4 Mar 2018
3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B
Jesus cleansing the Temple can be difficult because it’s an
image of him we don’t usually think of.
We think of Jesus, we think of that guy who said: “Love one another;
forgive those who trespass against you; love your neighbor; if somebody strikes
you, turn the other cheek and let ‘em hit the other side, too.” We think of Jesus as a gentle person, a
person who radiates peace, a person who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And he certainly is that kind of person, but…
There’s also a fiery side to Jesus—not a “dark” side, but a
fiery side. And it’s a side we see
whenever he comes up against hypocrisy.
Now, we know Jesus loves sinners; he is very patient and very gentle
with sinners. But we have to
clarify…those are sinners who admit
that they are sinners, who know how to say those simple words, “I’m sorry,”
whose hearts are soft enough to be touched by God, and changed by the
Lord. Jesus loves those sinners, and is
eternally patient and gentle with them.
But…
Jesus has a fiery streak in him when it comes to hypocrites,
when he comes upon somebody who professes
to be a person of faith, but who has such a hardened heart, who is so puffed up
with self-righteousness that they cannot be touched by the love of God, nor can
they love others or even themselves. Jesus
loves the hypocrite, but with a very, very
different kind of love. Jesus is
gentle with the gentle, and very hard with the hard-hearted. And that’s what we see in the cleansing of
the Temple.
Jesus is angry. He’s
being very hard, because…he’s ticked-off, he’s upset, and irritated. He has what we call “righteous anger.” Jesus’ buttons have been pushed, and he’s had
it. He hasn’t lost patience; he’s just
unleashing his full fury of divine love which makes him shout, “Get those
things outta here! They have no business
being here! Get’em out!” Jesus is more than angry at how some of his
people act; how they treat each other; how they’ve completely corrupted what it
means to be a good Jew. And he’s ticked
off.
We don’t often think of Jesus that way. But we should. Jesus is a nice guy, for sure. But he also has zero tolerance for hypocrisy
and hard-heartenedness among his people.
There’s no room for it—not way back then, not today, not ever. And he’s not afraid to tell people that. If some of his people are going to behave
less-than-human and refuse to have a change of heart, then he’s just going to
get out his whip and he’s going to treat them as the animals that they
are. It’s harsh, it’s truthful, it’s
loving, but sometimes, that’s what it takes to get through to people.
It’s sad. But,
sometimes, Jesus has to cleanse the Temple: out of love, and for the salvation
of his people. Imagine a wolf finding
its way into the flock. Do you think the
shepherd’s going to tolerate it?
No! He’s going to go after
it! He’s going to scream at it and chase
it out! “Get outta here!” It’s a danger to the flock, and that shepherd
gets angry out of love for the flock.
Again, it’s sad. But, sometimes,
it has to happen for the good of the whole.
It’s an image of Jesus we don’t usually think about. But…he is the one who says, “If your hand causes
you to sin, cut it off. If your foot
causes you to sin, cut it off. If your
eye causes you to sin, pluck it out….get rid of it.” Don’t let the whole flock be destroyed
because of one infected sheep. Don’t let
the Church go down the drain because of a bunch of hard-hearted
hypocrites.
And all this talk should make us feel uncomfortable. And here’s an
image to help understand why…
From the Wizard of Oz, Almira Gulch has come to Auntie Em and
Uncle Henry’s house to take Toto away. And
Auntie Em says, “Almira Gulch, just because you own half the county doesn’t
mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years, I’ve been dying to
tell you what I thought of you! And
now…well, being a Christian woman, I can’t say it!”
“Being a Christian woman, I can’t say it.” Well…why not?
Why can’t Auntie Em tell Almira Gulch what’s on her heart? Apparently, being a Christian (at least, in
the 30s and 40s) meant being silent
and not speaking up. It meant not
upsetting the apple cart. It meant being
nice and neighborly, no matter the cost.
And we still carry that idea today of what it means to be a good
Catholic. But Jesus would disagree.
Yes, we’re supposed to exercise those virtues of:
self-control and patience, charity and understanding, and being non-judgmental. We’re supposed to be all those things. They’re part and parcel of what it means to
be a “good Catholic.” But…not at the expense of our duty to shape
the world around us; not at the
expense of our duty to speak the truth where it needs to be said. Being a loving Christian doesn’t mean being nice; it means being loving.
And sometimes love and the truth are hard—and that depends on how hard
or soft the heart is.
Jesus is gentle to the soft-hearted. And he is hard on the hard-hearted. He responds to us according to the way our
heart is. And in the cleansing in the
Temple he gives us an example to follow.
And, not only that, he gives us permission to have that “righteous
anger” within us, and to speak the truth where it needs to be spoken…with great
love.
When I was in seminary, we were always encouraged to do
what’s called “fraternal correction.”
You see a fellow seminarian doing something stupid, saying something
un-Christian, acting uncharitably, and you call ‘em on it. You go up to him and say, “Hey, I noticed you
were telling an off-color joke back there.
