Journey's Weekly Homilies
Third Sunday in Lent
March 23, 2003
Homily by Marcia
Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
John 2:13-22
Who is Jesus? Why is he important? John begins his
gospel by telling us why he thinks Jesus is important. In
John, Jesus' public ministry begins with the wedding at Cana.
This is immediately followed by today's story. Jesus chases
the merchants out of the temple. First we have a wedding,
people happy, celebrating. Then we have Jesus angry,
condemning the way the temple is being used. How do these
two stories go together? What is John trying to tell us
about Jesus? The story of the wedding at Cana is about new life.
Jesus turns water into wine. Wine is more lively and
unpredictable than water. Jesus brings new life.
The story of Jesus chasing the merchants out of the temple is
saying that Jesus is the successor to the temple. The temple
was destroyed in the year 70. John is writing his gospel in
the nineties. Jesus threw the merchants out of the temple around
the year 30. At the time when John is writing, everyone has
realized that Jesus was a great prophet. He knew the temple
was corrupt. His actions against the merchants were an
acting out of God's displeasure. It's clear that he was in
communication with God, that he knew God's will, because 40 years
after his actions God caused the Romans to destroy the temple.
Jesus is a great prophet. But Israel has had many great
prophets. No one has ever proposed before that a prophet
should take the place of the temple. Why does John's
community believe Jesus is the successor to the temple? What
was so terrible about the temple anyway?
To understand why people were so critical of temple practices
during Jesus' time, we need to remember that the religion of
Israel began with an idealistic vision of people living together
in justice. Israel
was imagined as a country of justice, peace, shalom, wholeness,
life. The Ten Commandments were a guide, a means to
achieving peace, justice, harmony between people. In the
beginning, the Israelites also had rules about forgiving debts
after seven years, and returning the land to the families that had
originally owned it after fifty years. In Jesus' time, the
peasants paid their taxes to the temple, and the money was stored
up in the temple and used to benefit rich people. When the temple
was destroyed in the year 70, after the initial shock, people
(peasants at least) probably understood why God had decided to
have it destroyed. By the time John is writing, in the
nineties, the discussion has moved from "Why was the temple
destroyed?" to "What do we do now? How do we
worship God without a temple?" John's community
believes they have the answer to this question. They believe
that the replacement for the temple is to join their community and
establish a relationship with Jesus. Jesus acts as an
intermediary between the people of the community and God.
Instead of offering sacrifices at the temple to contact God, one
now joins the community of John and prays to Jesus.
Jesus will convey people's prayers to God, so one doesn't need the
temple, or the priests, or the sacrifices. This means that
what one now needs to do to practice the religion of Israel is to
join John's community. So John is writing his gospel to
persuade people to join his community, and to instruct newcomers
in what the community believes. It took me a while to figure out
that being part of a community is an important part of being a
Christian. When I was younger, I thought the important thing
was to be good, follow the rules, and not do anything wrong.
I looked at the Ten Commandments, and I thought, "How can I
keep from breaking any of these?" I came up with an
approach. "If I avoid becoming too closely involved
with anyone, I will be less likely to break
one of the commandments." It took me a while to realize
I was missing the point, that the point of the commandments is to
help us improve our relationships with one another, not to
discourage us from having relationships.
When I started college, I took a math placement test, and I tested
into the highest level freshman math class. It was a hard
class and I wondered if I belonged in it. I felt like I
didn't understand very much, and I went to ask the teacher
questions all the time. I worked hard to try to understand
the material, because I didn't want to fail my first semester in
college. At the end of the semester, the class had a
take-home final. I didn't understand it very well, but I
worked on it for three days and finally answered all the
questions. There were 120 points possible on the test, and I
got a score of 111. It took me a while to realize I'd done
good. But when I did, I looked around and realized I didn't
have anyone to celebrate with. That's when I realized that
community mattered to me, that I cared whether I had it or not.
I had read the gospel of John. I knew that in the gospel of
John, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another as I have loved you." But I had never
really understood why that commandment was so important until I
looked around for someone to rejoice with, and couldn't find
anyone. That experience taught me that there were other
things that were important besides math, and ever since I've been
trying to figure out how community happens.
This church, our church, The Journey Will Name Us, has also seemed
to be searching for community. I've been glad to travel
along. The community of John had found something, something they
were
excited about. Their community gave life to all of them.
They wanted to share that life with everyone. They wanted to
persuade everyone to join their community. The community of
John has vanished into the mists of time. We're not even
completely sure where Cana was. But they've left us their
book, the gospel of John. If we read it carefully, perhaps
we can discover how to create life giving community as well.