Tuesday in Holy Week • 12 April 2022

 Tuesday in Holy Week • 12 April 2022

As a preamble…

Once again, as tempting as it might be to read into the text from Isaiah overtones or presages of Jesus, we should not. Isaiah was speaking either in the first person, in which case these verses describe the prophet’s own mission... or the servant represents that nation Israel. Regardless, the servant announces that all the world will recognise the one God when the whole Israelite nation returns to its land. After decades of hearing this passage interpreted as Isaiah referring to Jesus (‘a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth’), it is hard to let go of this interpretation, but we must.

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Mark’s Gospel rendition of the temple cleansing has oft been ‘given to the futile pursuit of trying to reconstruct a historical event.’1 Ched Myers in his pivotal book, Binding the Strong Man, argues that this scene is the centerpiece of Mark’s criticism of the political economy of the temple. As Meyers explains, Jesus first visits the temple on a ‘reconnaissance’ trip, to see what is where. The next day, he responds to what he assessed. He drives out those buying and those selling; he overturns the tables of the moneychangers (the ones who exchange currencies) and the seats of those selling doves, he prevents anyone from carrying any vessel through the temple and, most important, he teaches them.

Jesus acts in the spirit of Hosea who says, ‘I will drive them out of my house… and their rulers are disobedient’ (9.15). The temple was fundamentally an economic institution and dominated Jerusalem’s life. What incited Jesus’ ire were the ruling class interests, not the commerce itself, which was normal in his days. He was enraged by the systematic exploitation of the poor, especially women.

Thus, Jesus calls for an end to the entire system—symbolised by his overturning the tables. He repudiated the ruling class who took advantage of the weak, poor and those considered ‘unclean.’ He boldly forbade anyone to carry anything into the temple, effectively shutting down the operation for the day.

To justify Jesus’ actions, Mark resorts to Isaiah and Jeremiah (Is 56.7, the citation of the ‘house of prayer’; Jeremiah 7.11, ‘This is the temple of the Lord’). Jeremiah insists that G-D’s covenant with Israel grants them a dwelling ONLY if they seek justice toward the alien, the fatherless, the widow, and the innocent. If idolatry and exploitation replace this goal, then the temple will be destroyed (and Mark was writing in and around the time of the destruction of the temple in 70 CE).2

But, by his taking down the temple practices, Jesus’ actions provoke the leaders to seek his death. What we do not hear in this reading, but is essential to our understanding, is that after Jesus condemns the temple, believed to be where G-D resided, he exhorts his disciples to ‘Believe in God! (11.22). He assures his disciples that this monolith, ‘the mountain of the house,’ can be overthrown (11.23) and faith will deliver it from the powers that constrain it. 3
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What entity in today’s society, both secular and sacred, would Jesus overthrow? Surely, he would go after our economic system that is so tilted toward the affluent and away from the poor. 

Consider: even in Killington, the disparities between those who have housing and those who do not, are huge. Hedge fund capitalists have no problem whatsoever in plonking down $2+M dollars for the houses that will go up in a gated community at the foot of Bear Mountain. The average price of a home in Killington has soared to over $1M. And people are snatching up these houses with no problem. 4

Meanwhile, our hospitals are barely able to staff their departments because people cannot afford housing University of Vermont Medical Center is going to build housing and so is Rutland Regional Medical Center. The affordable housing supply is short these days that more and more people struggle to maintain a roof over their head.

Consider: Jared Kushner managed to get the Saudis to contribute $2B!!!!! to his nascent fund in which he stands to earn some $25M a year, whereas with the current inflation, some people might have $100 left over after rent and gasoline to buy food for the month.

There is something grossly wrong with an economic system where those at the top are raking it in and those in what used to be called the middle class are sinking further and further into depth and falling further and further and further behind.

Jesus preached a gospel of everyone’s dignity (he did NOT preach a prosperity gospel, a modern travesty). I cannot help but imagine Jesus in our faces telling us we need to overhaul our systems. They are far bigger than we are but, as San Oscar Romero de las Americas said: ‘Each of us can do something.’ Each one of us can act to improve the lives of others. If we are at the top of the economic pile, remember that there are no luggage racks on hearses. (Just what can one do with 200 billion dollars in the span of a life? That amount of wealth, beyond being unfathomable, is also obscene.) For those on the bottom of the economic pile, may we find ways to maintain our God-given dignity and not fall into the pit of despair.

May we, on this second day in Holy Week, ponder how in each of our lives we can contribute to the common good and learn from Jesus’ teaching in the temple about economic justice.

NOTES
1 Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992), 299
2 Ibid., 299-304
3 Ched Myers, “Say to This Mountain”” Mark’s Story of Discipleship (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996), 149.
4 The Mountain Times, special section, “Buy, Sell, Renovate: Local Real Estate Trends, Modern Vermont Living,” 6 April 2022, specifically pages 4-8, 10-11, 13; https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2022/03/09/uvm-medical-center-to-help-build-apartment-complex-for-employees
5 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/us/jared-kushner-saudi-investment-fund.html; https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092134413/inflation-food-prices-gasoline-gas-interest-rates