Third Sunday of Lent (B)

 

Third Sunday of Lent (B)  [Jn 2:13-25]

03.03.2024

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Readings: (1) Ex 20:1-17 (2) 1 Cor 1:22-25

1. Theme in brief:

Rebuilding the temple of our hearts

2. Focus Statement:

We need to rebuild the ‘temple’ of our hearts and minds by cleansing them of all profanities, evil, unjust and exploitative attitudes so that we can worship God in spirit and truth.     

3. Explanation of the text

The OT prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos preached that God was not pleased only with exterior cult or animal sacrifices if Israelites neglected obedience to him and justice to their people. The dramatic cleansing of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem by Jesus about which we heard in today’s gospel was in harmony with such a prophetic protest. But, according to John’s Gospel, it was more than just a prophetic gesture. It prefigured the great sign of his death and resurrection. By this action, Jesus showed that he had come not only to purify the Jewish temple and its cultic worship but also to replace it and its worship altogether with a new temple and worship (2:21). From now on his resurrected and glorified body would become the new temple where people could offer true worship (2:21-22), not by offering animal sacrifices but by worshipping God in spirit and truth (Jn 4:24). Or, in another sense, he might have meant his sacrificed body on the cross would be the new temple that would open its gates for believers to offer spiritual sacrifices.

Today’s gospel depicts Jesus showing a “righteous anger” at the desecration of God’s temple by Jewish traders and money-changers (2:14). The same Spirit that drove Jesus into the desert drove him into the temple and gave him the courage to drive out profaners and profiteers. He wanted to purify religion by purging it of unjust, profane and dishonest practices. He observed a twofold injustice and exploitation of Jewish pilgrims that was going on in the outermost portion of the temple called the Court of the Gentiles, at the time of Passover feast: (1) The traders took advantage of the pilgrims’ inconvenience to bring their own sacrificial animals from distant places for an offering. So they kept cattle, sheep and doves for sale (2:11,15) in the outer court meant for Gentiles to pray, so that the pilgrims could buy them. They charged a higher price by claiming them to be pure and unblemished for sacrificial purpose as per Jewish law. (2) The money-changers offered to exchange their foreign currency with local coins at a good discount, since it was not permitted to pay the temple tax with foreign coins.

Jesus was enraged at this type of fleecing of pilgrims done in the name of religion that was carried out with the active collusion of religious authorities. Making a whip of cords, he drove out the traders and the money-changers who had their vested interests (2:15). [John does not mention clearly whether Jesus really lashed them with his whip.] However, he was harsher at the dove-sellers and rebuked them strongly for making his Father’s house a marketplace (2:16), most probably because the doves were bought by poor people for offering sacrifices. He saw how religion was mixed up with money, business and power, and how people with vested interests had found a way to use a place of worship for their own ends. He could no longer remain a passive spectator to this type of injustice done in the name of religion and might have decided to act, knowing well the consequences he would have to face. Thus he challenged the abuse of the place of worship for business purposes.

Jesus’ zeal for God’s house or his intense devotion to God led him to be prepared to face any suffering or hardship that would come as a consequence. John says that later on Jesus’ disciples “remembered” that, by this sort of protest, he was fulfilling what was written in the Scripture (Ps 69:9) that zeal for God’s house would burn within him like a fire which would totally consume him (2:17). “Remembering” is a technical term to refer to the process by which the community gradually came to realize that Jesus was the fulfilment of OT promises only after his resurrection (2:22).

The Jewish authorities wanted him to prove that he had divine authority to act the way he did by providing them a sign from God (2:18). Jesus told them that his resurrection would be the greatest sign: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (2:19). True to the principle of misunderstanding commonly followed in John’s gospel, the Jewish authorities did not understand that he referred to the temple of his own body. They thought he was threatening to destroy the greatest symbol of their religious and national pride, the magnificent temple of Jerusalem (2:20-21). What he meant was the “sanctuary of his body” that had to be destroyed to make us temples of the living God (1 Cor 6:19-20).

4. Application to life

Cleansing of the temple of Jerusalem by Jesus was a sign that indicated his desire to do an inner cleansing of our hearts and minds, if ever we are willing to submit ourselves to his cleansing power. Since we are in Lenten season, today’s gospel text calls us to undergo a process of inner purification of the temple of our bodies and hearts and cleanse our society from all defilement with more vigour and ardour.

St. Paul is fully in line with Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel when he tells Christians that their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19). Since their bodies are living temples of the Holy Spirit, he calls them to glorify or honour God with their bodies (1 Cor 6:20). Now (Lent) is the appropriate time to examine whether we have profaned these holy temples by making them marketplaces or business centres by our sins/ unfaithfulness to God/ unjust and ungodly ways. What defiles our bodies, minds and hearts? Of course, our sins, polluted minds, evil intentions, uncontrolled or unbridled passions and desires. Now is the time to acknowledge that, instead of honouring God with our bodies/ minds/ hearts, we have dishonoured and defiled them with all this garbage. Therefore, the Lord challenges us, just as he did to the Jewish authorities, to destroy the defiled temple of our sinful and old self (ego) in order to rebuild it with the glory of Christ at Easter.

