Jesus complained that this type of commerce didn't belong in the temple. But, everybody knew, didn't they, that the animal sellers and money changers were an integral part of temple worship. In fact, weren't they required by holy tradition? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Torah required certain sacrifices be made for various religious and moral reasons. We read about Jesus' parents sacrificing pigeons when he was presented at the temple. These animals had to be ritually clean. Not everyone owned livestock anymore. People lived in cities. Where were they to get animals? (Imagine raising goats in Whiskey Creek, or bulls at the Landings.) This people were just making following the rules easier.

Now the money changers were an interesting lot. The coin of commerce had the image of Caesar imprinted on it. One couldn't use money that contained an image on it for holy purposes. Roman money could not be used in offerings, or even to buy sacrificial animals, so it had to be changed into temple money. Clearly, these people were just making following the rules easier.

I don't think Jesus was really mad at the sellers and bankers. At least, not as mad as he was at a system of worship that had turned ones relationship to God into a commercial venture. It's easy to see how this happened.

Remember, the rules for sacrifices and temple worship were handed down, traditionally, from Moses. Certainly, they were as old as the last exile and restoration. When they were written, people were mostly agrarian, living in villages. Most people would have owned livestock. If not, their neighbor or cousin did. And, commerce was usually done by barter. If there was currency, it would have been Hebrew currency, completely in line with the prohibition on images.

Israel changed over those 400 to 1000 years. People lived differently. Urban centers had formed. There was an occupying army with foreign rule and foreign ways. Many of the old ways were very difficult. But yet, in order to maintain an identity as a people, some of the old ways remained, especially when it came to the worship of God.

So, these people Jesus railed against, were the result of trying to maintain a tradition and to follow rules set down in a very different age and a very different culture.

I don't think Jesus wanted the Jews to give in to the foreign culture or to do things that were unpleasing to God. And I certainly don't think he wanted the scriptures to be ignored or replaced.

I do think Jesus thought the image on the coin issue simply got in the way of true worship. The law was interpreted so literally and applied in ways never intended by the original writers, so that worshipping God became a commercial venture. There were unexpected and untested consequences to the rigidity of religious dogma.

The same is true with animal sacrifice. Jesus may have had a deeper problem with this. St. Paul tells us that Jesus became the only sacrifice needed for the worship of God. Perhaps Jesus knew this. Regardless, again, something designed to be part of the everyday fabric of life had, through time, become something completely different.

Worship had become duty. Ritual had become performance. Sacrifice had become empty acts. I wonder if God saw much difference between the buying of sacrificial animals in first century Palestine and the buying of indulgences in 16th century Germany.

It seems to me that people relied so much on rules and laws that they lost sight of the God's purpose within those rules and laws.

I want to take a little side trip here. We read that portion of scripture called the Decalogue or ten commandments. A couple of weeks ago, a Boy Scout troop had a ten commandments hike where they went to 10 different houses of worship and heard about a different commandment at each. In looking at the list, it was clear to me that the organizer was Roman Catholic. How'd I know that? Their ten commandments are different then ours. They combine you shall have no other Gods and the making of idols and separate coveting wives and coveting houses. I read recently that Jews divide it up differently as well. So if we're going to write them on the court house walls, we better decide if we Trust in God like Roman Catholics, Protestants or Jews. But I digress.

I've already mentioned the making of idols. When Moses came down the mountain, Aaron had built a golden calf to worship. The people worshiped this thing instead of God. That's the background for the prohibition on idols. Did God really mean that Roman coins couldn't go in the collection plate? Or that statues of Jesus and icons should be broken down and burned as they were in the Reformation? Or that Crucifixes were blasphemous.? Or, I might add, that cartoons depicting god or his messenger are grounds for murder and insurrection?

Then there's the Sabbath Day. Is it Saturday or is it Sunday? Does it start at sunset or at 6:00 pm or at sunrise? You know, not one of the days is named for God (in this language. In Spanish, Sunday is Domingo, meaning Lord). I don't know when we started naming days. Do we really know that god rested on the day we call Saturday? My Lord, aren't there more important things about this commandment? Like taking time for God. Like not pursuing monetary wealth at the expense of God or family? Just to make things interesting, when is the Sabbath for a priest or rabbi?

Sometimes we take the laws and applied them so rigorously that they lose their true purpose. Do you think that God only disapproves of adultery in terms of sexual contact between people not married to each other? We sure heard a lot about that in 1999. I'd say that God is just as displeased with emotional adultery where we become emotionally, but not sexually, attached to another. How about occupational adultery - where work becomes ones mistress. I won't even mention golf. Too late.

Then there's the debate about whether it's kill or murder and what does that mean? No war? No abortion? No self defense? No capital punishment? No euthanasia. No withholding or removal of extraordinary medical assistance? If it means no killing, it means no killing. If no murder, then we will always have differences in interpretation depending on one's perspective.

And, I wonder if covet means the same thing now it did when Moses came down the mountain. Is it envy? If it is, I'm guilty. I want a Hummer so bad I can taste it. Ain't gonna happen. Maybe it's putting the desire for something ahead of those things that really matter, like family, God.

Jesus wasn't nearly so mad at the buyers and sellers as he was at a system that used dogma to chain God's people to a commoditization of religion. It's like life is a transaction. Buy this get this. Pray this, get saved. 30 pieces of silver and get 1000 years knocked off of purgatory.

I'm reminded of a piece written by that great theological hymn writers, Led Zeppelin, "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold, And she's buying a stairway to heaven. When she gets there she knows If the stores are all closed With a word she can get what she came for. And she's buying a stairway to heaven."

It's not about sacrificing birds or bulls. It's not about what's on a coin. It's about how we love God and how we love each other. Yes, there are rules. There are absolute truths. There is such a thing as right and wrong. And one of these truths is that we sinful, and broken people will stumble around trying to discern God's will for us in our context and our world.

We can't buy our way into heaven, and we don't need to buy a special bird or a magic prayer cloth. And we can't act our way into heaven. It is only by the grace of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the doors to the temple are thrown open and the way is made clear for us to worship God in Spirit and Truth.

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