INTRODUCTION
Today’s readings from Holy Scripture teach us that Lent is the ideal time to clean out the Temple of our own hearts and to offer to God proper Divine worship by obeying His Commandments.
FIRST READING: Exodus 20:1-17
The first reading of the first Sunday of Lent presented us with the account of the covenant God made with Noah. Last week being the second Sunday of Lent we heard about the Covenant promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. And on this third Sunday of Lent God fulfilled the promise He made to Abraham by establishing a Covenant with his descendants through Moses at Mount Sinai. Unlike the preceding Covenants, the Covenant that God established with the exile returnees was sealed with the Ten Commandments which the people avowed to observe.The Ten Commandments known as the decalogue are directives or instructions meant to keep the people in a healthy Covenant relationship with their God. They are founded on two basic principles; the principle of reverence and the principle of respect. The first four commandments demand reverence for God, reverence for His Holy Name, reverence for His Holy Day (Sabbath), and reverence for our father and mother. The rest are commandments to respect life, to respect the bodies of other persons, to respect their marriage bonds, to respect their property, to respect the good name of people everywhere, and to respect our neighbour’s wife and his property. Jesus summarized all these commandments into two: love of God and love of neighbour and later clarified the latter further: “Love others as I have loved you.”
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
In his theology of the Cross which is the nucleus of his teaching, St. Paul teaches how the Cross is a wood of scandal, or “stumbling block,” to the Jews and “foolishness” to Gentiles but a Wood of salvation to the Christians. For the Jews, it is unthinkable to associate a crucified Christ to the concept of a triumphant political Messiah. In other words, the Christ cannot possibly be a rebel, a traitor, a criminal whose end is the cross. The true Messiah is meant to set the people free from foreign oppression and not the one who ended up on the cross. In the same manner, the idea of a suffering God Who was crucified and who rose again did not appeal to the intelligentsia of Corinth who considered it an affront to their dualistic tendency to write off the body as valueless! This was the same fate of the Apostle at Athens the seat of greek philosophy: “At this mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing; others said, ‘We would like to hear you talk about this another time” (Acts 17:32).
However, the Apostle simply reminds the Corinthians that the mystery of the Cross is hidden in the eternal wisdom of God which is not revealed to all, and inaccessible to mundane intelligence: “The ‘foolishness’ of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the ‘weakness’ of God is stronger than human strength.”
Like the Corinthians, this second reading reminds us that while human reason is important to better appreciate our faith, it must always remain at the service faith. For it is only by faith that we can appreciate and live out in various ways the Divine “foolishness” of the crucified Christ and obey His commandment of love as expression of our Divine worship.
GOSPEL: John 2:13-25
The Passover feast was a major Jewish festival which often attracted pilgrims from all over Palestine and beyond into Jerusalem. It was also an occasion for the practicing Jews to pay their annual Temple tax. The synoptic gospels (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48) make only one reference to Jesus’ participation in the Passover feast, and that was shortly after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a scene that could be referred to as the beginning of his passion. For the synoptic evangelists, the action of Jesus in this scene demonstrated the height of his power and popularity which fueled the fires of his conflict with the religious authority.
Unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke, John places the incident at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The interest of John was not to show when Jesus cleansed the Temple, but rather to present this act of cleansing as prophesied of the Messiah. In John’s account it was rather the raising of Lazarus from death that fueled the conflict between Jesus and his adversaries and one of the principal reasons for his arrest, trial and crucifixion (John 11-12).
WHICH TEMPLE DID JESUS CLEANSE?
The Temple in Jerusalem was not only the place the Jews carried out common worship and sacrifices, it was equally a symbol of their national unity and inseparable from their identity as a people.
The first Temple was built by king Solomon on Mount Moriah in 966 BC to replace the tabernacle that had been Israel’s portable place of worship. We remember how God rejected the offer of David to build a house for Him and rather opted for one of his sons (2 Sam. 7:1-13).
This Temple was later destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC who took all the healthy Jews as slaves. But on their return from exile, after some 70 years in captivity, the Jews rebuilt the Temple in 515 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel of the House of David.
