In our Gospel today we are told about the event in which Jesus ejected the money changers and the traders from the temple (see John 2:13-25). According to the passage, he was offended because they had made that holy place into “a marketplace.”
It’s interesting to note that in John’s Gospel this event is placed at the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, while similar accounts found in Matthew, Mark and Luke place it at the end of his ministry and just before his passion and death. In any event, what might we learn from this story?
While some may choose to reflect upon the deeper theological symbolism of the story which clearly points to Jesus’ own death and resurrection, a simpler interpretation might give us insight into the manner in which Jesus teaches us about having respect for the poor and the neediest among us.
As we reflect upon this Gospel account, we could ask “is it wrong to sell items, such as religious articles, raffle tickets, baked goods, candles, etc., inside of a church?” If done with integrity, I don’t believe these types of activities and “exchanges of money” would be anything at all like what was going on in the Jerusalem temple. I truly don’t believe Jesus would have been offended if he had arrived in our church today and had found that some members of a faithful parish organization had set up a table in order to sell cupcakes for a fund raiser!
The anger displayed by Jesus in the temple was actually directed toward those who had blatantly taken advantage of poor and needy people; his anger was compounded by the fact that they had used the sacred temple area, the house of God, in order to feed their greed and malice.
In those days many people had to come from very far distances and had to endure difficult journeys in order to make those pilgrimages to Jerusalem and to the temple. When they arrived, they would have needed to purchase provisions for their visit. For example, they may have needed to change their money and then they had to buy sacrificial offerings that were ordinarily given to the priests of the temple. With the approval of the religious leaders, the money changers and the traders, all of whom had colluded together, had been charging extremely high prices for those services and those items. They controlled trade in the temple and had great advantages over the faithful who visited that place. This angered Jesus because he knew that they had been acting with great selfishness, and with avarice, and therefore had not respected those poor and needy people who had come from so far with only the desire to serve and to offer worship to God. From this perspective it is easy to understand why Jesus was so angered by their behaviors.
And so the simple lesson for us, as we reflect on this Gospel, is that if we take advantage of people who are poor and needy, and we care only for our own interests (whether we are inside a temple or church, or not), then we might be just exactly like those religious leaders, those money changers, and those traders who are featured in today’s Gospel! If so, then there can be no doubt that Jesus would be equally angered by our actions as well, and we would too have to suffer the punishment given to those who do such things and who bring great offense to our God. Therefore my friends, let’s follow the example of Jesus and always respect others, especially those who are poor and/or marginalized, and those who are most in need. Amen!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
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