January 4th, 2020

In the three-year series of readings, it is very unusual for a Sunday to have the same three texts for all three years. And for the Second Sunday after Christmas, whatever year it is, for the gospel text we remain focused on that well-known story from the Gospel according to Luke [2:40-52]: Jesus, as a twelve-year-old boy, is in ‘his’ temple.

You may think that the following perspective makes too much of the text, but I see a connection between Jesus, that twelve-year-old in the temple, and Jesus, when he was older, cleansing that same temple. Jesus as a twelve-year-old appears only in the Gospel according to Luke, but the cleansing of the temple appears in all four accounts.
How can this text be connected to the other accounts? First of all, it is important to note that there is quite a variety when it comes to stating when Jesus actually cleansed the temple.

In the Gospel according to John, it seems that he did it at the start of his ministry (John 2:12-16). In both the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to Luke, it seems that he did it on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-12; Luke 19:28-45). In the Gospel according to Mark, it seems as if he did it the day after, on Monday of Holy Week (Mark 11:1-15).

The question people most often ask is this: ‘When did he ACTUALLY cleanse the temple?’ He probably did it more than once, perhaps several times. But we do not have four historians answering this question; we have four evangelists answering this question. And we have them answering with four different perspectives regarding the good news. With this information, we could say that Jesus not only cleansed the temple a variety of times, but he also cleansed the temple in a variety of ways.

Incidentally, you can also see this variety in Jesus’ statement regarding the moneymakers and Jesus’ accusation that they were, at some point in time, making the temple into a den of robbers. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus said to the people that ‘you are making it a den of robbers (21:13)’. That is obviously not a nice thing to be doing something bad at the present time. In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus said to the people that ‘you have made it a den of robbers (11:17)’. That was even worse. They did something bad in the past, and that bad thing still had ramifications for the present time. In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus simply says that ‘you made it a den of robbers (19:46)’. It was made that way in the past. The implication here is that, although bad behavior happened in the past, it is now possible to do something better. What Jesus ACTUALLY said at that point in time is not a good direction to head. Each gospel account gives a slightly different perspective on the problem and tries to point to Jesus as THE best solution.

Yes, in the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus was concerned about setting the situation right again. A lot of the people at that time had messed things up. Everybody messes things up. But Jesus was there to set things right.

Jesus certainly cleansed the temple at least once during Holy Week, but, in the Gospel according to Luke, it seems to me that he also does it another time. And, since this gospel account is connected to the living creature of the ox, and since the ox is a domesticated animal and very gentle, it seems to me that Jesus also cleanses the temple when he is only twelve years old. And it seems that he cleanses that temple in a very gentle way.

There are different ways in which to say that a person is amazed. Later in this text, Mary and Joseph are ‘astonished’ at seeing Jesus (verse 48), which is almost like being amazed. But the base part of that word literally means to hit. It seems similar to a type of amazement where you hit your head with your hand. But when the teachers are listening to the boy Jesus, they, along with the others who heard him, were ‘amazed’ (verse 47). And this word, in its literal sense, means to ‘stand out’. (In its transitive form, it has the primary sense of ‘change, displace’; in its intransitive form, it is out of the sense of becoming separated from something or to lose something; this was taken from BDAG, University of Chicago Press, 2000, page 350.)

I cannot think of a gentler way in which to cleanse the temple than for Jesus to amaze people by simply talking to them. They ‘stand out’ because of what he said; they were amazed. The dictionary reference I mentioned above also describes the word, in the sense that it is used here, as ‘the feeling of astonishment, mingled with fear, caused by events which are miraculous, extraordinary, or difficult to understand’.

They ‘stand out’ because they listened to Jesus. That temple will be gone soon anyway. Jesus wants the people to focus on a much better temple of himself, the God-man. But, of course, he wants to do that in a very gentle way.

The four gospel accounts are not there to contradict each other. They are there to support the good news in four different ways. If you think that you are okay on your own, then how the four different accounts relate to one another can be bothersome. If you know that you need to be rescued, then each one of them is precious.

From almost the beginning, these four accounts were put together in a codex or book form, and that was a way in which the differences among the accounts could be easily compared, and that comparison was encouraged because each account was so important. The good news comes in different ways and does different things in different situations.

For those who are stubborn, Jesus comes as a powerful lion. For those who are weak, Jesus comes as a powerful ox. Either way, he definitely comes. And, either way, we are definitely amazed.