Do you employ a “market mentality” or a “relational mentality”?
What does this mean?
Put simply, a market mentality sees things in terms of transactions and commodities, resources, and dispensability. A relational mentality however sees things in terms of developing partnerships, relationships, long-term collaborations that benefit both parties and share a vision. The former can easily fluctuate. The latter, however, requires time and effort to develop and cultivates trust, loyalty, and commitment over time.
Now I want to tell you something important about Christianity. Christianity is a “relational faith.” While many other religions see gods and worship as a transactional activity, ie. you give something, you get something, Christianity is based in deep and intimate relationship with one God within a covenant relationship. Jesus himself did not tell us to follow rules and regulations but to “follow him!”
Christianity is a relational faith.
When you understand that, you begin to understand Jesus’ mission and ministry, God’s mission and ministry. Today’s scripture is a surprising one for us. Jesus, usually calm and peaceful, violently turns the tables on the Pharisees within the Temple. What happened! To understand this encounter, we have to understand God’s “economy.”
As Jesus embarks on his ministry, he wastes no time in taking on the religious elite.[1] As time goes on, his accusations and insights begin to take on more and more urgency. His words become laser sharp and searingly pungent. Jesus does not try to mince words, but he tells it exactly the way it is. He knows that this is his best chance to try to get through to those hardest to reach: his colleagues and the Temple authorities. But nothing in scripture compares with the reaction Jesus has when he arrives at the Jerusalem Temple for Passover in the first months of his ministry journey. What happens next tells us something very important about Jesus’ mission, who it includes, and what he intends to do about it.
While Jesus always aims razor sharp scriptural arrows at Jerusalem’s arrogant elite, in today’s scripture, to make his point, he uses even stronger, more insistent language and follows this up with brash, dramatic, attention-drawing action. Today, we see one of his most powerful messages acted out. But are we really noticing what’s going on in this interaction? What is he doing? And what does it mean?
At first glance, we see Jesus objecting to the barter of goods in the court of the Temple. But why? At Passover, all Jewish families are required to purchase a sacrifice for the Temple ritual. We know in fact that Jesus himself came as a good Jew to take part like everyone else in the Passover celebrations. So, what’s really going on?
Well, it definitely has to do with “economy” but not the kind we might think.
Let me show you something. Let’s take a look for a moment at the Jerusalem Temple.
The Jerusalem Temple was made up of various halls, courtyards, and rooms. Each of these were designated for use for certain populations. Only priests for example could enter the Holy of Holies. The Court of Israel was a popular hangout for the Pharisees and Scribes. The Women’s Court, in which the treasury was housed, was a busy place, as was Solomon’s Porch, where many would gather. Jesus taught within all of the spaces of the Temple at one time or another, reaching various populations. He taught in the Porticos near the Pool of Bethesda, Solomon’s Porch, the Court of Israel, the Women’s Court, and we know he also taught in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place where gentiles were allowed to worship and gather.[3] Gentiles were not allowed in the Temple except for in that particular area.So here, Jesus would teach them as well in a well-observed and criticized practice of total inclusion. Jesus, like God, is about total inclusion. Total inclusion is part of “God’s economy.”
The Jewish people had for as long as anyone could remember been a “light to the peoples of the world” representing YHWH among all cultures. They encouraged gentiles to worship YHWH and to take part in Jewish rituals, to marry into the faith, and to make sacrifices in the Temple. The “law” did not discriminate but encouraged foreigners to worship the God of the Hebrews. In this way, Israel was truly a “light to the world” for God.In Numbers 15:14-15, Moses stipulated that there should be no exclusion of gentiles from practicing the faith:“For the generations to come, whenever a foreigner or anyone else living among you presents a food offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, they must do exactly as you do. The community is to have the same rules for you and for the foreigner residing among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” This however changed in the time of Jesus with the rise of a stricter, more conservative, legalistic, purity-centered Pharisaic school, who sought to exclude gentiles from the faith entirely. The Pharisees and Temple officials found any reason they could, many underhanded, to exclude all foreigners and proselytes from the Jewish faith, Jewish people, and the Temple mount. New rules stipulated that you could not marry a gentile and offer your sacrifice in the Temple, gentiles were to be avoided and disdained (including Samaritans), and within the Temple area, gentiles (those who converted, as well as any foreigner, who wanted to participate in the Jewish faith) were confined to the “Court of the Gentiles.” But the exclusion didn’t end there. It became worse.
Guess where the marketplace was set up?
You got that right. In the Court of the Gentiles, so that no room at all was left for any gentile or proselyte to worship, pray, participate, or take part in Temple activities or Jewish faith. They were shoved out. Purposely shoved out.
Jesus’ anger is not merely because the Pharisees have made an area of the Temple “market transactional,” but his anger is at the officials who view their relationships with foreigners and those new to the faith as “market transactional,” who view and objectify others as incidental, unvaluable commodities to be displaced at will.
