Offering ourselves to Christ through daily prayer and service
Reflections on the readings for the Third Sunday of Lent (March 7, 2021): EX 20:1-17; PS 19:8,9,10,11; 1COR 1:22-25; JN 2:13-25
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:19
The famous incident of Jesus driving the moneychangers from the Jerusalem Temple is recounted in all four of the Gospels. The Temple was intended to be a place to worship God. It had traditionally used the sacrifice of animals to show devotion and to fulfill certain rites. In John’s version, we see Christ entering the place designated for the moneychangers who exchanged Roman and other coins for Jewish ones. These were the only acceptable coins to buy animals or offer as alms. He makes a whip out of cords, driving away the dealers and their sheep, oxen, and doves. Jesus overturns their tables, spilling the coins, and generally creating havoc. This is not the image of Jesus that we are used to seeing. But He uses the dramatic event to demonstrate important ideas. These moneychangers and animal dealers are cheating the people through coin exchange. More than that, the very nature of the system caused poor people to suffer because, as good Jews, they were forced to sacrifice at various times, even when they could barely afford it. The people who witness our Lord’s actions demand by what right – by what sign – He does this seemingly outrageous act. “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’… He was speaking about the temple of His body. Therefore, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken” (John 2:19, 21-22).
Jesus is letting all who look and listen to eventually understand that He has replaced the Temple as the focus of all who truly follow God’s laws. They need to accept that He alone is the Son of God. In sacrificing Himself for our sins, these other sacrifices revealed as unnecessary. Indeed, no Temple sacrifice could ever accomplish what our Savior did. God wants our adoration shown through our love for Him and for our neighbors – those half a block and half a world away. In taking the way of Christ, we offer our own lives to Him and develop the spiritual relationship that He wants with each of us. And in doing so, He will raise us up from the dead as well.