Next, in the year 167 BC this rebuilt Temple was damaged and desecrated by Greek conqueror Antiochus IV Epiphanes, thus stripping off the Temple its value. Subsequently, the jewish revolt under Judas Maccabaeus saw the cleansing and restoration of the Temple again in 164 B.C.
The Temple was again plundered and damaged by the Roman generals Pompey (63 BC) and Crassus (54 BC) respectively.
For some years, it remained under ruin until the year 20 BC when King Herod the Great began the work of renovation and in a more expanded structure. This Temple was referred to as the Second Temple because its reconstruction was on the foundation of the temple built under Zerubbabel in 515 BC.
Therefore, it was this Temple rebuilt by Herod the Great that Jesus did his controversial cleansing today, though in the outer courtyard known as the Court of the Gentiles, because Gentiles were allowed to enter in it for prayers and not in the inner Temple. It is within this Court of the Gentiles that animals are sold for sacrifices and monies exchanged for Temple offerings and taxes as required for the maintenance of the Temple.
THE REASONS FOR JESUS’ FURY:
A. It is good to understand that the selling of animals and changing of money were normal practices and originally meant no abuses. The merchants selling animals and the money changers had converted the whole thing into a serious business in the likeness of a marketplace with noise in the Court of the Gentiles that made it impossible for the Gentiles to worship Yahweh. Beside this:
(i) The merchants sold the animals and birds for sacrifice at unjust and exorbitant prices thereby making excess profits.
(ii) Those who were charged with the duty of inspecting the animals to make sure that no unblemished animals are brought in for sacrifices as instructed in the Law (Lev. 17:1-27; 22; Mal. 1:8) often disqualified even the healthy animals brought by poor shepherds and farmers for sacrifice obliging them to buy from the merchants at the Temple booths. At the end of the day, the merchants would give them their own share from the excess profits made.
B. The Temple authorities, by sharing the profit made by the merchants and moneychangers, converted it into a “hideout of thieves” (Mark 11:17; Luke 19:45). Roman coins, bearing the images of pagan gods and the emperor for whom godhead was claimed, were forbidden as offering in the Temple. The moneychangers, who exchanged the Temple coin (Galilean shekel) with Roman coins, demanded 1/6 of the value of the coin as their commission, even from the poor people who had to pay one and a half days of their daily wage as their annual Temple tax. What especially enraged Jesus was not that a fee was being charged, but that the amount being charged to the poor was exorbitant and, hence, unjust. What was happening was a great social injustice done in the name of religion.
By chasing the moneychangers and merchants from the Temple, Jesus was questioning the validity of the entire sacrificial system itself — of Israel’s ability to atone for its sins, be forgiven and stand in right relationship with God.
John justifies the anger of Jesus with the additional phrase from the Psalmist “Zeal for Your house consumes me” (Ps.69:9). It was this zeal that propelled Jesus’ “holy anger” that challenged religious practice that was simply external.
JESUS REPLACES THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM WITH HIS BODY:
Through the mouth of John Jesus quotes Zechariah 14:21, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace. The central message here was not simply that of cleansing of the Temple but mystic replacement of the Temple with the body of Jesus.
The Temple in Jerusalem on the hill of Zion was the place where God made His dwelling according the account of the Old Covenant. But with the coming of Jesus, the physical Temple was no longer important in the life of the Chosen people. For the Temple had suffered series of destruction in the course of history because it was built with human hands. Today Jesus promises an end to the old order and suggested a new Temple that will manifest the glory of God not in a building, but in His Person.
This message remained afresh in the mind of the early Christians who after the resurrection of Jesus no longer considered the idea of Temple as a construction with mortar and stones because Jesus had replaced and superseded everything the Temple had formerly symbolized. By his prophetic actions in the Temple today, Jesus made it clear that the God Who gave the Law on Sinai could not be bought by sacrifice or bribe. Jesus is the Temple in Whom His followers come into contact with God.
