Cleansing the Temple
2018년 3월 4일In todayʼs first reading, we hear the longer version of the Ten Commandments. God identifies himself as “the one
who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” In fact, the Bible describes God like this no
less than 87 times. In other words, our God is a liberating God, who sets us free from slavery to sin, to bad habits,
and above all to everything that keeps us from living full lives.
The first Commandment, then, forbids us from believing in, worshipping, or following any god but the one, true
God. Idolatry is the most serious of sins. A statue of Buddha, or Ganesh, or Osiris is just that: a statue. Some
Protestants say we Catholics practice idolatry because of all the statues we have of the saints, of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, or even of the Sacred Heart. But we must not make the mistake of thinking an idol is merely a statue
of some deity or saint. Anything that occupies a place in our hearts, in our minds or in our lives that by rights
belongs to God alone, that is an idol.
Most idols are more insidious. Political power, prestige, fame, wealth, even nationalism can be an idol if we let
them determine how we treat others. Which brings us to todayʼs gospel. Jesus cleanses the Temple. It is the only
account of Jesus being violent, at least against property. And this incident is mentioned in all four gospels. Why
was Jesus so angry?
The Temple required animal sacrifice to make up for sins. Doves, sheep, oxen, grain and oil had to be sold so they
could be offered. The Sadducees set up their market inside the Temple area known as the Courtyard of the
Gentiles. This was the only place within the Temple precincts where non-Jews could approach the God of Israel
to pray or to ask pardon for their sins. In addition, many merchants were cheating people when they exchanged
money for Temple currencies, or else they used crooked scales. All this was too much for Jesus. Filled with
righteous indignation, he “made a whip of cords”, drove out the animals (thus saving them from slaughter!), and
overturned the money changersʼ tables. He exposed the Sadducees for the idolaters they were. They worshipped
money.
The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke claim it was precisely for this act of cleansing the Temple that the
religious leaders decided to put Jesus to death. Put another way, Jesus thought idolatry was so serious that he
was willing to risk death to get rid of it. And so the challenge to us is: are we willing to cleanse the temple of our
hearts of all the idols we have set up there? What determines our words, actions and relationships? Popularity?
Success? A job? Drugs? If these prevent us from living honest, full, loving lives, then they are idols. Let us invite
Jesus into our hearts to cleanse them of our idols and help us follow the one, true God who sets us free.