2.2 The #1 Ingredient in a Fulfilling Life…Silence.
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It is a Crucial Life Lesson!
Every being has a source, including you and me. I credit my parents and their ancestors’ DNA for my physical being and many of its traits. But what about the non-physical part of me that I encounter only in those rare moments when the world grows quiet and my mind becomes still? What is the source of this unique and ageless being, this ethereal observer who dwells beneath my thoughts and actions, inspiring and animating the best of both? Jesus found the answer to this question and was killed for teaching it.
In the previous section, we witnessed Jesus exchanging purification for celebration by turning water into wine. In doing so, he also turned the current wedding etiquette on its head. How did he know to do that? He followed the leading from his being’s true source, which disrupted the cultural norms. His actions were pure performance art designed to forecast his life’s message: the upending of the patronage pyramid and removing societal labels assigned to human beings.
In this section, Jesus continues to follow his internal promptings, which lead to more upheaval - an overturning of tables and a re-ordering of priorities. It also demonstrates how strongly he believed that to encounter one’s internal source, there is a non-negotiable prerequisite: solitude. This is a crucial life lesson for each of us, especially today.
As I think back, I have spent a good bit of my life avoiding silence:
As a teenager, I went to sleep with the radio on.
When I got in the car, the radio was on.
In my initial career, I was a disc jockey with music all around me.
Later, as an adult, I would first turn on the television to catch the news in the morning.
My commute to and from work was to the sounds of music or an audiobook.
For the past ten years, I've realized the importance of taking a few minutes in the morning to read something motivational while in silence. However, after Millie's passing, reading felt like a waste of time. (Candidly, I spent months staring into the darkness and asking, "Why?" But that's another story.) Soon, I felt a calling towards meditation, which I resisted for several more months. Finally, I gave in and started the practice of solitude last year. It has been a crucial life lesson for me.
“Doing starts with hearing; hearing requires respectful silence and inward attentiveness.”
“I’ve realized that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”
A House of Prayer - Silence
2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they remained there a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the money changers' coins and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” First, some Bible study notes. This story is told in all four of the gospels, and when Luke investigated it, he reported that Jesus had said, “It is written ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Mark recorded that Peter also heard it this way, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
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First, some Bible study notes. This story is told in all four of the gospels, and when Luke investigated it, he reported that Jesus had said, “It is written ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Mark recorded that Peter also heard it this way, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 〰️
That’s One Way to Make a Point
In these passages, we see Jesus use a less subtle way of signaling an upset with the current religious system than turning water into wine - overturning tables. Where did he get the idea to do this? In the weeks prior, Jesus had been in the countryside, in Galilee. He had plenty of time to silently envision his arrival at the Temple. He had been there before and knew what he would find. As Trace Adkins sang, “This ain't no thinkin' thing, right brain, left brain. It goes a little deeper than that.” I believe that, below his thoughts, Jesus sensed the internal promptings* to demonstrate that the Temple was to be:
Not a marketplace, but
A house of prayer, and
A house of prayer for all nations.
Interestingly, John never explicitly mentions Jesus being angry or mad, contrary to how I have always imagined the scene. Instead, he acted out of his "zeal," his passion for following the promptings of his internal voice. This act of “following the promptings” is the required underpinning for the new way of life he was modeling - the invisible “non-tip” of the iceberg. He taught and demonstrated being a doer, not a hearer only. But, doing starts with hearing; hearing requires respectful silence and inward attentiveness. His Point: To experience his way of life, I must “Listen-hear-do,” like" Ready-aim-fire.”
Am I making too much of solitude?
Consider this thought: silence is the soil in which the spirit grows. Then, think about a garden without soil, a heartbeat without the gap in between, and communication without that space between the words.
How Did This Collective Sacred Space Become a Marketplace?
The communal act of worship is meant to be a group expression of one's individual worship experience. It's the "where two or three are gathered together" idea. I combine my praise with the praise of others, my prayer with the prayer of others, and my silence with the silence of others. In doing so, the individual experience is nourished by the group experience.
"Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” The temple, the collective sacred space for this group experience, grew into a marketplace as an accommodation to Roman culture. Also, it was an outgrowth of the clean/unclean system of sacrifices for sin forgiveness. You see, the elite, Jerusalem Jews preferred to buy their animals for sacrifice once they got to the temple, but they could not use their weekday Roman coins. Therefore, for-profit money changers were needed to provide their sabbath shekels.