It was the Sadducees (responsible for the transaction in the Temple) who challenged the chaos caused by Jesus by disrupting the Temple system during one of the most significant feasts of the year, so that neither sacrifices nor tithes could be offered that day. They questioned His authority. And through His response, He created a greater chaos “destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it”. The Sadducees took this literally as a blasphemy and a motive to crucify Him. They took Him as one of those who had ruined their Temple in the past and would not give any chance before such could happen again. Thus they sought quickly to eliminate Him before He reduces the Temple and the holy site in Judaism to rubble. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
LIFE MESSAGES
1) WE NEED TO AVOID A CALCULATING MENTALITY IN DIVINE WORSHIP
Our relationship with God must be that of a child to his parent, one of mutual love, respect and a desire for the family’s good, with no thought of personal loss or gain. Hence, fulfilling our Sunday obligation only out of fear of mortal sin and consequent eternal punishment (a loss), is a non-Christian approach. In the same way, obeying the commandments and doing acts of charity merely as prerequisites for Heavenly reward (a gain), are acts driven by a profit motive, of which Jesus would not approve. Hence, let us ask these questions during this third week of Lent: Can leading worship become simply a business for the clergy for which they are paid? Do the laity sometimes think that they are “paying” the minister to do the worship for them — thinking, “we pay them to do this for us”? Do we think of God as a vending machine into which we put our sacrifices and good deeds to get back His blessings? Do we use our acts of obedience to the Ten Commandments as bargaining chips with God? The theologian Karl Rahner put it this way: “The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles are what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.”
2) WE NEED TO LOVE OUR PARISH CHURCH AND USE IT
Our Church is the place where we come together as a community to love and praise God. It is the holy place where we gather strength to support one another in the task of living the Gospel. It is the place where we come privately to enter into intimate conversation with God. In this building many prodigal sons and daughters have met the merciful Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and have been welcomed back to our community. In this building, tears have been shed by those in pain and grief. Let’s look around our Church this morning and treasure it. When we pass our Church, we might take the time to make a brief visit. Let us make our Church even more of a holy place by adding our prayers and songs to parish worship and offering our time and talents in the various ministries. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil).
3) THE WHIP OF JESUS TODAY
Today Jesus made a whip for those who call on the name of God and yet commit evil under the guise of religion. What type of whip will Jesus make for us Christians today and for our world?
i) Certainly He will make a whip for religious authorities (bishops, priests and deacons) and all those charged with guiding the faith of His people but who have deviated in many ways through moral decadence (betrayal of chaste life, child abuse) power lobbing and materialism.
ii) He will make whip for those who chose to deviate from the sacrosanct nature of marriage. Today, cohabitation statistics are up six-fold. Contrary to popular belief, “trial marriage” — living together followed by marriage — is a statistical predictor of later divorce. Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and not for experimenting pleasure at will. The culture of cohabitation does not represent the Christian culture.
iii) He will make whip for those who have reduced marriage to trial and error reducing to nothing the binding vow made in the name of God. Today, the divorce rate has doubled, and happiness in surviving marriages has slightly declined.
iv) He will make whip for those who no longer consider the need for children to enjoy the warmth of parents. Statistics show that in late last century, five percent of babies were born to unwed parents. Today, more than 27 percent of all children are raised by single parents.
v) He will make whip for those who are abusing the sanctity of human life through acts and legislations. Today abortions continue almost unchecked and people continue to agitate for an extension of time in a pregnancy during which an abortion will still be legal.
vi) He will make whip for me if I fail to preach the truth of the Gospel and to defend the integrity of the faith. He will make a whip for me for any scandal I cause to the little ones and when I wear an odour different from the odour of the wounded sheep He placed on my shoulders.
vii) All of us have our share of Jesus’ whip but we should not worry for it is not meant to condemn us but to correct us and bring us back to the right path. This is why the Lent is a moment when we should allow ourselves to be chastised by the anger of Jesus so that his mercy will heal us. Every single stripe on His body is caused by every single sin we commit. We can heal His wounds by repairing our faults.
PRAYER
Lord help us to be better Christians who live in consonance with your commandments so that our lives may glorify You here on earth and merit to share in the eternal glory with You where You live and reign with the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, eternal communion, forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
