Jesus drives the money changers from the Temple.

Lent, that penitential season just before Easter Sunday, is a time to spring clean your soul. The purpose of giving something up or taking on some new discipline is to bring you closer to God.

In today’s Gospel reading (John 2:13-22), Jesus does something similar, his last act before he is arrested and executed. He purges the temple marketplace—that den of robbers—of the rampant commercialism, the price gouging, of those merchants exchanging the profane, unclean Roman currency for the only kind acceptable to spending in the temple precinct—the Jewish shekel. Jesus cried out for the entire practice to be abandoned.

The problem was that the money changers took advantage of people who had traveled a great distance with their ordinary money. The money changers had made money their god, instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The practice of changing one currency for another, while a necessary convenience because Israel was no longer an pastoral society, was a religiously-based capitalistic one in a sacred place, a mindset that Jesus decried repeatedly. While all things are possible with God, it was not easy—practically impossible, in fact—for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The early Christians shared everything in common.

Jesus plans what might be construed as a violent act. He takes the time to weave a whip out of ropes (the Greek says rushes) to drive out the animals, probably flicking it over their heads to drive them out. He then overturns the tables where the corrupt business practices happened. He quotes relevant passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah. Note, the scripture doesn’t say he assaults anyone or commits violence against them. It’s a prophetic act. It’s meant to get his audience’s attention and convey a message. It foreshadows not only his death and resurrection, but his ascension.

Afterward, he and the Jewish authorities have a discussion. A pointless one, because they fail to understand him. His remarks about the temple refer to the death of his body and his resurrection. They think he’s referring to a brick-and-mortar structure, that took years to build: the temple Herod constructed. By the time the Gospel of John was written, the temple had had been destroyed by the Romans. Jesus’ prophecy, that he would die and rise again, had been fulfilled. The disciples’ belief had been confirmed and strengthened, enough so that they would die for it. If the temple symbolizes the location and presence of God, then Jesus is the literal presence of God. In Jesus, God is right in front of you, right here and right now.

What this passage means, something the disciples didn’t understand until much later, is that God promises that, if we pay attention and remember, our Lord and Scripture will be revealed as true and reliable, however mysterious and incomprehensible he seems. Things will come together to create an active and vibrant faith. The passage also reminds us that an expanding, deepening, maturing belief will come in a process of engaging, experiencing, and remembering. This is possible because God sent the prophets, whose words are Scripture, and Jesus, its fulfillment. This God continues to be among us as the Holy Spirit. The reliability is God's reliability, God's faithfulness.