I must begin this lesson with a contemporary thorn in the
side. Hope International University, formerly Pacific Christian College, had
an interesting message on their signboard as I drove by this week. It
advertised (there is no other word) a “used car sale” in their parking lot this
weekend. This is not the first time such a thing has occurred. They’ve also
sponsored a piano sale out of the music department.
Maybe I’m the only person who
feels like this, but I think this inappropriate. It strikes me as “tacky,” to
say the least. As we shall see this morning, it may be a bit more than that.
Why is God angry over that?
(Mat 21:12-17 NIV)
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all that were buying and selling there.
He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling
doves. {13} "It is written," he
said to them, "'My house will be called a house of
prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'" {14} The
blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. {15} But
when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he
did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of
David," they were indignant. {16} "Do you hear what these
children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes,"
replied Jesus, "have you never read,
"'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"
{17} And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent
the night.
Plenty of other sins
The curious thing about this
passage at first blush is this: there are plenty of other sins around for Jesus
to condemn. Indeed, the disciples themselves are in many ways a prize
collection of sinners, most especially including the man who wrote down this
Gospel. One way to look at it is this:
·
When I sin against my neighbor, I often justify it by telling
others how guilty he is. Right or wrong, we accept the justification that the
other fellow is wicked too.
·
But that justification, however valid it might be, does not hold
against God. He is innocent, indeed holy. So a sin directly against him
should arouse my anger even more.
If you think not, consider this.
Suppose you see a news account of a gang member who drives by and shoots a
member of a rival gang. Your reaction probably is that (to put it cynically)
you wish they’d all just get together, shoot each other and then we’d be done
with them. Of course, the shooting is a crime. But think how much more
outraged you would be if the news account then went on to state that a stray
bullet hit and killed an infant in the cradle. The sin against the innocent is
far more outrageous than the sin against the guilty. This is our first clue as
to why Christ cleansed the Temple.
The Fourth Commandment
Blasphemy is misunderstood. Most
of us think of it as casual obscenity, which is offensive. Blasphemy is the
misuse of God’s name. It may be done casually, but it is much more serious
when done with intent.
For instance, if I tell you that
God has given me a vision for your life, and that He has commanded you to
divorce your wife, then you have a serious blasphemy indeed. I am taking the
authority of God in my mouth – and how would you feel if I did it so that I
could marry the result? That’s an explicit misuse of God’s name (and there are
many others).
But I can also misuse it
implicitly. I can take the things that you feel belong to God and use them for
man’s purposes. If I say I’m a Christian and then come to church largely to
drum up business for my insurance bureau, that’s blasphemy. There is a sense
that something sacred, something holy – the church – is being desecrated. One
policeman I met was investigating graffiti painted on the side of our church.
His remark was telling: “That’s not very smart. Don’t they know they’re
messing with God?” He had that sense that something sacred was being
desecrated, even though we might have remarked, “It’s just a building.”
Righteous Anger
The wrath of God, as portrayed in
the Old Testament, is almost always directed against one thing: idolatry.
Every other sin is seen as the result of a faulty relationship with God (i.e.,
idolatry). So when God threatens, it is the idolater who incidentally is the
thief who is so threatened.
Ultimately, however, the Bible
declares that God’s wrath will have its full expression on the “Day of Wrath” –
i.e., on the Lord’s return. Until then, it is being held in check so that all
that would might be saved. The exception seems to be those things that involve
the holiness of God. So we need to understand what that means.
The Sense of the Holy
We as a society have lost the
sense that anything or any place could be holy. I recall a transition point in
that loss. Many years ago I helped a church youth group put on a musical
presentation. This show was taken to several of our sister churches. At one
of these there was a large communion table in the middle of the platform that
we were to use as a stage. I drafted several husky high school boys to help
me, and we proceeded to move it.
As we were picking it up, an
elderly gentlemen came puffing down the aisle screaming, “Stop, Stop! That is
the altar of the Lord! It must not be touched with human hands! Put it
back!” (Of course, that left us the problem of how to return it to its
original position without touching it.) We had not considered the possibility;
he had considered none other. So then, what makes for holiness?
