Shutting Down the Temple

At our book study this week, we came across the story of Jesus expressing his anger in the temple.  We grappled with the story, trying to find meaning.  Were Jesus’ actions right?  He preached non-violence and peace.  Why did he display such temper?  Wasn’t he disrupting businesses that had every right to be there?  What is this story trying to tell us?  I made a commitment to do some reading about the story so that I could better understand it myself.

I have a book on my shelf that I have read through once but I continue to refer to it when reflecting on the events that happened during Holy Week.  Holy Week is the week before Easter, beginning with Palm Sunday through the Saturday before Easter.  The book is called, “The Last Week,” and was written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  As you can tell by the title, the authors delve into the last week of Jesus’ life. 

In particular, they focus on the gospel of Mark which holds a daily account of the last week of Jesus’ life.  In this gospel, Monday is when Jesus causes the disruption in the temple.

¹⁵Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; ¹⁶and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. ¹⁷He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:15-17, NRSV)

Did you ever wonder about the story that comes just before this story?  On the way into Jerusalem, Jesus is hungry.  He sees a fig tree with no figs.  It is not the season for figs, but Jesus then curses the fig tree anyway, saying, “May no one eat fruit from you again.”  The next morning, the disciples see the fig tree “withered away to its roots.” (Mark 11:20)

Why would Jesus curse a fig tree?  This always seemed like such a strange story to me that makes Jesus seem petty.  Borg and Crossan explain it this way: “The fig tree’s failure is a cipher for that of the temple.  The framing fig tree,” (meaning the way the words about the fig tree frame the event in the temple), “warns us that the framed temple is not being cleansed, but symbolically destroyed and that, in both cases, the problem is a lack of ‘fruit’ that Jesus expected to be present.”  So what ‘fruit’ is not present in the temple?

Jesus says that the temple has been made into a “den of robbers,” words that are originally spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. 

⁵For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, ⁶if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. ⁸Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. ⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!” —only to go on doing all these abominations? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? (Jeremiah 7:5-11)

In that context, the meaning of the phrase “den of robbers” is very clear.  The people’s everyday injustice makes them robbers, and they use the temple as their safe house, den, hideaway, or place of security.  The temple is not the refuge where the robbing occurs, but the place the robbers go for refuge.  The temple is a place of worship but worship has replaced justice.  

In the bible, it’s not about one or the other, and it’s not just about worship and justice, but on justice over worship.  Traditionally, God had repeatedly said, “I reject your worship because of your lack of justice,” but never, ever, ever, “I reject your justice because of your lack of worship.” (Borg and Crossan)

So what would Jesus do if he walked into our church?  Would he find worship?  Would he find justice?  Would he find one over the other?  Might Jesus turn over some tables in our own church to tell us that our church, in his name, has become a den of robbers?  In shutting down the temple, Jesus was making a point and in doing this, he attracted the attention of those in power who began to plot his death.