WONDERING GURU
3rd
March 2024, Third Sunday of Lent, Year B
Who/What is desecrating your temple?
Exodus
20:1-17 Or 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25
Fr.
Nelson Lobo OFM Cap
I. Passover in the Temple: The
Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The Passover was
the annual commemoration of the great deliverance of the people from the land
of slavery (Ex. 12). A one-year-old male lamb without blemish was killed in the
afternoon. That evening a detailed family celebration took place. Many oxen and
sheep were offered up in sacrifice to God as the Festival of Unleavened Bread
continued for seven more day (Ezek. 45:21). The temple area was always crowded
during Passover with thousands of out-of-town pilgrims. The religious leaders
crowded it even further by allowing money changers and merchants to set up
booths in the court of the Gentiles. The temple tax had to be paid in local currency,
so foreigners had to have their money ex-changed. The money changers often
would charge exorbitant rates with commissions. The people were required to
make substitutionary sacrifices as offerings for their sins. Because of the
long journey, many could not bring animals. Some who brought animals would have
them rejected for imperfections. So, animal merchants had a thriving business,
a business they moved into the temple court yard. It was profitable to the
sellers, and no doubt to the priests. And so, being convenient for all and
profitable to many, the thing became a recognized institution. But the
religious leaders did not seem to care that the court of the Gentiles was so
full of merchants that people found it difficult to worship. And worship was
the main purpose for visiting the temple.
II. Purifying the Temple: The
temple was firmly established, and at the centre of Jewish religious life. The
people believed that the temple was the place where God in heaven met people on
earth. It was a symbol of God’s relationship with His people, and it served as
a constant reminder of God’s claim upon their lives. The temple took 46 years to build, and
tradition surrounded it stretched back to the reigns of King David and his son,
King Solomon. But something was
desperately wrong. It had become something other than what God intended it to
be. It had become corrupt! Therefore, we see that Jesus attacks the root
of all evil, money (I Timothy 6:10). God’s temple was being misused by people
who had turned it into a marketplace. They had forgotten, or didn’t care, that
God’s house is a place of worship, not a business nor a place for making a
profit. Many commentators see this as the fulfilment of Mal. 3:1ff. God’s
promised purification of His temple. Jesus made a whip (of rope or reeds) and
chased out the money changers. It was
the first public appearance of Jesus before His nation as Messiah. He
inaugurates His work by a cleansing and a claim. He cleansed the temple of
distractors and distractions and claimed it His right by an act of authority
that indicated Him to be the King of Israel and the Lord of the Temple.
III. Passion for the
Temple: His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal
for Your house will consume me.” The effect of Jesus’ courageous zeal on the
disciples was to remind them of Ps. 69:9. The action of Jesus revealed the
inward passion He had for God. It gave evidence of a consuming zeal for the
house of God and ancient Scriptures found their fulfilment in what He did. Jesus exercised His right as the only
begotten Son of God. He took the oppressive, disruptive, evil dealings in the
temple as an insult against God, and thus He did not deal with it half-heartedly.
He was consumed with righteous anger against such flagrant disrespect for God’s
place of worship.
CONCLUSION: The cleansing of the temple in
Jerusalem, is a picture of Christ entering into the human body and cleansing
the soul so the body can become a temple of Christ. The first great cleansing in our lives is to
attack the root of all evil, money (I Timothy 6:10). The real temple, the real place God wants
to live, the real place of worship and prayer is the human heart. If Jesus took
such zeal to cleanse a temporary earthly temple, imagine the zeal He
experiences in giving God a proper place of worship in your life. He has a
passion that your heart not be clutter with the world but be set aside as a
place of prayer and worship. You see when Christ comes into the temple there
can be no other gods. When Christ comes into the temple it is to be a place of
prayer, of communion with God the Father. That and that alone is to be the
priority and the purpose. So, when Christ comes into my temple – into my life –
he comes to cleanse. He comes to cleanse me of my sin. He comes to cleanse me
of personal ambition, passions and gods that take me away from God my father.
He comes to overturn and drive out my money tables, all the places where I
exchange the things of God for the lesser things of this world.
Jesus drove out those who
desecrated the Temple. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit-Who is desecrating
your temple? What tables in your temple need overturned and cleansed? Remember
the purpose of cleansing – to bring healing and restoration. When Christ comes
into my life to cleanse it is to restore me to wholeness of life. It is not
just to overturn tables – it has a purpose to make my temple/life a place of
prayer and communion with the Father. Will I be like the religious leaders
annoyed and offended at Christ’s cleansing?
“If Christ showed such zeal in cleansing an earthly
temple, He will use zeal in cleansing another temple, the believer’s life, also”.
