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The Turning of the Tables
Ann Bendall
The popular image of Jesus, as our ideal of perfection, is as a meek and gentle person. He refused to defend himself physically and verbally, he never corrected another person's opinion of himself, he was the epitome of selflessness. But in this model of meekness, tolerance, and forbearance, there was also righteousness and intolerance of hypocrisy--exemplified by his extraordinary act on the Monday before he was crucified when he cleared the temple of secular traders (an act he had vowed to carry out 20 years earlier). (1384)
On his first visit to the temple at Jerusalem at the age of 13, Jesus took immediate offence to the trade and barter being undertaken in this place of worship to his Father. "Everywhere Jesus went throughout the temple courts, he was shocked and sickened by the irreverence which he observed. He deemed the conduct of the temple throngs to be inconsistent with their presence in 'his Father's house.' But he received the shock of his young life when his father escorted him into the court of the gentiles with its noisy jargon, loud talking and cursing, mingled indiscriminately with the bleating of sheep and the babble of noises which betrayed the presence of the moneychangers and vendors of sacrificial animals and sundry other commercial commodities." (1378)
A few days later in his questioning the scribes and Pharisees, his dissatisfaction was obvious in his asking such questions as: "If God is a Father who loves his children, why all this slaughter of animals to gain divine favor--has the teaching of Moses been misunderstood?" and "Since the temple is dedicated to the worship of the Father in heaven, is it consistent to permit the presence of those who engage in barter and trade?" (1382)
His resentment grew over the years, and as his "pity and love for the Jewish people deepened, with the passing years there developed in his mind a growing righteous resentment of the presence in the temple of politically appointed priests." (1386)
By the age of twenty he had developed "a strange and increasing aversion to this Herod-built temple with its politically appointed priesthood" and "he was not alone in resenting this profanation of the temple, the common people, especially the Jewish visitors from foreign provinces, also heartedly resented this profiteering desecration of their national house of worship. At the same time, the Sanhedrin held its regular meetings in a chamber surrounded by this babble and confusion of trade and barter." (1889)
And the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of that time, plus the value placed upon the personal profits earned from this trade, is reflected in the fact that the former high priest, Annas' enmity towards Jesus was far more aroused by Jesus' driving of the money changers and other commercial traders from the temple than by Jesus' teachings. (1979)
In describing what Jesus wished to portray in his surprising act of "cleansing the temple," The Urantia Book states that "this cleansing of the temple discloses the Master's attitude towards commercializing the practices of religion as well as his detestation of all forms of unfairness and profiteering at the expense of the poor and the unlearned. This episode also demonstrates that Jesus did not look with approval upon the refusal to employ force to protect the majority of any given human group against the unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or ecclesiastical power. Shrewd, wicked, and designing men are not to be permitted to organize themselves for the exploitation and oppression of those who, because of their idealism, are not disposed to resort to force for self protection or for the furtherance of their laudable life projects. (1890/91)
I find it interesting that most of this explanation of Jesus' attitude is in the present tense, indicative that the "cleansing of the temple, rather than being an episode of history, is similar to the washing of the apostles feet--an ongoing exhortation in action parable form utilized by Jesus to demonstrate a spiritual attitude to social interaction on material worlds.
The "washing of the feet" action parable was to demonstrate what Jesus meant by, "love one another as I have loved you," and "he who would be great among you, let him become as the younger; while he who would be chief let him become as he who serves." In the "cleansing of the temple" action parable Jesus effectively approves of the utilization of force "to protect the majority of any given human group against the unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or ecclesiastical power."
"Tell my children that I am not only tender of their feelings and patient with their frailties, but that I am also ruthless with sin and intolerant of iniquity. I am indeed meek and humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and sinful rebellion against the will of my Father in heaven." (1766)
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