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| Pussy Riot protest in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow, Russia |
Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
The following blog post may be offensive to some readers. It may be offensive because it covers people doing offensive things in places that are deemed by many to be special places...sacred places...holy places. By all accounts it appears that the perpetrators were aware that their actions offended some. And the some that were offended held power...political power... and religious power. So the question is, why did these individuals chose to offend powerful, religious authorities? To find the answer maybe we should start at the shared ending of both of these stories. The story ends with both parties receiving grievous sentences after being found guilty by secular, government judges who had been heavily influenced by national religious authorities. Their crimes were also virtually identical: entering the nation's most sacred religious temple and interrupting the worship there with protest. The ensuing trials engulfed their respective capital cities in strife and controversy. And that's where the obvious similarities start to fade between these two cases. But it left the communities of Moscow and Jerusalem still asking questions about the cases Pussy Riot and Jesus Christ. Questions that compare and contrast the two further in an effort to discover their motives. Was their a historical precedent for their protests? Was their a personal pattern to this behavior? If so, then what was the significance of both of these factors on the meaning of this current protest?
Prophetic Precedent
Ezekiel 8:5-12
Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’
When Pussy Riot performed a guerrilla art in prompt performance of "A Punk Prayer" it was done within the decades old historical ethic of Punk Protest. This ethic was created by the British forefathers of Punk Rock, The Sex Pistols. In a late 1970's move of counter cultural defiance against the British monarchy The Sex Pistols released "God Save The Queen." It was an ironic and subversive play on the United Kingdom's national anthem and called for the rule of Anarchy. Often an effective protest uses structures of the system as a subversive vehicle for their own counterculture message. When Jesus stepped into the temple, he did so propelled by a centuries old precedent of prophetic protest. Specifically it is a tradition of prophets protesting corrupt practices by the priesthood. One can look back to the story of Nadab and Abihu's demise as a testament into God's high standard for the behavior of the priesthood and requirement of the office of the prophet (Moses) as a check and balance to the priesthood. The book in Scripture that exemplifies this tradition is Ezekiel. The beginning of Ezekiel's ministry focused on prophesying the destruction the Jerusalem and it's temple. The temple was being destroyed due to idolatry and the corruption of the priesthood. When Ezekiel preached these prophesies he did so with a flair for the dramatic. He acted out his sermons, often with props. It would appear to be what we recognize as a form of performance art. After both were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BC (during his ministry), Ezekiel then prophesied the restoration of the people Israel to the land and the future restoration of the temple. The Jews would eventually return from Babylon to their homeland. From this point on they would also work to restore the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple would be completely restored under Herod. Yet even with a renewed temple, some of the old priestly abuses would occur. That is where the prophet Malachi comes in. The prophetic protest against priestly corruption was never necessarily against the temple building itself (since it predates it). The prophetic protest was against what occurred in the temple. A new building could never resolve the old problems when new people kept committing them. Malachi prophesied of a solution. A solution that would come in a future time. A solution of a future figure who would enter the temple. A solution of the future figure who would enter the temple to purify the Sons of Levi... the Levites... the priesthood. And this solution... this future figure who would challenge the temple priesthood would be the Lord Himself
Malachi 3:1-3
“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, And like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness."
Point 2: Personal Pattern
What does it mean when a person is known for a personal pattern: when they repeatedly do something publicly and become known for it? Youtube is full of (mostly offensive) Pussy Riot performances throughout the years. All four Gospels are full of the stories of Jesus cleansing the temple.Mark 11:15-19 & 27-33
So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. When evening had come, He went out of the city...
Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?” But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
When you see a certain thing occur in history several times, you are seeing a precedent. Seeing Pussy Riot repeating the formula of the Sex Pistols is their following the precedent of punk rock protest. Seeing Jesus repeating the prophetic preaching of Ezekiel and fulfilling the predictive prophesy of Malachi is his following the precedent of prophetic protest.
