) had been declared by Jesus to be necessarily destroyed. Speaking against temple, which was considered to be the dwelling place of God on earth, has been viewed as the highest form of blasphemy, a kind of terrorist act of inciting people against the highest religious symbol. To those who said, “we have one father, God himself, Jesus answered, “if God were your Father, you would love me. You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires” (8: 41-44) Jesus plainly accused that in depriving the people of all nations their rights and dignity the Jewish leaders were engaged in the business of their father, the devil, which is attested by their religious rituals and activities in the temple.

All the Gospels agree that Jews were much offended by Jesus’ temple criticism. It was the major accusation raised by them against Jesus, which led to his crucifixion. The synoptics placed this event at the end of the life of Jesus, as an immediate provocation for Jesus’ crucifixion, but John seized its theological significance and placed it at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The whole ministry of Jesus was a criticism of the Jewish religion, the Temple being its hub. We see the boy Jesus first in the Temple. At the death of Jesus the Temple curtain was torn apart in the middle, a symbol of what Jesus has accomplished through his ministry. Mark gives a significant place to Jesus confrontation with the Pharisees over the question of forgiveness of sins in the first paragraph of Chapter 2. ( See Sam P.. Mathew’s , Temple Criticism in Mark’s Gospel: The Economic Role of the Jerusalem Temple during the First Century C E, Foreword by Gerd Theissen , ISPCK, Delhi,1999). The Jewish leaders insisted that forgiveness of sins is a divine prerogative and the humans attain it by sin offerings, which has been the major source of income of the Temple. Jesus' action of separating the forgiveness of sin from the ritualistic act of sacrifice has actually undermined the powers and privilege of the temple and thus deprived its major source of income. People’s desire to be forgiven or to be reconciled with God was made in to a profitable business , comfortably done within the temple precincts. Plotting against Jesus started on the day he challenged the ritualistic practices that exploited the poor in the name of God. Jesus criticism of Sabbath laws was also challenging the custodians of the Law, the Scribes, who were also the beneficiaries of the temple money. Jesus’ parables of the tenants and the King’s wedding feast as well as many of his comments were understood as criticisms against the Temple. Jesus’ comment on the offering of the two pennies by the widow was a sarcastic remark on the way the temple deprived even the poorest of the poor their very meager means of subsistence. It was immediately after that event in Mark 13 Jesus declared the destruction of the Temple.

Paul in his first letter Corinthians 3: 16 tells the members of the church that they are the temple of God. People are the Temple of God. The temples that raised of stone or marbles smell the exploitation of the poor which are detested by God. To find glory and satisfaction in such magnificent edifices built up at the expense of the poor is devilish and no stones of such a temple “ will be left on one another, [but ] all will be thrown down (Mark 13:1-2). Invest not in buildings but on people, is the exhortation of Paul. God’s temple is God’s people. God starts counting God’s people beginning from the lost and the least; God starts building God’s temple from the stone that was thrown away by builders, making it the corner stone. The primary concern of any church must be God’s concern for the world which God so loved and others rejected or exploited. Any movement will turn to an institution with in fifty years has become an accepted maxim. God wanted the Great Day of Atonement to be proclaimed in every fifty years, the Jubilee year (Lev. 25, Deut.15). Atonement is the restoration of people’s right and dignity, liberation from their slavery, restoration of their land rights, and liberation of those who are imprisoned; that is the year of the Lord, the Day of the Lord (Luke 4:16-19; Matt. 25 31-44).

August third Sunday is the Reformation Day in the Mar Thoma Calendar. The basic reformation principle is that it is the people who matter. Translating the Bible or liturgy into vernacular was the first thing reformers in general and Abraham Malpan in particular did. Reformation should happen every day, every Sunday, every seven years and every seven into seven years, and the Fiftieth year must be the Great Day of Atonement (Deuteronomy 15). Every Jubilee year must be a Day of Atonement, restoration of the people’s rights and dignity.

Chuck Warnock , a Baptist minister, redefines the future "church": "Church will no longer be the place we go. Church will be the people we share faith with. Churches will still meet together for worship at a central time and location, but that will become secondary to the ministry performed during the week. Church buildings will become the resource hub in community ministry, like the old Celtic Christian abbeys. Church impact will replace church attendance as the new metric. Churches will focus outwardly on their "parish" more than inwardly on their members. Church staff will become more community-focused rather than church-program focused and become team leaders in new missional ventures. There will be a refocus of Church from institution to inspiration. There will be less emphasis on the "church" and more on how the church enables its adherents to live their faith. Church ministry has to focus on engaging people in meaningful ways that enable their spiritual journeys. Declining church attendance is not a crisis of faith. It's a crisis of delivery. In a world in crisis, people are looking for something to believe in as institution after institution crumbles. If banks, businesses, and whole countries fail, where can we put our trust? Church should have the answer 24/7, delivered like everything else is delivered now--when people want it, at their convenience, and in a way that is one way of making the Church relevant."

Jesus' principle that the church should be relevant to the needy, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed. The Church knows how to be relevant to the needs of the rich and powerful. What it needs to learn from Jesus is to be relevant to the poor and the marginalized. Yes, we have to think of ways of reforming the church as Jesus did with the Temple.