The scriptural passages as we near Jesus’ death are deeply entrenched with meaning and depth, and this one in particular is heavy with scripture. Jesus’ words call upon numerous passages from the Hebrew scripture, as well as references to works that would suggest a hugely more comprehensive meaning to his actions. These kinds of passages offer us more insight into Jesus’ frame of mind during this encounter.
Listen to some of the phrases Jesus uses.
John quotes Jesus as saying, “Stop making my Father’s “house” a marketplace!” (a house of commodity/commerce/transaction).[4] Although John notes Jesus’ anger toward the beginning of his gospel, he also includes a phrase that would better place it at the end of Jesus’ ministry, jiving with the other three gospel writers: “For zeal for your house has consumed me.” Taken from Psalm 69:9, the psalm is a lament to God, realizing that his time on earth is limited and that he knows that those he is taking on will come for him soon.
Luke, Matthew, and Mark include a slightly different version, adding: “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be a house of prayer’ but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Luke 19:46; Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17), referencing Jeremiah 7:11. If you read the entirety of that passage in Jeremiah, you see that this is no solitary phrase but part of a long defense and protection by God of foreigners who wish to worship YHWH and a firm rebuke to those who would prevent them, calling them thieves or robbers!
I like to say that Jesus never speaks within scripture without paraphrasing or quoting a passage from the Hebrew texts. His words and actions both in our scripture today lie deeply entrenched in what we might call God’s “gentile” mission –God’s desire to love, honor, and protect all created people.In fact, the very meaning of “house” in all of these scriptures drives this home: “My ‘house’ will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples (tribes)” (Isaiah 56:7).The word bayit or bet means both “tribes/people/household” as well as a “house.” The word ha’ammin means peoples (all of them). In the Hebrew testament the word in fact refers most often to heathen populations, foreigners, and non-Israelites).[5] God’s “house” includes not just Israelites but all peoples of the world who God wishes and hopes to draw to himself.
Jesus, Son of God, seeker of “lost sheep,” takes up God’s prophetic anger at the exclusion of the gentiles from the Gentile Court, the only place designated for them in the Temple to worship and pray.
Instead, they’ve been treated like a cheap commodity, as dispensable as the goods they are peddling.
Jesus message? We are not to run our places of worship as exclusionary businesses, but as places of worship and sacred prayer, places of openness and grace for all without exclusion. We must not treat people like objects to be discarded, negotiated, or as commerce (options or expendables) but as subjects, as valued people of God.
God’s economy is different than our economy. God’s economy is one of love, openness, inclusion, and grace.
This was Jesus’ mission the entire time on earth, and it was the same passion that drove Paul in his own gentile mission. After his encounter with Jesus, Paul understood God’s love for all people, no matter who they are or from where they herald, and he demonstrated that love throughout his lifetime. To understand and follow Jesus is to embrace this important mission.
The questions then that Jesus leaves with us today are clear. And we must all ask ourselves these questions as the church of Jesus Christ:
Do we as the church of Jesus Christ engage with people only for their “market” value? Do we value only their money and numbers but not their presence? Do we help people, as long as we can keep them at a distance? Or are we committed to developing relationships with those who are not “one of us”?
Who are we excluding from God’s favor and presence? Who are we deeming unworthy of worship and prayer? These are questions we must keep on asking ourselves every single day.
Whether a Temple, synagogue, or church –these are not mere buildings for the purpose of gathering, but the true “house” of God is the gathering which in the midst dwells the presence of Christ.
You are God’s house.
And all people of God throughout your community and throughout the world make up the “house of God.”
The true “Temple” of Jesus Christ our Lord was destroyed and raised up for every person on this earth. And every person on this earth who seeks God deserves our commitment, love, depth, access, and servanthood.
Let us as a people of God cultivate God’s love for all people. For no person deserves to be a commodity or transaction but a beloved and cherished son and daughter of God.
Today, we are called to be the “house of God” within the world. May we be the “house of prayer” that God intended us to be.
[1] John’s scripture sees this happening at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, although Luke and others see it happening near the end of his ministry. The end, as he contemplates the cross and the time he has left, seems most likely, as Jesus becomes frustrated that he cannot get through to the Temple’s primary authorities in the little time remaining before his death.
[2] See thebiblejourney.org for this image.
[3] See Paul M. Elliott, “In What Areas of the Temple Did Jesus Teach,” Teaching the Word, http://www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid%3D0%26view%3Dpost%26articleid%3DIn-What-Areas-of-the-Temple-Did-Jesus-Teach%26fldKeywords%3D%26fldAuthor%3D%26fldTopic%3D0.
[4] See Strongs 1712: emporion.
[5] See https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5971.htm (Strongs 5971): am. Note also that the meaning of “house” in Hebrew means both lineage/generation/family/tribe, as well as the structural meaning of “house.” This is a play on words. God’s “house” (tribe of people/place) will be a “house” (tribe/place) for all peoples, including foreigners/gentiles. This helps to understand Jesus’ response that he, and not the building, represents the true “house” of God, which will be destroyed but raised up. Through him all peoples of the world will be saved and called back to God. See bayit / bet.