From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the Fourth Week after Pentecost
Matthew 21:12-22
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written,
“‘My house shall be called a house of prayer;’
“but you are making it a den of robbers.” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise for yourself’?”
He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”
If the leadership of Jerusalem hadn’t heard of this peripatetic teacher from Galilee, they know him now. Jesus has entered the Temple, the heart and soul of Jewish cultural, religious, and civic life, and has caused an uproar by forcefully throwing out the vendors from the Temple courtyard. These vendors would have been selling animals (doves, pigeons, sheep) to pilgrims who wish to make a sacrifice at the altar. They also, for a fee, would exchange “foreign” currency into shekels which could be given as alms. Currency with human likenesses was considered blasphemous in Israel because it displayed a “graven image.” The Temple authorities had come up with creative ways, in addition to the “Temple Tax,” to make money despite the vast majority of pilgrims being poor. Most had exhausted whatever means they had just to make the trip into Jerusalem.
This again is Jesus and his followers challenging the system, a system ruled by the elite, both Roman and Judean… a system that serves itself on the backs of those who struggle for a sustainable way of life. The Temple authorities, civic and religious, in order to protect their privilege, have agreed with the Roman powers that be to keep the peace, to dissuade protest and rebellion. In the name of self-interest they have made a pact with the oppressor. Challenging such authority will get you in trouble, trouble headed Jesus’ way.
To make matters worse, children have accompanied Jesus onto the Temple property, something unheard of in the tradition. Only a male adult could enter the Temple sanctuary. This is the third time Matthew has referred to children being in the company of Jesus. Again, in this Gospel, children represent the least among us, the most vulnerable, expendable. Matthew is relentless in his advocacy for the marginalized.
The barren fig tree represents the failed state of Jerusalem that cannot, or will not, meet the needs of her people. And for Matthew, such a state will wither… cease to exist, as opposed to a life nurtured by the living water of the movement. For Jesus and his followers there is no compromise, no just getting along. The stakes are high and urgent. It strikes me that this so-called “Temple tantrum” makes the case that we people of faith can’t afford the delay of polite forbearance. It is necessary that our faith have an edge, maybe two, with which to cut through the fallacies of the status quo, and the complicity to self-interest by our institutions. The days of, “let’s bring them along slowly,” or “justice takes time,” or, “let’s meet them where they are,” just doesn’t work. Those represent ways to politely abdicate our mission and its urgency. Sometimes we have to turn over the tables. Now seems like such a time.
A Prayer for Social Justice (BCP p. 260)
Eternal God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your Holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
