Every Word of God

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
- John 2:13-22

Jesus here is at his lightning-best. "Take these things out of here! Stop making my father's house a market place!" This is a vivid scene, described here in John: he makes a whip of cords, he drives them all out of the temple (both the sheep and cattle), he pours out all the coins of the money-changers and he overturns their tables. We are given each detail. This gospel is not a "literalist" gospel - this is not one where we're given Jesus' genealogy in the beginning or a description of his birth. But we're given a full treatment of this scene so that we get a really clear picture of the "pandemonium" he's caused.

Importantly, Jesus is asked, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" And he replies that if this temple is destroyed, he will raise it again in three days. Those he's speaking with tell him this temple has been in construction for forty-six years, and ask him "Will you raise it in three days?" After his death and resurrection, the disciples recall this scene and Jesus' prediction.

What lasts, and what doesn't last? This is a brief scene, although we can simply imagine the chaos ensuing as Jesus disrupts business as usual in such an extraordinary way. This isn't the quiet unassuming Jesus we so often stereotype, this is the bold actor in righteous anger, in "zeal for his Father's house." He's challenged as to his authority, what sign can he show for doing all these things and he replies, rather tersely, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days!" But I think this vivid scene is about what is timeless and what is temporal. The emphasis here in this practice in the temple is on what we can sacrifice, what we can buy and sell, what show or sign we can make of our devotion. In an instant these things are torn away, driven out, destroyed.

But when Jesus replies that it will take three days for him to raise "this temple" again, we are no longer talking merely of a temporal event. We're not talking about a great feat of building, a challenge to erect a structure faster than the forty-six years they've already been in construction on the temple. This is the way his statement is heard, but it's not the way we understand it.

Jesus is talking about the construction of something timeless and eternal, that will stand the test of time, that will survive destruction, eviction and all acts of temporal violence. It's something that exists beyond time, and just as he is present in our world, what he does intersects many dimensions at once.

The temple he will raise, through resurrection, is the temple we still belong to. It is the temple of the values, the words, the meanings, the faith and reflection we continue to find for ourselves. It is the temple of the Word. This is still not just a "literalist" gospel ("literalist" is my poor word for an emphasis on "just the facts"). This is spiritual literature, not merely a history textbook. We need the proper ears to hear and eyes to see what's really happening here on many levels at once. This is a gospel about spiritual truths, about what lasts and does not belong merely to the three-dimensional. Jesus says if they destroy what is temporal, he will raise up what lasts, the things moths don't eat and rust can't destroy, the Word we still ponder and through which we find meaning and ways to live our lives in love and truth, and right relationship.