Some Things I Learned During Lent:

Jesus Was a Protestant (Sort of)!

John 2:13-22

Exodus 20:1-17

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

March 19, 2006

During the season of Lent, it is my goal for all of us to take seriously the call of Jesus when he says, "Follow me." And part of that is to seek discernment and to learn what is required of our discipleship. It is to set our eyes on Jerusalem, for the journey to the empty tomb of Easter must necessarily first pass through Jerusalem, and pause on the cross of Calvary. And as Lent is for us a period of renewal and learning with a focus on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, I want to be intentional about that for myself, and I would like to share with you some of the things that I learn as I embark on this Lenten journey. And so my sermons during this season are focused on sharing some of those nuggets of knowledge that I have gained.

I have learned some things during Lent this year. One of the things I have learned, as I studied the gospel lesson for today, is that Jesus is a protestant, sort of.

I need to clarify something right away. I’m sure that the sermon title is making some of you raise your eyebrows. In no way am I claiming that Jesus was a Protestant in an anti-Catholic sense. I have far too much respect for our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. I am using the word "Protestant" in a way that is different from the way we have described the reformation of Martin Luther and some of his contemporaries.

The word "protestant" has as its root the word "protest". Unfortunately, whenever we hear the word "protest" we tend to think that those who are protesting are protesting against something. In fact, the proper sense of the word describes someone who stands for something. If you break the word down into its components, what you will find is the prefix "pro", which means for something, and the root, testari, which means to testify or to witness. And so the word "protestant" refers to one who witnesses, one who testifies, one who stands, for something. To be a protestant is to take the side of someone or some particular belief. A protestant does not define himself or herself in terms of what they are against, but in terms of what they are for.

And in that sense that Jesus was a protestant. Jesus was a protestant, for in today’s text from the Gospel According to John, Jesus lets everyone know in no uncertain terms that he is steadfastly and wholeheartedly on the side of God. There is no mistaking the fact that Jesus is fully invested in defending the dignity and honor of the name and reputation of God the Father.

Jesus’ actions in the Temple make John and the other disciples recall a verse that described Jesus’ passion: Zeal for your house will consume me. The verse that John and the disciples remember comes from the Old Testament, and the meaning of the word that is translated as "zeal" in the Old Testament is defined around the relationship between God and God’s people. It is more than an emotion; it conveys the desire to do God’s will and to uphold God’s honor. It is, in the healthy understanding of the word, holy jealousy, precisely the kind of jealousy that God declares in the fifth verse from our reading from Exodus: "I the Lord your God am a jealous God..." The word is used to describe the godly as they are consumed with ardor for exalting God and maintaining the purity of worship of God and defending the honor of God.

Zeal for your house will consume me! Jesus was a protestant, according to the proper definition, a protestant for God and for the honor of God’s holy name.

As someone who was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house, Jesus would have high expectations of the quality of worship at the Temple, especially during the high holy season of the Passover. Jews were required to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the observance of the Passover. The city would be packed with Jews from all over the Roman world.

For many of the pilgrims, it would be too difficult to bring the proper sacrificial animals with them on their long journey, so they counted on being able to purchase such animals when they arrived. Only, the salesmen were great opportunists, and they exacted a high price for the animals--as high as the demand would support. "Making a profit at Passover had become central to the holiday. Not prayer. Not remembrance. Not thanksgiving." Surely the crass commercialism was an affront to the holy name of God.

Even so, I’m not sure that Jesus’ primary concern was the sale of the animals. The price gouging was a concern, as was the practice of only accepting the Temple currency, which could be purchased only at a high rate of exchange. But perhaps the thing that bothered Jesus the most was the location of the commercial activity.

The Temple was actually built with two main areas. There was a main courtyard where the Jews could go and worship and offer their sacrifices. And there was an outer courtyard for the Gentiles. The Gentiles were not permitted to enter the main courtyard; instead, they had to stay in the outer courtyard, and only there they could offer prayers to God.

The place where the money changers were exchanging currency and the sacrificial animals were being sold was the courtyard of the Gentiles. Jesus saw Gentiles trying to pray amidst the cries of caged animals, the shouts of hawkers, and the feverish negotiations of prices and exchange rates. Jesus saw Gentiles trying to pray, all the while surrounded by the stench of animal dung and urine.

