Black Monday they called it. October 19th, 1987. For people involved in the financial world it was a day to remember.
US Secretary of the Treasury James Baker announced worse-than-expected US trade figures which prompted a worldwide stock
market collapse. A fall of 508 points in the Dow Jones industrial average dropped the value of securities by more than half
a million dollars. Over in London the total paper loss at the Stock Exchange was 94 billion (That's around 150 billion US dollars).
Back in the time of Jesus there was a big business in Jerusalem that was about to experience a collapse. It was
called the Temple. The place where the deals were taking place was the Gentiles
Court. The temple complex was a lofty institution that covered
some thirty acres. Its inner sanctuary was the Holy place where only the High
Priest could enter on special occasions.
Beyond that were a number of courts to which
access was granted according to status: The Temple court, then the Court of the
Priests, then the Court of the Israelites, then the Court of the Women, and then finally, the largest area, the Court of the
Gentiles.
Everybody was allowed to enter the Court of the Gentiles.
It was designed to be a place of prayer and preparation for all people. A
place where those denied access to other areas of the temple could seek and find God; A place where those who had the privilege
of entering deeper into the temple could prepare their hearts for worship.
Important for worship in those days was paying the temple tax.
The temple tax was equivalent to about two day’s wages, and every Jew was expected to pay it. You couldn't pay
your temple tax in any old currency. It had to be paid in Sanctuary Shekels. At Passover time Jews from all over the world, with Greek, Roman, Syrian, Egyptian,
and Phoenician coins jangling in their pockets, made their way to the Gentiles Court.
Before they could pay their taxes, money had to be exchanged. So, the money-changers set up their stalls in the Court. To change your coins into sanctuary shekels, a
fee equivalent to half a day’s wages would be charged. If you didn't have the exact coinage, then you'd be charged another
half a day’s wages. There were various other rates and schemes that all
involved money flowing into the money-changers’ pockets. And this was before
you'd paid a penny of your tax.
Along with temple taxes, worshippers would also bring an offering. This could be an ox, a sheep, or
if you were a poorer family, a dove. You could buy a dove down at the Jerusalem market quite cheaply. However, there was a law about temple sacrifices which said that a sacrificial victim had to be without
blemish. In the Gentiles
Court there were appointed temple inspectors to examine the
offerings and see if they came up to the grade. The strange thing was that none
from the market ever did.
So they advised worshippers to buy their sacrificial animals from the selection they had in the Gentiles Court. The difference was that an animal purchased there could cost as much as twenty times more than one purchased
down at the market.
Reminds me of the story I heard about two preachers talking. The one was explaining how
he was seeking in three ways to be a model good shepherd to his flock of parishioners. “What do you mean?” asked
the other.
“Well” he explained, “First, when we get new people coming to church
I try and nurture them. Then secondly, when there’s folk in the flock who need help I care for them.
“But what’s the third thing?”
“Well,” he answered, “Once I’ve nurtured and fed them …I
fleece them!”
That day when Jesus went to the temple to pray and prepare Himself for the difficult days
that were ahead, did He find things as they should be… did he find a place of prayer for all nations? "No" he said, "It's a den of thieves." Far from being a place
of spiritual richness, it was nothing more than a market place. There was a whole lot of fleecing going on. Financially it
was doing fine. Spiritually it had collapsed.
The sellers were trying to exact as high a price as possible. The pilgrims would argue
and defend themselves with an equal fierceness. The oxen would be mooing, the sheep bleating, the doves cooing, beggars begging,
the children running wild.
And Jesus got mad. Really mad! The theologians use the words "Wrath" or "Righteousness indignation." He
overturns the money-changers’ tables, scattering the coins all over the floor. He
drives out the animals. He tells the ones selling the Doves, "Take these things
out of here. Stop making my Father’s House a marketplace."
- Nobody lifts a finger to stop Him because
everybody knew He was doing the right thing. The temple authorities knew what
was going on, but it brought in a lot of much needed revenue, some of which paid their wages, so they turned a blind eye.
- The money-changers justified their practices
because a lot of their earnings were being siphoned off by the people who had to pay for permission to put up a table in the
court.
- The temple inspectors justified their
refusal to allow offerings in the temple that hadn't been purchased there by saying they were ‘ensuring God got the
best’.
- The people went along with it because
it was easier to put up with the way things were than dare challenge those who had the power to make their lives very uncomfortable. Everybody knew it was wrong, but no one did a thing to make it right…
Except for Jesus.
