Br. David Vryhof

1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59

We have today two stories, both of which involve the cleansing of the Temple. Our first lesson from the book of Maccabees records the actions taken by Judas Maccabeus following the desecration of the Temple by the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Having conquered Antiochus’ army, Judas Maccabeus set about cleansing and purifying the Temple, replacing its defiled altar and furniture, and rededicating it to the worship of the God of Israel. In this case, the defilement of the sacred space was the direct result of outside forces attempting to suppress the religion of the Jews.

The second story, taken from Luke’s gospel, addresses defilement of the Temple from within, from the Jews themselves. Jesus cleanses and purifies the Temple by casting out the moneychangers and declaring plainly, “‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Biblical scholar Fred Craddock notes that among New Testament writers Luke is the only one who presents a positive view of the Temple. His gospel begins with Zechariah in the Temple and ends with the disciples in the Temple. He opens his second book, The Acts of the Apostles, with Christians attending the Temple services every day, and presents Paul (who is often portrayed as a rebel) praying in the Temple and there receiving a revelation that he should preach to the Gentiles.[1]

Luke’s account of the cleansing of the Temple is shorter than the other gospel accounts and does not imply that what Jesus did signaled the end of the Temple and its services. In Luke, Jesus is purifying the Temple, not destroying or replacing it, in order that it might be a place for his own ministry and that of his followers. It is not the system itself that is attacked by Jesus, but the excesses in the system that were interfering with true worship.

Luke doesn’t name what those excesses were. Jesus’ actions against the moneychangers could have been directed at the corruption of exchanging Roman coins for sanctioned Jewish coins. Or he could have been targeting the exorbitant prices being charged for the birds and animals offered in the Temple sacrifices. In either case, pilgrims to Jerusalem were an easy mark for the greedy. Pilgrims, many of them peasants, were not in a position to dispute unfair practices. Jesus reminds his hearers that the Temple’s chief purpose is to be a house of prayer for all people.

Jesus’ criticism of an institution dedicated to the worship of God is remarkable – and that prompts us to ask, What happened to the Temple? How did these excesses creep in?

It is not hard to imagine how, over time, the Temple became corrupt. Religious institutions are corrupted, Craddock suggests, when people give their leaders “more authority than they have the character to handle.”[2] When servants become officials, when ministers become religious authorities, their self-interest tends toward preservation of the institution (and of their status) rather than responsiveness to God.

This is a challenging word for any religious institution. In the Rule of our Society, we remind ourselves that “In John’s gospel the community of disciples is portrayed as a circle of Christ’s friends. . . . In this portrait we recognize an implicit critique of the tendency for communities to harden into institutions, and for officialdom to replace the spontaneity of mutual service.”[3]

We might ask if these distortions of purpose characterize our own churches and religious communities. What are we about? What should we be about? What faults might we be covering up by our acceptance of the status quo?

Or we might ask if we have lost sight of the overarching purpose of our own lives. If we recognize how comfortable we’ve become with our own status quo, we might ask ourselves how we might contribute to our own renewal and sanctification. What in my life has become corrupted and needs to be changed or discarded? How can I recapture my highest ideals and my most sacred intentions? How can I open myself to what God is asking of me now?

The upcoming season of Advent seems an appropriate time for such self-assessment, for renewal and rededication. What would “renewal and rededication” look like in your life or in the life of your community?

[1] F. B. Craddock, Luke, Interpretation Commentary (Louisville, 1990), 229.

[2] Ibid., 230.

[3] The Rule of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, 11.