And that was something that Jesus couldn’t bear to watch. Israel had the holy responsibility of being the light to the Gentiles, pointing the Gentile world to God. What kind of message did the Israelites convey about their God, when the only place the Gentiles could come and worship had been turned into a loud, stinking, disgusting flea market?

Zeal for your house will consume me! Jesus was a protestant for God, and he couldn’t take it that his Father’s name was being soiled by the very people who were charged with the purity of worship.

Are you a protestant? Not in the historical sense of the reformation, but in the same way that Jesus is a protestant. Are you a protestant who is unabashedly for God? When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, and you come to the line that says, "Hallowed be thy name," do you really mean it? Is it important to you that God’s name be kept holy and pure?

That is what’s at stake for us today. The text is about more than just whether or not we maintain a beautiful sanctuary. You see, as God’s people, the holy responsibility that has been given to each of us individually, and all of us corporately, is to present God and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Our responsibility is to present a faithful witness of who God is, and of who Jesus is.

One of the things I have learned during Lent is really nothing new at all--it’s a reminder of something that I have known for years, and that is that the way we act as the people of God has an impact on how the world comes to know who God is.

Paul tells us that we are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is one who has full power of representation of the person or agency that has commissioned the ambassador. When an American ambassador speaks or does something on foreign soil, it is as if the United States has spoken or done something. As Christ’s ambassadors, then, we become the representatives of Christ in the world. When we speak, the world ought to hear Jesus himself speaking through us. When we act, the world ought to see Jesus himself faithfully portrayed in our actions. In the language of today, we have to talk the talk and walk the walk as we seek to proclaim Christ faithfully to the world.

Back in the 1950s, there was a book that was used by the State Department for the training of personnel assigned to overseas posts. The book is called The Ugly American. In the book is a collection of stories about American officials who had, through careless words and actions, painted a bad picture of America to people around the world. Americans were perceived as arrogant, insensitive, ignorant of local customs, corrupt, greedy, and generally unlikable--all because a few individuals gave the rest of the world a bad impression. They are not at all what all Americans are like, but they are the only Americans that many foreigners encountered, and so foreign people would judge America on the basis of their encounters with these Ugly Americans.

I’m convinced that Jesus felt like the Temple priests and officials were being ugly representatives of God. The reputation of God was being soiled by the actions of a few greedy and corrupt officials.

But the question is worthy of our asking: When people see the Christian church, what kind of gospel is proclaimed? Not just in worship, but also in the everyday life of Christians. What kind of God do they get to know? What kind of Savior do they see?

What kind of God do we describe? If someone were to come into our church today, someone who had never heard of God before, what kind of God would they encounter? I hope, that they will not encounter a cold, stand-offish God, but a God who is warm and welcoming. Our worship is designed around proclaiming a God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I hope that the God we proclaim is not so fixated on the clothes we wear, as he is on whether or not we clothe ourselves in compassion and kindness and gentleness and humility and patience and love, because it’s that kind of clothing that expresses to the world who God is.

In the way the Christian Church responds to various crises around the world, we are painting for the world a picture of who God is. What kind of picture do we paint? Take the AIDS crisis, for example. There is at least one notable Christian televangelist who has said that AIDS is the judgment of God for endorsing vulgar, perverted, and reprobate lifestyles. But there also are some Christians who, very quietly and unassumedly, establish orphanages in Africa for children born with AIDS, and they hold the babies in their arms and they love the babies tenderly. Which do you think paints a more accurate picture of who God is?

Most of you have heard the expression that you may be the only Bible that some people will ever read. And it’s true. Our lives may be the only witness to God that others will ever see. There’s a cute little poem that I like, and it goes like this:

You are writing the Gospel, a chapter a day,
By deeds that you do, by words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithless or true;
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?

Are you a protestant, for God Is it important to you that God’s name be kept holy and pure? Are you consumed with zeal for the Father’s holy name? The responsibility that has been given to each of us individually, and all of us corporately, is to present God and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Our responsibility is to present a faithful witness of who God is, and of who Jesus is. We do it through our worship. We do it through our everyday life.

What is the gospel, according to you?