Matthew 21:12-17 & 23-27
Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there...
Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
When you see a certain thing occur several times in a person's life, you are seeing intention. Seeing Pussy Riot repeatedly perform offensive material in public places is their intentional protest. Seeing Jesus repeat his disruption of the temple is his intentional theme of his ministry.
Luke 19:45-48 & 20:1-8
Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him...
Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, “Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?” But He answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me: The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
When you see a certain thing occur in several documentations of a person's life, you are seeing a message being presented. Seeing Pussy Riot's protest performances documented several times through YouTube videos, news interviews and a documentary film is their fans' intentional distribution of their message. Seeing Jesus' prophetic protest in the temple documented in all four gospels is his disciples' intentional distribution of his message.
So the question begs? Why does one engage in a precedent-driven, intentional, message sending? Well because these performances make for teachable moments. Pussy Riot used it to tech the world about domestic Russian protest of Vladimir Putin (and the Russian Orthodox patriarch who supported him. If you understand Jesus' cleansing of the temple in the Synoptic Gospels as a separate and earlier action with different details than the one in the Gospel of John (like I do), then the teachable moments are to be found in the stories' details. Both the Synoptic and the Johannine accounts feature the temple cleansing occurring during Passover. In fact there are three Passovers that occur in the Gospel of John (which is where we get the idea of Jesus' ministry being three years long). Just like the prophetic protest of priestly temple corruption seems to be a running sub-theme in all off Scripture, the celebration of Passover appears to be a sub-theme in the Gospels. If so, then what is it communicating to? How is Jesus creating a teachable moment that speaks to both priestly temple corruption and Passover? Jesus isn't criticizing the celebration of Passover, but he is highlighting the two themes that Passover and the Temple share: sacrifice and redemption. In all three Synoptic Gospels Jesus drives out those who bought and sold in the temple. He also accuses them of turning God's intended house of prayer (Mark includes "for all nations") into a "den of thieves." It appears that Jesus is criticizing hem for taking the headquarters of sincere worship and turning it into a lair of deceitful commerce. In all three Synoptic Gospels the temple priests and the elders recognize that Jesus is creating a teachable moment... a moment of prophetic protest. So they ask him by what authority he spoke. Jesus answers them with what seems like a non-answer. It appears like he is denying them of a teachable moment. He responds with a question about the authority of John the Baptist. The trick here is that both the chief priests' and Jesus' question have the same answer. The authority of John the Baptist's baptism of repentance and Jesus' prophetic protest was the same: Heaven. Jesus also seems to have another motive in mind in referencing John the Baptist. It is bringing his teachable moment full circle. Jesus' intentional message (and that of the Apostles and gospel writers) is that true worship of God would be bought not with money but with repentance. Yet true redemption (like in Moses' original Passover) would still be bought with sacrifice. The question is, what type of sacrifice?
