Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.
Our theme today is Jesus the Temple.
And, in our gospel reading from John, when Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The people that day didn’t get it. They didn’t understand that he was talking about the temple of his body because they were all focused on business. And, it was business as usual that day when Jesus showed up at the temple. Animals were being bought and sold. Coins were being changed. All the usual people had their usual places and their usual roles.
This is one of those stories that we need to set aside a couple of distractions before we can understand what is happening. We need to set aside what we have been told or thought this story is about so we can hear it again, maybe for the first time.
I don’t think this story is simply about Jesus getting angry. Jesus got angry. I get angry. It’s ok to get angry. But that misses the point. There’s more to this story than that. And I don’t think it’s about the animals or the moneychangers being in the temple. Jesus surely had to have known they were there. He grew up as a faithful Jew going to the temple. He didn’t show up this day and say, “Wow! There are animals and moneychangers here. I didn’t know this was going on. This is wrong.” The animals and moneychangers had always been there. That’s how the system worked. It was business as usual for them to be there.
I think Jesus went to the temple that day for one purpose; to throw out and overturn the business as usual stuff. There are times when we need the tables of our life overturned and the animals thrown out. A good clean out! It’s just so easy to fall into the trap of business as usual.
You know what I mean? Life becomes mechanical? You just go through the motions. You show up but you’re not really there. Different day, same stuff! That’s business as usual. Maybe you woke up in the morning and you are as exhausted as you were when you went to bed the night before. That’s business as usual. Have you ever felt like you weren’t yourself? Nothing seemed right? Boredom has set in and there’s no creativity. There was no enthusiasm, wonder, or imagination. It was just the usual stuff. Sometimes we look at life and the world and it all seems like a waste of time. We’re busy but not really getting anywhere. There’s no depth or meaning in our lives, only business as usual. Business as usual can happen anywhere: in relationships, friendships, parenting, work, even in the church.
However, the things I just outlined are not the problem. They are the symptom in the same way that the animals and moneychangers in the temple are not the problem. They are the symptoms of something deeper going on. The problem is not so much in the temple as it is in the ‘human heart’.
That deeper issue is, what gives rise to business as usual. Sometimes it’s about our fear. We’re fearful about what is happening in our life or the uncertainty of the future and we want some type of security and predictability so we can keep on doing the same old things. Business as usual is predictable and steady but it creates only an illusion of security. Sometimes business as usual is a symptom of our grief and sorrow. Something has been lost. We can’t get back the life we want so we cling to business as usual because it’s familiar and we want some stability.
Other times we are so busy and worn out making a living that life turns into one task after another, one appointment after another, a never ending to do list, and it’s business as usual. Maybe we’ve taken people, relationship, and things for granted. Maybe we’ve lost our sense of gratitude, wonder, or mystery.
I don’t say any of that as a criticism or judgment of you, me, or anyone else. I’m just naming what often happens to us. What has business as usual looked like in your life? In what ways is it business as usual for you today? There are thousands of reasons and ways in which we fall into this trap of business as usual.
But there’s one thing that I keep coming back to. Forgetfulness. Business as usual is born of forgetfulness. We forget that we really are the temple of God’s presence. We forget that all of creation is the residence of God. We forget that in whatever direction we might turn, there is the face of God gazing upon us. And as soon as we forget those things about ourselves, each other, or the world, life becomes business as usual.
I think that’s what happened in the temple. They didn’t see themselves or one another as the true temple of God. It was all about the human built temple, the animals, and the money. They had forgotten that God was more interested in them than in their festivals and that God wanted them more than their offerings.
When we forget that we are the temple of God, life can easily become a series of transactions. Relationships and intimacy are lost. Priorities get rearranged. Making a living replaces living a life. Life becomes a marketplace rather than a place for meeting the holy, the tapu, in ourselves and one another. And it’s business as usual.
That’s what Jesus is overturning and driving out of the temple. In the gospel according to St. John this happens at the very beginning of Jesus ministry. The Word became flesh (John 1:14), water became wine (John 2:9), and now the temple is becoming human. And it doesn’t stop here. Throughout the rest of the gospel Jesus will be interrupting business as usual.
Remember the Samaritan women at the well (John 4:4-26)? She’s had five husbands and she’s living with a man who is not her husband. Despite what we have done to her, that’s not a statement about her. It’s another manifestation of business as usual. Her first husband died, divorced her, or ran off. Who knows? What we do know is that is was improper and dangerous to be women without a man. Business as usual meant she had to belong to a man. So there was a second man, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth. Jesus meets this women at the well and interrupts business as usual. It’s not about the man or men in her life. It’s about her. Jesus recognizes her as the temple of God. The temple is neither on this Samaritan mountain nor in Jerusalem. She is now the well of living water.
And then there’s Lazarus (John 11:1-44). He’s been dead three days already. Martha knows that death is present. Jesus tells her it will no longer be business as usual. “Take away the stone,” he says. Death will not have the final word. “Lazarus, come out.”
And let’s not forget the five thousand people that show up empty and hungry (John 6:1-13). Philip is sure there’s not enough food. There’s no way to feed the people. Empty and hungry people are business as usual. But Jesus has other plans. Two fish and five loaves are more than enough. Everyone was satisfied and twelve baskets were filled with leftovers. It wasn’t business as usual for the empty and hungry.
Over and over again, Jesus is interrupting, disrupting, overturning, and throwing out business as usual. Business as usual is destructive of our lives and relationships. It destroys our ability see and participate in the holy that is already present in and among us.
The Word became flesh so that the temple might become human. Jesus continues to overturn and throw out business as usual because the truth is, there are still women waiting at the well in our world today. Empty and hungry people are still a reality in our world and there are dead people waiting to be resurrected.
Maybe for you, today isn’t about other people. Maybe you are the women at the well. Maybe you are empty and hungry today. Maybe you need to be called to life. Maybe business as usual needs to be interrupted in your life.
Regardless of who we are, what we’ve done or left undone, or how we see or judge our life, we are the temple of God and there is one who stands in the temple of our life interrupting business as usual.
So tell me this. What does the temple of your life need today? What tables in your life need to be overturned? What animals need to be driven out of you and your whanau?
I’m not asking about what needs to happen so that you can become holy or become the temple, but so you can see that you already are the temple and claim what is already yours. Jesus doesn’t make us into something we were not. He calls us back to who we’ve always been.
Jesus was speaking of the temple of our body. Amen
Archdeacon Kaio Karipa
Photos: 7th March 2021