T HE AKAN PEOPLE of Ghana have a symbol called “Sankofa.” It’s a combination of several words. ‘San’ means to go back, ‘ko’ means to go, and ‘fa’ means to look and take. So together, this word Sankofa means to go back and take what you need to move forward.
The Akan people use the image of a bird reaching back to take an egg from its back to represent Sankofa.
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TODAY, WE GO BACK to an event that is recorded in all four gospels. We go back to see and take what we need to move forward.
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which are called the Synoptic Gospels because they are similar, the tantrum in the temple is recorded as taking place during Holy Week, which leads directly to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
John places this angry event toward the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It’s not for us today to address why John locates is so early, other than to say John again and again wants us, the reader, to know that Jesus is one with authority and kinship. Authority from God. Kinship with God.
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CROWDS SWELL the population of Jerusalem at Passover, bringing an increased need for services, not least of all access to the temple’s sacrificial rites. Crowds heighten the potential for disturbance and therefore the increased presence of Roman troops for crowd control.
In this volatile setting, Jesus makes a whip, drives out animals, people selling them, and money changers; he pours out their money and tips over their tables.
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TWICE WE READ the word “remember.” The disciples remembered/recalled. Looking back on the event the disciples saw and took what they needed to move forward.
First, the disciples remember Psalm 69. Jesus is like the righteous sufferer of Psalm 69: one whose “zeal” for God’s house and statutes made him a target for his enemies. These enemies greatly outnumber him, but he is steadfast in his reliance on God’s deliverance.
Praising God in song, the psalmist concludes, is more valuable than “an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs”!
Like Jesus, the psalmist has a different understanding of how one is to prepare for a holy day. Rituals and sacrifices should be done out of true devotion to the Lord. Jesus will also face explicit opposition in Jerusalem in later chapters, but he remains fixed on God’s mission for him, even though it leads him to the cross.
In fact, while on the cross Jesus quotes Psalm 69:21, thereby inviting the Gospel audience, us, to remember John 2. For John, Jesus is a righteous sufferer even when — or perhaps especially when — what he does looks outrageous.
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THE APOSTLE PAUL reminds the Corinthians (and us) that God’s wisdom is more expansive than we can imagine. Paul describes the way of the cross as “foolish.” We are shown the way forward, even if God’s way feels foolish, counter-cultural, disruptive, or uncomfortable.
We look back to this turbulent table-turning and take with us the good news that God upends our value systems and norms, and comes to us in unexpected ways.
The Akan principle of Sankofa holds that it is good to go back to get what you need to move forward.
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AS WE LOOK BACK, what tables need to be turned? What assumptions, beliefs, or practices need to be upended? Where do you allow the foolishness of the Spirit to show you the way?
It is not until the resurrection that the disciples remember/recall what Jesus says this day in the temple:
Destroy the temple and I will raise it again in three days.
Not rebuild but “raise.” Even though Jesus’ confrontation against the money changers occurs toward the beginning of the gospel of John, it foreshadows Jesus’ trial, death and resurrection.
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THE TEMPLE was the meeting place between the God of Israel and God’s people. The temple was a holy place. It was a place where humans and the divine met.
The body of Jesus is the new “holy place.” The body of Jesus is the location of God. Jesus is the point of connection between divine and human life. It’s not that what the money changers were doing was wrong, but what they were doing would no longer be necessary in the new order Jesus had come to bring.
Little (if any) of this was clear to the disciples at the start of Jesus’ ministry. They needed more time and more experience with Jesus to understand.
Twice in this text we read “his disciples remembered … .” Remembering Scripture. Remembering Jesus’ own words. Gradually, they come more fully to understand how Jesus serves the God who has sent him out of love for the world.
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THE AKAN PRINCIPLE of Sankofa holds that it’s not wrong to go back to get what you need to move forward. As we come to the table, we remember the night of Jesus’ arrest. We remember his crucifixion. We remember his death, resurrection, and ascension.
When we take the bread and cup, we remember Jesus.
Again and again, we are shown the way. May we fearlessly and with gratitude receive what we’ve already been given.