Though our bodies or hearts become the dwelling place of the Spirit by our baptism, we are tempted to turn them into marketplaces or trade centres by following a hedonistic philosophy of life: “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”; by doing ‘body-worship’; by becoming slaves to various types of pornographic literature especially through the mass media; by abusing our or others’ bodies by various acts of immorality; by misusing religious and spiritual places/ powers/ positions/ practices for profiteering; by misusing religion for political and business purposes and exploitation, especially of the weaker sections of our society. It is high time for us to repent for the times we turned our temples into marketplaces, and if we have mixed up religion with power, money and politics.

Is it true that we sing and pray with the fullest volume in the external temple (church or place of worship) and do not bother to listen to the voice of the Spirit going on in the internal temple of our hearts? This voice prompts us to purge our temple of greed, jealousy, resentment, bitterness, hatred, dishonest/ corrupt/ exploitative desires stored up there. If we fail to purge, these things may become the traders and money-changers sitting inside the temple of our hearts and interfering in the true worship of God. Then our prayer and worship will turn out to be merely an exterior religiosity or piety. Jesus challenges us to destroy this exterior temple and practice interior worship or worship of the heart. If sinful habits are deeply rooted in our hearts, perhaps we need a fierce Jesus who displays ‘righteous anger’ and cracks the whip to cleanse our inner temple. In this Lenten season, today’s gospel invites us to make a choice: either to drive out the traders and the money changers from our hearts, or else to drive out Christ who becomes a stumbling block for our worship of false gods. The question is whether we want to be cleansed or whether we desire holiness with all sincerity and seriousness.

We can draw two great lessons from this gospel text that points to Christ’s resurrection after the destruction of the temple of his own body: (1) Now the worship of God is not limited to temple (or church) alone, because we believe that the whole world is filled with the Risen Lord’s presence. He can be worshipped anywhere in spirit and truth. Now in workplaces and fields, on streets and at home we can search for him and find him in faith in the inner temple of our hearts.

(2) Now the whole world has become God’s temple, because Jesus has become the Lord of the universe by his resurrection. If so, we have a responsibility to cleanse the world or human society whenever it is defiled due to injustice, corruption and exploitation. Hence, we should keep in mind that any worship which compromises or closes its eyes on any evil in society, any of the crimes against humanity, any unjust and oppressive structures, and negates our responsibility to build up a just society, is not a true worship at all. Like Jesus we too are called to raise a prophetic protest whenever God’s temple is profaned or defiled with injustice, and take great pains to cleanse it.

Not only each one of us is a temple of God, but we as a community are also a temple, because Paul says, “You [together] are that temple” (1 Cor 3:17), and "You [together] are the body of Christ." (1 Cor 12:27). We or our believing community are the Church. The Church of Christ is also constantly in need of purification and a return to her basic call to be holy. Besides personal sins of her members, sinful structures of our society and the collaboration of her members with them also defile her. Within the Church also, like Jewish traders and money-changers, there is always a temptation to make use of religious practices, novenas, healing sessions, pilgrimage centres, financial contributions, rituals and religious feasts for one’s financial gains, business, profit, name and fame, etc. Are we on our guard not to succumb to these temptations?

Our zeal for the Father’s house is a zeal for justice, truth and honesty. The zeal of Jesus, his passion or inner feeling for the Father’s house consumed him (2:17) to such an extent that he could not tolerate injustice and profanation of the temple. What about us? Do we tolerate such evil very easily? Like the Jewish authorities, we too want to see miraculous signs and wonders from God rather than living the spirit of religion which implies doing good and working for justice. We must examine and see whether, like Jesus whose love for his Father’s house and for our salvation consumed him totally to the point of laying down his life on the cross, we too are burning with the same zeal for his cause and values; whether we resent at evil, unjust and corrupt ways of the world, or tolerate them/ compromise with them and even collude with them like Jewish religious authorities. Lenten Season is the right time to rekindle our zeal for God’s mission and re-build the temple of our bodies (life), world (society) and the Church.

5. Response to God's Word

What defiles our minds and hearts: Personal sins? Mass media? Brainwashing by bad companions? Crooked and violent mindset? Resentment and hatred? Greed for wealth and power? Do we feel the cost of making sacrifices in order to live a holy, honest and selfless life? Are we burning with the same zeal for God’s cause and values? Do we resent at evil, unjust, exploitative and corrupt ways of the world at least by showing our displeasure in our own little ways, or keep quiet or even collude with them? Instead of allowing zeal for God’s house to consume most of our available time, do we allow it to be consumed by gossip, loitering, too many TV serials, excessive or obsessive surfing of the internet and attending parties after parties? If our bodies are temples of God, how do we treat them, and how do we treat the bodies of children, boys/girls, men/women, enemies/opponents?

6. A prayer

Father, you have made your Son Jesus the new temple. Grant that we may worship you in spirit and in truth in the temple of our hearts, of our day-to-day world and of our faith-community. Be with us as we undertake a journey of inner purification in this Lent. Fill us with the courage of your Spirit so that we may be able to protest in our own little ways against the forces that defile the temple of our world and society. Amen.