Bible Study Note: Legend says the temple was built on the very spot where an angel told Abraham not to sacrifice his son, Isaac, putting an end to human sacrifice.
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Bible Study Note: Legend says the temple was built on the very spot where an angel told Abraham not to sacrifice his son, Isaac, putting an end to human sacrifice. 〰️
Jesus is not only silencing the shekel-swapping but also signaling another upset to the current religious practice: the system of animal sacrifice is now over. Why? In his kingdom, his world, and his new way of living, there is no external pagan god waiting to be appeased by blood of any kind. His is not an external God, but an internal father of his spirit, who doesn't differentiate between clean and unclean. In fact, there are no labels of any kind – only people, only neighbors.
The problem for the people of the time was – quite a profitable industry had been built up around the practice.
We Sell Our Silence; We Sell Our Soul.
Turning the Temple into a marketplace is a clear example of how we, as humans, tend to adapt to the current culture and its practices, even if it comes at the cost of our internal lives. The above passage is about Jewish people who had developed an ingenious workaround that allowed them to keep one foot in the Roman world and another in the Jewish world. However, when we sell our silence for convenience, we "sell our soul" at yard sale prices.
Often I find myself straddling this spiritual fence and rationalizing doing what I want to do, even if it goes against what I know I must do. Also, instead of waiting and listening for internal promptings, I sometimes cross my fingers, close my eyes, and hope for the success of my personal, surface-level promptings. (“Ready, Fire, Aim!”) It hurts to admit it, but I believe that Jesus is teaching there can be no "dual citizenship” in the world he envisions. We sell our silence; we sell our soul.
That’s why Jesus risked his life to remind them that the original intention of the temple was a "house of prayer.” He was not envisioning modern-day prayer where I say a few nice things “about God to God” and then recite a list of my personal requests. That can be done anywhere, anytime. However, when Jesus used the word “prayer," he meant contemplation, meditation, and active listening - requiring periods of solitude and a place to receive inspired thoughts. Jesus modeled individual worship/prayer/silence in the countryside and villages by frequently separating himself from the crowd. The Temple was designed to be a house where this could be done collectively.
In a busy and loud society, the temple was to be a place of solitude, where one could come in, shut out the physical, and allow the spiritual. It was to serve as the foundation for Jesus’ way of living.
Just imagine the difference between walking into a noisy temple, presenting your sacrifice, and asking for forgiveness and blessings versus entering a place of holy silence and humbly saying to your inner being, “Thy will be done,” and then listening until you know what to do.
My Takeaway.
It’s key to have a place and time for silence, to disconnect from the physical, connect with my source, and see myself as part of the Creator’s ongoing process. This first step will give rise to inspiring thoughts that trigger positive energy. Then, it’s up to me to convert these thoughts into actions, which will alter my behavior and character. This first step is how I experience the “freedom-making” truth. This first step gives me the ideas that turn my future vision into a reality. This is the crucial first step in “how to believe."
“Living my life without silence and a vision of the future is like treading water in someone else’s pool. And believe me, I’ve been there.”
This practice of individual silence could only be enhanced when others join for a time of collective solitude, followed by a discussion of common inspired thoughts and agree on the course of group action. This type of collective would require a “temple," not a “marketplace." And don’t forget, according to Jesus, this temple must be a "temple for all nations." Now, that's interesting. Wouldn’t that be letting in women, minorities, gays, lesbians, Republicans, and Democrats? You bet! Remember, in his new world, there are no labels. Jesus risked his life to teach us that lesson.
It just may be that the fulfilling life you've been craving starts with silence.
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It just may be that the fulfilling life you've been craving starts with silence. 〰️
In our next section, we will take a look at how the crowd demanded signs and what that might say about you and me.
(*) I use“promptings” and “internal promptings” to emphasize my belief that Jesus was not hearing some magical, audible voice from heaven but was sensing this leadership deep within himself. This is a pivotal point because I believe that we can access that same leadership within ourselves. It's not experienced as "hearing voices" but as silent, almost subliminal, insights and ideas that become more distinct as we become more experienced in listening. Whether we take action on these ideas is left to us.