Holiness is an essential
attribute of God. We can see it in four senses:
·
It can simply mean something that is set aside for God’s
purposes. In this sense, we need to see the holy in terms of “proper use.”
The Communion table should not be used as a scaffold for painting, for
example. The reason for this is that, in some sense, it belongs to God. So we
can see the holy as being that which is set aside, or given, to God.
·
It can also mean something that is pure, so pure that it evokes
reverence. In this sense it certainly applies to God. We must also realize
that it also applies to us. For example, I do not object to people swearing in
my presence. I don’t have to. They either don’t do it, or apologize as they
do. The interesting aspect is that I never ask for this; enough of the
character of God comes through me that they understand it instinctively.
·
It can also be that which evokes awe. We recall Isaiah’s remark
that “I am a man of unclean lips.” In the presence of God he was awestruck.
This same sense can be applied to a place, as those who have had the privilege
of worshiping on a nature retreat can attest (God builds better cathedrals than
we do.)
·
It may also be that which is filled with supernatural power.
Recall the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Nazis are about to
open the Ark of the Covenant. Indiana Jones tells his girl to turn away and
not to look. Indeed, when the Ark is opened, the power of God destroys all
those watching. It’s poor theology, but a good artistic illustration of the
concept of the holy.
In God there is a tension – a
thesis and antithesis, for you Marxists – between his holiness and his
personhood. God is a person. He wants us to enjoy Him forever. God is holy;
he cannot abide sin. The tension is resolved (synthesis is achieved) only in
Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Judgment begins with the house of God
So then, we see that the holiness
of God elevates the sin of turning the Temple into a den of thieves evokes this
response. In part this is simple justice. Those who rule over the Temple
should know better. As Jesus tells us:
(Luke 12:47-48 NIV) "That servant who knows
his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants
will be beaten with many blows. {48} But
the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten
with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded;
and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
In that sense we can
see that those who have desecrated the Temple in this way deserve what they
got.
The purpose of Christ
There is more to it than that. Jesus Christ came to seek and save the
lost. To those who acknowledged that they were sinners, he was merciful and
forgiving. But what about those who not only said they were not lost, but
thought they were the ones drawing the maps?
Sometimes you have to draw them a picture. In the artistic sense, that
is what Christ has done. Remember that this scene takes place immediately
after the Triumphal Entry. The King has arrived to claim his own, and in a
picture of what he will do on the day of Wrath he drives out those who
blaspheme the name of God in their actions. It is interesting to note that no
one stops him – the power of holiness over the guilty conscience is well
portrayed here.
But Christ also draws them the opposite picture, the picture of God’s
love. We often forget it, but just after driving out the thieves he begins to
heal the lame and the blind. The first is the picture of wrath; the second the
picture of Divine Love. And the ordinary man reacts to that picture – by
praising God. The Pharisees could not stop him from cleansing the Temple, nor
did they try. They do try to stop the love of God.
The reaction of the Pharisees
The Pharisees are now presented with quite a problem. Their guilty
consciences would not permit them to stop Jesus from clearing the Temple. They
certainly don’t, however, like the spectacle. Stopping the muscular carpenter
is one thing; stopping a bunch of children from praising God is another,
however. After all, the children are not important. We may have to call this
Jesus a rabbi but we don’t have to put up with the kids.
Jesus takes the Old Testament – the Scripture they know – and recites it
back to them. In their own terms, from their own book, he makes it clear that
even now repentance is possible. From his actions they can see that even now
wrath is coming. The choice is theirs.
Thereby hangs the lesson for the Christian of today. We must ask
ourselves a central question: am I using the things of God for my own purposes,
or His?
·
Is the church primarily a place of worship, or an occasional
duty? Or is it (worse yet) a place of financial opportunity?
·
Have I promised anything to God – how often we try to bargain
with him – and not delivered it? Money? Prayer? Praise?
·
Have I said that I need to pray more, or read the Bible more, and
then said, “My time is my own?” Is it really?
God has entrusted us with many
things. We will be judged on how we use them.