I am the light of the world.
Jesus of Nazareth
After last weekend’s Reflections, it’s fair to ask, How can money have been the root of all evil? Would Lucifer have used money in eternity? Did Adam and Eve use money, even on the most literal interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis?
A tool is defined by what it does, not by what it’s called. Money is a means of valuing goods and services and of exchanging them; of getting things and getting things done. Whether people use seashells, gold coins, paper notes or computer data, it’s all money. I cannot say what Lucifer used to fulfil his ambition of autonomy and self-aggrandisement but, whatever it was, it was effective. He was realising his ambition and many angels were banished from heaven with him.
When Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, they set about fending for themselves. Generations later, Nimrod was ‘the first on earth to be a mighty man’ – a king. Nimrod means ‘to revolt’ and when Genesis says that he was ‘a mighty man before the Lord’, it does not imply he served God but quite the opposite. He gained ascendancy over his neighbours and founded a settlement called Babel where the people decided to ‘make a name for themselves’ by building a great tower high enough to reach even to heaven. That building project failed but the city continued to prosper and became Babylon. All of this was before money as we know it was invented but there nevertheless existed a means of trading and accumulating wealth that fed their ambition.
This sort of ambition had crept into the lives of the religious establishment in Jerusalem and was the basis of Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees that we reflected on last weekend. He criticised them for exalting what is an abomination before God: the love of money.
With this in mind, we look at Jesus’ great statement, ‘I am the light of the world’. When Jesus said that, he was standing in the Temple treasury. This was the place where the people bought their offerings: it was where the rich liked to impress people by giving huge sums of money and it was where, later, Jesus watched a widow throw in her last coins in dependence on God. Historians tell us the metal containers were designed in such a way that the money made a lot of noise on its way in, so that it was obvious whether someone gave much or little.
During the great religious festivals, the treasury was kept illuminated 24 hours a day. Jesus was there the day after the Feast of Booths had ended and so the lighting had been turned off when he stood there he stood to announce, ‘I am the light of the world’.
Traditionally there were two sources of light in the Temple: in the Holy Place, the light from the candlestand with seven branches where a special oil burned, symbolising the Holy Spirit; in the Holy of Holies, where God’s own glory shone between the golden angels on top of the Ark of the Covenant. But when Jesus was there, there was no divine glory in the Holy of Holies because the Ark had been taken from there a long time before. And so the most brightly lit place in the building on important occasions was the treasury.
The love money, the root of all evil, grows in dark places but when the fruit and flowers push through into the light, it’s the light of the treasury, not the glory of God from the Holy of Holies. Just as today the brightly lit shop displays tempt us to accumulate stuff we neither need nor wanted until the brightness dazzled us, so television, movies and magazines illuminate celebrity vices as if they were virtues we should all share: pride, pretention, boasting, conceit, vanity, ostentation, covetousness, extravagance, immodesty, lust, sexual immorality, innuendo, filthy language, jealousy, bravado and callous ire.
Jesus is the light of the glory of God and John wrote this about him: ‘The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.’ It's in our nature to shun the light of Jesus and it’s no wonder he said that it’s harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle, which is the subject of next weekend’s Reflection.
Postscript
Jesus is the light of the entire world, not only the Jews, and the treasury was not only a false focus in the Temple. Traders and bankers were allowed in the Gentile Court, turning into a marketplace the area where foreigners were permitted to come in their search for God. I have often wondered how much the Temple authorities charged for the market stalls.
I think the Gospels record Jesus chasing out the traders and bankers on two occasions. First, early in his public ministry, as recorded in John 2:13-1; again, a few days before his crucifixion, as recorded in Matthew 21:12-14, Mark 11:15-17 and Luke 19:45-46. Of these, Matthew recorded something important that happened afterwards: ‘And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.’ Jesus was a light to the Gentiles and he returned the glory of God to the Gentile Court!
Postscript
Jesus is the light of the entire world, not only the Jews, and the treasury was not only a false focus in the Temple. Traders and bankers were allowed in the Gentile Court, turning into a marketplace the area where foreigners were permitted to come in their search for God. I have often wondered how much the Temple authorities charged for the market stalls.
I think the Gospels record Jesus chasing out the traders and bankers on two occasions. First, early in his public ministry, as recorded in John 2:13-1; again, a few days before his crucifixion, as recorded in Matthew 21:12-14, Mark 11:15-17 and Luke 19:45-46. Of these, Matthew recorded something important that happened afterwards: ‘And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.’ Jesus was a light to the Gentiles and he returned the glory of God to the Gentile Court!
Revised 16 March 2014
© All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2014.
© All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2014.
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