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| Pussy Riot |
Symbolic Significance
John 2:13-22Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
So now that we know about the teachable moment factor of Performance Art and prophetic protest, let's look back at our original subjects. Are they actions that provoke questioning like the others? Pussy Riot's "Punk Prayer" performance features them singing to the Virgin Mary to drive President Vladimir Putin from Russia (and to become a feminist). Pussy Riot performed their guerrilla art protest in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia. It is the most important church in all of the Russian Orthodox Church, which itself is the second largest Christian denomination/church in the world (with 150 million adherents). Pussy Riot chose this temple because it is the seat of Patriarch Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. The protest was due to his support of President Vladimir Putin's hardline governmental policies (at one point calling the Putin Era, a "Miracle of God." This cozy relationship between church and state may seem strange to those in the Western Church but Kirill I cites the Eastern Church's historic theology of symphonia (The notion where the Church and State are interdependent). The problem is that in exchange for preferential treatment by the government, the church leadership is a vocal co-conspirator to crimes against the Russian people. The chief priest of this Moscow temple corrupted its worship with greed for power and influence. Jesus accused the chief priest of the Jerusalem temple with the same charge. The Johannine account of the earlier temple cleansing is very similar to the later Synoptic temple cleansing but the details are more specific, Jesus' allegation is different and his teachable moment response is different. When he finds those doing business in the temple (presumably in the Court of the Gentiles) he drives them out. The detail that is given in John is that this was done with a whip. Many commentators believe that this was due in part to a corrupt system that only accepted local currency and charged usury to foreigners and only accepted the their own livestock for sacrifice (which could be purchased). Of course this is from helpful extra biblical sources... so you are free to believe it or not. However what is in the biblical text is Jesus' disgustfully accusing them of turning the temple into a "house of merchandise." Onlookers apparently understood this act as a prophetic protest as well and asked for a sign to explain these things. Jesus' response was that if they destroyed "this temple" that he would raise it in three days. The author of John explains to us that he was speaking of his own body as the temple and not specifically the temple in Jerusalem. Yet Jesus has shown us earlier that he understands that the temple of Jerusalem would one day be destroyed. The cycle of priestly temple corruption, prophetic protest, temple destruction and destruction of Jerusalem would start again... just as it had with Ezekiel. But maybe, this second temple wasn't the fulfillment of the future temple that Ezekiel foresaw anyway. Maybe the meeting place between God and Man was something different. Maybe the sacrifice that would bring about redemption for Mankind was greater than the blood of lambs that Moses had prescribed. Maybe this Passover would see Jesus, the Lamb of God as the final sacrifice and his body as the eternal meeting place between Divinity and Humanity. If this was the case then Jesus was not desecration the true temple, they were. He was purifying the temple (at Jerusalem) and prophesying their desecration of the truer temple of God (Jesus). Yet in their desecration of God's temple (Jesus) He would use it as an opportunity to purify all. This is the pattern of desecration and Purification: Death and Resurrection. It is the story of God creating beauty from our ashes and exchanging His joy for our shame.
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| His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Great Vespers at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on Christmas |
Cleansing Conclusion
Revelation 21:22-27But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
If you have been offended by this post, I apologize. I apologize if you are a Russian speaker and can understand the offensive language that Pussy Riot sometimes uses. I apologize if you are a Russian Orthodox Christian and feel that I have unfairly criticized the whole of your Church due to the excesses of the leadership. I apologize if you are a Russian citizen and you feel that I (an American ) am wading into political waters where I have no bearing. And finally I apologize to any follower of Christ that I may have offended by posting offensive material. But in my defense I have learned from Scripture that sometimes it is necessary to ruffle a few feathers, and inconvenience some to reveal a greater truth to the many. It is always easy to criticize those outside of the faith, but sometimes it is necessary to turn a critical lens inward. That is the prophetic mantle that Jesus inherited from the prophets of old. It was a vision God and Mankind having unfettered communion between them. There is no greater testament to the running sub-theme of Scripture being the prophetic protest of priestly temple corruption than the final chapter of the Bible. In the ending of the book of Revelation the writer John (who tradition holds is the same John as the Apostle and Gospel writer) foresees an interesting picture of the future. It is a future where God and Mankind have won peace through the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus. Yet it is a future without an actual temple. Well, there is a temple, but not a building. The true temple is there and John describes it as "Lord God Almighty and the Lamb." There is no need for an intermediary priest to offer sacrifice to God for Christ has fulfilled every sacrifice. There is no need for an intermediary prophet to speak for God for God and His Word (Jesus) are face to face with Creation. The meeting place of God and Mankind is now and forevermore in Jesus Christ. He is a temple that can never be corrupted with greed or power for he is all-powerful. He is a temple that can never be destroyed for his foundation is in the Eternal. He is our God, our sacrifice, our prophet and our temple. Most of all, Jesus is the place where God and Man find a home.
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