Holy Week : What would Jesus do?

On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus returns to Jerusalem, and passing a fig tree, names it for what it is – fruitless. It is a metaphor for the Temple. When Jesus arrives in the Temple, he overturned the tables of the money-changers and would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple.

Mar 22, 2016

The Rev. Andrew Thayer
When someone asks, "What Would Jesus Do?," remember that flipping tables is a viable option. On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus returns to Jerusalem, and passing a fig tree, names it for what it is – fruitless. It is a metaphor for the Temple. When Jesus arrives in the Temple, he overturned the tables of the money-changers and would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple.

Why? Too often people assume Jesus directed his anger at dishonest money changers who had fraudulent scales and were cheating people. This interpretation misses the significance of Jesus’ action entirely. Jesus' disruptive protest includes saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? You have made it a den of robbers.”

Jesus is obviously quoting scripture here and the passage to which he refers is critical in comprehending Jesus’ action. Jesus quotes the prophet Jeremiah who names precisely what the crime of the Temple is – and it’s not crooked moneychangers. Jeremiah writes, “If you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place … Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?” (Jeremiah 7:5-7 NRSV).

The meaning of the term “den of robbers” is made clear by this passage. It is not the money changers with whom Jesus is mad – it is the whole economic and social system of the Temple itself, which was the epicenter of Jerusalem at that time. In other words, Jesus is attacking the ruling class and those at the top that benefited from an unjust system. Ched Myers, a New Testament scholar, argues that when Jesus turns the tables of the money changers he is really attacking the “street level representatives of banking interests of considerable power,” that is, the chief priests and scribes of the Temple.

They are the agents of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, and are also political figures and economic elites. As they are threatened by Jesus’ actions, it stands to reason that what he is saying and doing is also political and economic. The kingdom of God that Jesus is announcing is a radical departure from the status quo. Jesus’ subversive demonstration and symbolic occupation of the Temple is why he is killed on Friday.

The poverty of the surrounding regions, like Jesus’ own Galilee, was a by-product of the wealth and opulence of the Temple and the socio-economic system it guarded. The required Temple tax, tithes, and sacrifices, as well as the economic organization of tenant farming, ensured that those at the bottom of society were trapped in an oppressive system. Jesus came to Jerusalem to proclaim the kingdom of God which, as the prophets remind us, has everything to do with justice. This is why he quotes Jeremiah while flipping tables. Justice, especially for the poor and marginalized, is scriptures’ most dominant prophetic theme. “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies … But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24); “And what does the LORD require of you: but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8); “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:11-17).

Jesus confronts the Temple’s oppressive system by turning the tables and bringing business to a standstill. Those who benefitted from the economic status quo, realizing Jesus was really attacking them, began “looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him” (Mark 11.18). They were afraid that the system that benefitted them would come crashing down. Unfortunately, those wielding power and authority are rarely open to amending the systems that benefit only them. Jesus will pay the price.

Tenants of the Temple

On Monday of Holy Week, when Jesus turned the tables in the Temple, he brought the business and economy of the Temple to a standstill. The Temple authorities were determined to discredit Jesus so that they may return to business as usual which, as we have seen, was oppressive and marginalized the poor and vulnerable. To this end, when Jesus returns to the Temple on Tuesday, the Pharisees and Herodians, (both Temple elites) approach him with several trick questions – about his authority, paying taxes, marriage and death – all of which are designed to trap him and turn the crowd against him. We are told the chief priests were “afraid of the crowd.” In response to these attacks, Jesus tells a parable of tenants in a vineyard. (Vineyard was a oft-used metaphor for Israel itself, Isaiah 5:1-7). In the story that Jesus tells, the tenants refuse to share the harvest with the owner of the vineyard and treat roughly those sent to collect the fruit on behalf of the owner. Finally, the owner sends his own son who is killed so that the tenants might claim the vineyard for themselves. When the chief priests and scribes hear this story they understand clearly who it is aimed at – them.

The allegory of the story is pretty straightforward. The vineyard (Temple), under the care and control of the tenants (Temple authorities) has been fruitless (unjust) in the name of the owner (God).

Taking a close look at the allegory of Jesus story is revealing on several levels. Firstly, and most obvious, is that Jesus’ story is a clear indictment of the greedy Temple authorities. Secondly, the prophets in the parable, sent by the owner/God to share in the fruit of the vineyard, receive no fruit and are handled roughly. Prophets in the Hebrew scriptures, who consistently advocated for justice, were treated roughly by the ruling classes. Amos, who said “let justice roll down like waters” was tortured and killed by priests; Micah who preached “do justice, love kindness” was slain by the son of King Ahab; Isaiah who insisted that we “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” was sawn in two by King Manasseh. Exploitative power and justice do not mix.

Thirdly, the Temple authorities, would have immediately recognized the vineyard in Jesus’ story as the same vineyard from Isaiah. Isaiah’s song for the unfruitful vineyard ends with it’s destruction. “I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall,and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste …” (Isaiah 5:5-6). Jesus is connecting the Temple and vineyard in his story and is implicitly threatening its destruction. No wonder the authorities want to get rid of him. Even as Jesus and his disciples are leaving the Temple that day he asks, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down" (Mark 13.2).

Finally, Jesus parable turns upside down the economic and agricultural realities of ancient Palestine and Jerusalem. The ruling elites of the the Temple were wealthy. They were the landowners of surrounding farms, orchards, and grazing fields and kept a large percentages of their produce for themselves. This economic system produced the haves and the have-nots. In Jesus parable the Temple authorities are cast not as owners, but as tenants, and corrupt ones at that. Jesus demotes these rich, land-owning Temple authorities to the status of peasants. This was one of the reasons that Jesus’ rhetorical brilliance was so popular with the impoverished masses and so revolutionary. This reversal surely was an embarrassment for those used to privileged status and a narrative example of what the Song of Mary means when it describes “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” The Temple authorities weren’t just unimpressed, they were furious.

Jesus confronts the commercial special interests in the Temple Monday by turning the tables. Tuesday, he goes head to head, nose to nose with the Temple authorities, economic leaders, priests, scribes and any who would challenge him. He has condemned the church as being fruitless and unconcerned with justice, and he has done it all on the their turf. Mark 12:34 says that by the end of that Tuesday in the Temple no one dared to ask him any more questions. Those who defended economic exploitation and social oppression in the name of God had been exposed. Jesus beats them at their own game. Time to start playing dirty.--Montgomeryadvertiser