He had the authority to put things right. This
was His Father's business and His Father's house that they were fooling with. In
the words of John’s gospel, “He was ‘consumed with zeal’ for
His Father’s House.”
Jesus claimed the temple as His own. He uniquely identified Himself with the temple. He said to the
Jews who questioned His authority, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," using a figure of speech
to point towards His own death and resurrection. He spoke of the temple as His
own body. He claims our lives for His own.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:16, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
This passage about Jesus cleansing the temple invites us to us consider the temple of our
own lives. Are there things about us that Jesus could justifiably be mad at? Are
there things that we need to clear out of the way as we travel down the Easter road?
What really angered Jesus that day was the cold-heartedness. Here was something beautiful that had turned ugly, something sacred that had become profane. A place of prayer and peace had become a place of pandemonium.
Why shouldn’t God be angry when we take gifts God has given us and misuse them or
waste them? The greatest gift of all God has given to us is the gift of life
itself. Yet many go through life divorced from any sense of its mystery or its
wonder or its sacredness. Life becomes cheap, people become numbers or objects
to be manipulated for others’ ends, and any sense of meaning or purpose goes out of the window.
As Christian people we have a particular responsibility. People
look for us to model Christ-like living. "Judgment,"
Peter's first letter instructs us, "Begins with the house of the Lord." We are that house, we are that people. “You are a temple of God,” says Paul.
But what sort of temple? The season of Lent
is a time when we are called to examine our hearts in the light of God's love. And that takes time. It means taking ‘time-out’ of the normal routine to do so.
Did you know that one of the days when no trading takes place, one of the few weekdays
that the New York Stock Exchange closes, is Good Friday? If you go to the Visitor’s
Center at the Stock Exchange and ask ‘Why’, they will tell you that since 1864 the Exchange has closed its doors
on Good Friday for religious reasons.
If the guide is a Christian he may even add that they are closed on Good Friday because
it was the day when a man, who once threw money changers out of a temple, was crucified.
That impressed me. That in New York, the place some call the most ‘happening’ city in the world and the
financial core of the Big Apple, they take a ‘time-out’ on Good Friday.
We know that the state of the money market affects the way we live our lives. Back on Black Monday in 1987 when the market collapsed, it touched a lot of folks’ lives in a very
negative way. We know that.
What we forget is that life isn’t about wheeling and dealing and acquiring and selling.
That at the last day, whether we have 2 cents in our pocket or 2 billion dollars in platinum reserves such can’t offer
us a single ounce of hope for eternity.
‘Clear the Way!’ Anything in your life that you think that Jesus could justifiably
be mad at is something you need to talk to God about and walk through with God. One of the works of the Holy Spirit in our
lives is to bring conviction, to bring to our minds and consciences things that are getting in the way of our walk with God.
As we realize that there are blockages there, we should pray to God to ‘Clear the Way!’
One of the biggest killers in medical terms is blockages. Blocked arteries starve the heart
of blood, starve the lungs of oxygen, physically prevent us from functioning, and if not dealt with what happens? We die! Physical blockages cause death. Spiritual blockages are equally perilous to our spiritual health.
We must seek God to clear out from our lives all that is other than what God requires for
us. To clear out from our lives all the junk, all the vain ideas, all the hopeless little schemes that may look good to our
own eyes but, in comparison to the work of God, are laughable.
Allow Jesus to do some spring cleaning. Get rid of all that stuff that God could justifiably
be mad at…all that cheapens…all that distorts…all that ends in dust and decay. Our lives are little temples
meant to be places of prayer, places where Christ is honored and God’s Word is known, places where others can find God,
and places that shine light into this world’s darkness.
‘Clear the Way!’ because your life, your spiritual journey, is important to
God. God has a plan, a plan to bless others through our lives. For that to happen we must subject our lives to the scrutiny
and authority of God, whom we find in Jesus Christ, and to the authority of God’s Word so as to nurture ourselves in
worship and through service.
As I read about Jesus clearing the Temple, I am challenged to seek God to “Clear the Way!” for His love to be shown in clearer
ways in my own life. I pray that as you consider areas of your life that could
justifiably attract God’s anger rather than God’s praise, you will likewise be challenged to ‘Clear the
Way’ for a deeper relationship with our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
To His name be the glory.
Amen.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