Do you think that’s appropriate for somebody training to be a priest?” It’s not necessarily an accusatory thing;
it’s just holding a mirror up to somebody so they can see what you see. It’s Jesus doing a little bit of “Temple
cleansing.” And if they’re
soft-heartened they’ll “get it.”
But fraternal correction is a hard thing to do. Partly because we all have a little bit of
Auntie Em in us, and we don’t want to upset the apple cart (even though it
might be a good idea); and partly because we’re afraid. We’re afraid of what that other person might
do, or say, or think. We’re afraid of
retaliation. And so, we do nothing, and
say nothing. We turn a deaf ear and a
blind eye to what’s going on.
But Jesus says, “No!
Call ‘em on it.” “If that other
person is an avowed Christian, a fellow Catholic who has promised to live a
certain way of life—namely, love of God and love of neighbor, then hold that person
to that standard…not your standard, by my
standard,” Jesus says. Call ‘em on it…in
a way that’s appropriate to who that
person is.
A soft-hearted person doesn’t need much to make corrections
in his or her life; they’re supple-hearted, they move with the Spirit of God,
and happily so. A person who has a
tendency to get a crusty heart might need a slightly firmer nudge every now and
then. But a person who refuses to practice
the faith they profess, who is a hard-hearted hypocrite…well, that person might
just well need an honest-to-goodness “Temple cleansing.” And those are the hard ones to confront. But confront them we must.
When he was arrested and stood before Pontius Pilate, Jesus
said, “If my kingdom belonged to this world, my helpers [would] be fighting to
keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
here.” As “helpers of Jesus,” are we
fighting for him? Not with swords and
violence and political revolution, and all that…but with the truth (spoken with
love) to those who need to hear it? Are
we fighting for the values he has tried to teach us?
Saint Paul says, “You must no longer live as the Gentiles do;
they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of their ignorance and their hardness of heart. That is not the way you learned Christ!” (Eph
4:17-20). Saint Paul called those early
Christians on the carpet for not practicing the faith the professed; for not
living up to their call to be other christs in the world. Saint Paul fought for the values Christ tried
to pass on. Do we do the same?
If we hear a fellow Catholic spreading gossip, do we go up to
that person and say, “Hey! Are you
Catholic? Because you’re not acting like
one right now. We don’t gossip…so either
shut up, or move on! There’s no room in
the Church for that!” Would we ever say
that to somebody who really needs to hear it?
Because, you know, it’s true…there is
no room in the Church for gossip.
The Church cannot afford to have that kind of poison in its ranks. As Jesus would say, “Get it outta here! That doesn’t belong here! This is the Church! Get it outta here!”
If we hear a fellow Catholic say something like, “I’m not
giving the parish one penny unless I get what I want,” do we go up to that person
and say, “Hey! Are you Catholic? Because you’re not acting like one right
now. Since when is being a disciple of
Christ about getting what I
want?! Since when it is a righteous
thing to be stingy just because you can’t what you want?!” Would we ever say that to somebody who really
needs to hear it? Because, you know,
it’s true…there is no room in the
Church for that kind of attitude. The
Church cannot afford that kind of selfish hard-heartedness in its ranks. As Jesus would say, “Get it outta here! That doesn’t belong here! This is the Church! Get it outta here!”
And we could go on and on.
There are plenty of wonderful sinners in the Church, whose hearts are
supple and soft, who know who to love and be loved in return. And Jesus is gentle and loves them to
pieces. But there are also plenty of
hard-hearted hypocrites in the Church who need to be kicked in the
pants…figuratively speaking. And Jesus needs people to do that—where it’s
needed.
The kingdom of God depends
on the faithful “fighting for” the values that Christ has instilled in his
Church. The kingdom depends on the faithful not
being like Auntie Em. There’s always
the risk that those hard-hearted people who need the truth spoken to them with
love will retaliate; you may become the latest news in the gossip circuit; you
may become the target of their hatred; you may become pressed by them until
your life becomes miserable. But that’s
the Cross. And it needs to be
embraced—the kingdom of our Lord depends
on it, the life and the future of the Church depends on it.
And the effect of this “Temple cleansing” we’re asked to be a
part of is that the Church itself will become more intentional in its beliefs
and values and practices. The Church
will be more clearly defined as a
community that takes love seriously… The
Church can no longer afford to be soft when it comes to hypocrites in her
ranks. The Church cannot afford to let
wolves in sheep’s clothing wander around and disturb the flock. The Church, the parish, cannot afford it any
more.
The Church will be a community of people who love and respect
one another—intentionally and deliberately—or it will cease to be. Jesus didn’t want his people to perish, and
so he was willing to risk the Cross in order to do some “Temple
cleansing.” Are we willing to take the
same risk? For God’s sake…are willing to
take the same risk, and do some much needed…”temple cleansing”?
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