Take these things away!

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.   And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

 

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

 

- John 2:13–22 

 

Yesterday we read about the sixth and seventh days of the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry given to us in John's Gospel:   There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.   And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  In the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) this event occurs at the end of Christ's ministry, at the start of what we call Holy Week.  But John places it at the beginning.  There are certain Church Fathers who teach that Christ performed this act twice.  Those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves traded in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins, my study Bible explains, bore the image of Caesar and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible adds that the cleansing of the temple also points to the need to keep the Church free from earthly pursuits.  Moreover, as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), so it's also a sign that our own hearts and minds be cleansed of earthly matters.  The disciples recall a passage from Psalm 69:9.

 

 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  Because Jesus is not a Levitical priest, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged by the religious authorities.  The term Jews in John's Gospel is most often a reference specifically to the Jewish leaders.  Here, it's a reference to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  As Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, my study Bible remarks, He answers in a hidden way.  The ultimate sign will be Christ's death and Resurrection. 

 

 My study Bible cites St. Paul, who teaches that each of us is a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  In that respect, Jesus' example of cleansing the temple serves as a reminder that our journey as Christians is not one merely of nice and beautiful things added to us, but it is also a call for us to be discerning, and even to put down boundaries toward things that take away or diminish this understanding of ourselves which Jesus gives, together with St. Paul.  Christ's action here is decisive.  While it's done in accordance with His identity as Messiah, the application of such decisive action also belongs to us in our own private lives.  It is in the nature of sin to be something that has effects that spread beyond the single person responsible, or the one separate act of sinning.  In Christ, of course, we have repentance and forgiveness, and we are blessed with grace through our baptism.  But the effects of sin nevertheless are always things we need to consider.  Perhaps the most stark example of such is the example of a parent who commits a serious crime, and goes to prison.  While the crime can be forgiven in the context of repentance and forgiveness in the Church, and the person may pay the adjudicated debt to society, nevertheless the effects of the sin persist on those who are affected in relationship and proximity.  Children pay a price for a parent who is in prison, or for violence encountered within the family, even for the social stigma that may be attached -- real or imagined by the child.  This is but one small example of how sin is not a private affair, but is rather like the effects of a rock cast into a pool.  The ripples continue and affect the whole pool.  The same can be said for something unclean or poisonous cast into that pool.  In this sense, we should think of what we decide we want to "cleanse" from our lives as that which we neither want to cast into the pool around us or perhaps want to distance ourselves from for protection of ourselves and others.  Gossip is one such thing we could consider under these circumstances.  The effects of malicious gossip can range from harmless if ignored to exceptionally tragic when they take their toll.  But either way, we don't want that to spread into our "pool," neither to us nor to others around us.  Perhaps we don't want to spend so much time around people who constantly bring this into our lives.  Especially as it is now Lent, let us consider giving up those things which pollute our own temples, and give them up in exchange for things we can think of doing that add beauty to our "pool" instead.  Rather than using time to spread a rumor or story we don't know is even true, why not take that same time instead to pick up a book on an uplifting subject, to plant some flowers, to walk in a park, to say a prayer?  There are all kinds of ways we can think of beautifying our lives in a spiritual sense, and so let us do so.  Equally important is to rid ourselves and our environment of the things which pollute and poison, for sin has such effects, whether we see them or not.