Third Sunday of Lent: Dom Brendan

“And making a whip of cords Jesus drove them all out of the temple.”
This vivid story has captured the imagination of artists throughout the centuries. Giotto painted it on the wall of the Scrovengi Chapel in Pauda, El Greco painted it, so did Gustave Dore, Giordano liked the theme so much he painted it twice from two different perspectives; Rembrandt painted it too. Each of these paintings gives different interpretations of the event but in all of them one thing remains the same: Christ is always pictured with a whip in his hand flailing away at a terrorized throng of vendors.

But it was Rembrandt who painted the most violent version. The Lord Jesus is pictured holds the whip in his right hand. The man next to him is clutching a money bag trying desperately to grab the loose change on the counter top. One man is turned away from Christ, caught in mid flight while another glances over his right shoulder with panic and fear written on his face.

But it is the face of Christ himself that the viewer ultimately comes to focus on: there is fierce anger in his eyes and his jaw is set with grim determination. I once saw a similar look in my father’s face when he came home from work one day and found that my younger brother had shellacked the windows of the house with varnish he found in the basement.
So we should probably begin by admitting that the Gospel does not show the Lord Jesus Christ in an especially flattering light. This is not the “Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like unto thine” that all of us fervently hope and believe he is. This is the God you were more likely to encounter at a Redemptorist Mission in the 50’s or the Puritan God of Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon “sinners in the hands of an angry God”.

It would be tempting to ignore the cleansing of the temple except for three facts: first, every one of the Gospels records it, second it is used against Jesus at his trial as evidence leading to his conviction and execution on Good Friday, and third, it occupies center place in the Church’s liturgy for the Third Sunday of Lent. And we should probably be asking ourselves why?

The answer begins with the reading from the Book of Exodus on the Ten Commandments. In effect, the first reading is a lens that helps us focus and understand the uncharacteristic behavior of Jesus in the temple.

The Ten Commandments: if you have not read the book you’re probably familiar with the movie. You may also know that the “the ten words” as the Jews call it, are at the center of the culture wars in this country being fought in the courthouses and schools. And that is because we are talking about 10 commandments and not 10 suggestions or 10 alternate behavior choices.

The joke goes that Moses comes down the mountain and says to the people “I have good news and bad news. The good news is I got him down to ten, the bad news is that the one about adultery stays.”

Humor aside, the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai is the high point of the Book of Exodus. It is the moment when the God of Israel reveals himself to Israel. There is that beautiful line from the Prophet Baruch that we hear in the readings from the Vigil of Easter: “Blessed are we O Israel, for we know what pleases our God.” But this knowledge, which is denied the pagans, is a two edged sword because if Israel knows what pleases God they also know what displeases him. So this knowledge is not about mastering facts and manipulating information it the knowledge to do what is right and just. This is what pleases our God.
But when Moses comes down from the mountain to deliver the tablets of the law to the people what does he find? the assembly of Israel worshiping a golden calf, breaking the very commandments Moses has just received. In a fit of blazing anger Moses smashes the tablets on the ground.

Here we arrive at the point on which the Gospel turns. Moses’ righteous anger is provoked by the sin of idolatry, the Lord Jesus’ righteous anger is provoked by something equally sinister. Or to put it in the terms supplied for us by the Evangelist himself: zeal for the Temple consumes Jesus just as zeal for the Torah consumes Moses.

The temple was the holiest site in Israel, the visible sign of God’s presence. But it would be a mistake to think of it as a quiet place of personal prayer and worship. Josephus, the Jewish historian, scathingly refers to the temple as the “bazaar of Annas”. Annas was the high priest whose son-in-law Caiaphas turned Jesus over to Pilot.

Josephus’ comments refer to the fact that the High Priest controlled the monopoly on the stalls for merchants selling animals for sacrifice that were set up in the Court of the Gentiles, the huge portico on the north side of the temple. He also received rent and a portion of the profits from the money changers booths located there as well because every Jew was expected to pay a yearly tax to the temple. The amount as laid down in the Book of Exodus amounted to a half a shekel in pure silver which, in 1st Century Palestine, was the equivalent of two days wages.

But Roman coins contained the image of the emperor; it was unthinkable to use them as the temple tax, neither could they be used to purchase animals for sacrifice so they had to be exchanged for kosher Jewish coins. According to Josephus the profits in these transactions were huge because the money changers shamelessly took advantage of the pilgrims who came from the countryside and foreign countries. Annas and his family were there of course to receive a portion of these funds as well.

This means that the holiest place in Israel was probably a chaotic scene with crowds jostling, merchants haggling with pilgrims, vendors selling animals to be sacrificed, and the animals themselves bellowing and fowling the pavement. The spiritual center of Israel ends up as the biggest racket in town. And it is into this scene of chaos that Jesus bursts with a whip in his hand.

At this point we come to a homelitic crossroads. We could pursue any number of themes suggested by the liturgy but I’m assuming that one of your Lenten penances is not spending all day in Church.

What can we take away from these readings to nourish our hearts over the coming week? Lent is the season when the Catechumens prepare more intensely for the Sacrament of Baptism and the baptized rediscover for themselves the true meaning of discipleship. The pace of modern life and with its endless demands and distractions means that we tend to forget that as baptized believers we ourselves are temples of the living God. The day that water was poured over our heads and the Trinity invoked in the ancient formula our bodies became the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit: our hearts became the holy of holies. The divine presence is a heart beat away and yet we are often unaware or numb to it. Or worse, we have pushed God aside and have enthroned ourselves at the center of our own existence. Moreover we defile this temple by the way we live, the things we allow ourselves see, the thoughts we will to think, the words we say or leave unsaid and the actions we do or leave undone.

We cannot go back and be re-baptized but we can allow Christ to cleanse us through the second baptism of repentance. The whole of our Lenten asceticism, prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy are meant to bring us to this realization. Christ comes, not with a whip in his hand but under the form of bread and wine into our hands. In his zeal for the Church he gives himself to us completely, body and blood, soul and divinity. Let us give ourselves to him.