But the biggest brain buster of all is the issue that comes up when we first do long division, and that is the issue of the remainder. And what is the remainder? None of the other math signs have that. You don't add 5+3 and have 7 remainder 1. But in division, that most accursed sign, we do. The remainder is the matter that always seems to stand in the way, it's an impediment between you and the right answer, you know. We all want the right answer to be tidy, to be neat, with no additional threads dangling off of it. You want the answer to be a number. No decimals, no fractions, no remainders. That's what you want, and the sign of division doesn't allow it most of the time.
Consider the story of Jesus in the Temple. We're used to the image of our Lord making a whip out of cords, driving the moneychangers from the temple, and scattering their coins. We're used to the idea of him clearing out the animals, and driving the sacrifices away. This is all good, it's all common knowledge, that's all fine, to be sure. But, like with any good story of division, what's the remainder? What's left after he's done all of that.
Well, think about the things that don't get driven out, and the things that remain. Because for the people like you and I who would spectate this event, it's good to not stop when you get to one answer, and to continue to go until you find the remainder. Ask yourself, when you read this passage, what it is that doesn't get driven out. The answer is fairly clear, if you look at what happens after everything is removed. For in this passage, we see the scattering of the coins, the driving out of the animals, and then we see people asking Jesus by what authority he does these things.
People.
Yes, there are people left in that space after the great expulsion. Now, I know that we want to think about math problems as tidy, but this is one of those points in which we have a remainder. Jesus plus moneychangers plus coins plus animal sacrifices plus people minus moneychangers minus coins minus animal sacrifices equals?
Jesus and people.
All those things that people had brought in to obscure the line between them and God, all those things that they had brought in to take the place of an actual relationship with God, all the things that they hide behind to make sure that they never have to be too honest with the other people who are there, and with God. Think about the coins at the temple, what the moneychangers were dealing with. They were serving up coins in much the same way as they do at chuck e cheese, where you have to deal with their tokens. You have to bring your money, change it to chuckie change, and then use it there, no refunds. You can't use real tender at a chuck e cheese, and they won't take it in any of the machines. They do take your money for food and drink, though, beer too, but not for the machines. Those just use magical chuckiebux. The temple was the same way. If you had regular Caesar money, it was no good in there. Can't bring the things of the world into the temple. You can only use temple money. The sacrifices, the same way. You can't bring your sins into the temple, you have to offer up sacrifices and oblations to get away with it. You have to hide and cover over your sinfulness, and pretend like everything is just fine. There's a real break at the door that says that you're doing okay, you don't bring the stuff of the world outside into God's holy house. After all, what would the people say if they knew what you were up to?
So, you drop your life at the door. You dress well, you look good, your kids are reasonably well behaved for the duration of the service. You hold hands, and smile. Things are good, or so you want everyone to think. In all actuality, though, nothing is anywhere near as good as you're making it out to be. Things are falling apart, the relationships are not as strong as they should be. The marriage is hanging on by a thread, the kids are getting into all sorts of trouble,there are addictions, pornography, licentiousness, it's like we're living on gin lane over here, but we all sort of want to hide that. We all sort of want to drop all that at the door, and not bring it into the church. Change the money, buy the sacrifices, and divorce yourself as much as possible from the things that actually happen in your life. That's a big desire that you want to have, and you don't want to be the only one in church that has problems, you know.
Everyone else looks pretty good. Everyone else looks fine, they all seem to have their lives together, whether in church, on social media, on social media, or on social media. Happy families in pastel shirts and jorts, everyone looking good, looking happy. People go to a lot of effort to look good, and something strange happens when that happens, which is that you feel as though you have to keep up. So you only post the good stuff, you only show the best, you only display the absolute best parts of your life and nothing else, because everyone else is, but you for some reason don't feel as though they're faking it, or just showing the best of their lives. Which they are.
At the end of the Gospel reading, it says something profound about Jesus, which is that he didn't need anyone to tell him what people were all about, because he knew what was in men. He knows what you're all about. If you leave your real problems at the door of the church and refuse to admit them to yourself, to God, to anyone else, then the only person you're hiding it from is the people around you, who are all doing it too. This is a real, serious problem that is going to affect you, and it is going to lead to you desperately clinging on to your sin, because you figure that church is no place for that kind of nonsense.
But I want you to look at this picture. Look at this picture of Jesus in the wilderness (it's a lent picture, clearly), and tell me what you see.
You know what I see? Only Jesus. With nothing else. No distractions, no clamoring, no moneychangers, no coins, no animals. Just Jesus, or as we Lutherans would say, Christ alone.
When Jesus drives everything out of the temple, he does so to remove everything that people were using to hide behind. All that veneer of respectability was driven out, chased away, scourged with whips. Everything people were hiding behind, everything that they were using to have that aura of doing well, all that got violently pushed away, and only Christ and the people were left. Nothing else. Can you imagine what that would be like? To go from noise and clamor to deafening silence? To have the bazaar replaced with just Jesus alone?
Well, friends, that's what this time of year is all about. For most of the rest of the year, you can hide behind your respectability, because the cross of Christ seems awfully far away. It seems like it may as well be a long time ago in a galaxy far far away for what it matters. It purports to deal with sin, but heck, most of us don't have any sin, so it can't be that big a deal, right? But Lent, it drives all those masks away from you, it smashes the coins, the sacrifices, all those exchanges that you make at the door before you go in, and leaves you with only you, only Jesus, and only the cross. Worried about what would happen if you actually did confess your sins? Why? Jesus already knows what's up, the reading today is quite clear about that. Scared of what would happen if everyone found out? Hopefully the illusion would be shattered, and you'd realize that they were lying just as much as you were.
This time of year, all the distractions go away, all the illusions vanish, all the excuses disintegrate, and you're left with only you, and only Christ. Cling fast to that, because in the temple, in the church, that's really all that matters, that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
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