A Temple to What? - February 23

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 45; PM Psalm 47, 48; Deut. 9:4-12; Heb. 3:1-11; John 2:13-22

Today’s Reflection

“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” –John 2:13-17

In today’s Gospel account, we see in the makings of a counter-cultural lifestyle—Jesus is calling out a polluting of the Temple with the things of this world. He wants to re-orient people, turning them from too much attention to material matters and even the built environment of the Temple itself toward a more transcendent reality that is found through faith in God alone.

As we are called into this life of being set apart, God is not just telling us to live differently, but in so setting us apart, God is saving us from perishing. In telling us to walk this different path, telling us to be set apart, God is pointing us toward the path of life, the path toward what is most lasting—which is a life lived in union with the God who made us and loves us. This is why, when Jesus walked into the Temple that day, he was so incensed. What was meant to be a worship place had become a marketplace.

Jesus was seeking to up-end people’s conception of what the Temple was—and is. People had seen the Temple as a building which had taken them 46 years to build. They saw the Temple as a place where people would travel from far away, and when they arrived they wanted to make sure that the sacrifices they would offer would be good enough.

This sounds familiar, right? Today, so many of us struggle to be seen as good enough—at work, we don’t take time off to rest. In our personal lives, we want to be seen as good enough by acquiring the latest device or fashion, driving the sportiest or most environmentally conscious vehicle, or eating the healthiest and most photo-worthy food. We want to live lives that are enviable because we want to make ourselves feel that we are, indeed, good enough.

This sounds a lot like the culture of the Temple into which Jesus walked that day: Look how hard we have worked to build this Temple. Look at what a great selection of cattle and doves we have for you to choose from, so that you can make the best sacrifice to be good enough in the eyes of God.

But Jesus walked in and he was more than just disappointed—he was angry. Everything that the Temple was supposed to be had become skewed. Just before this passage, we read in John of the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Not only did Jesus make sure they had enough wine, he made sure that the wedding party and guests had the best wine. And later in John, when Jesus talks about his Father’s house, he also talks about it as a place where there is enough room for everyone, it is a place of comfort and plenty and welcome, that he is preparing himself for those who know him.

During this Holy Lent, let us reflect on who we are as a people who God wants to be set apart. How do we spend our time? How do we spend our money? Whether or not you ‘give up’ something this Lent, think about what it means to live into the message of the Cross—which is a message of self-emptying rather than of self-fulfillment—throughout the year.

—Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

Reflect on how the Season of Lent could serve to reorient or reset your life toward God’s kingdom and God’s dream for us. What habit or practice could you give up to make more room in your life for God’ ways to take deeper root in your life? What habit or practice could you take on to re-orient your heart and mind and whole life toward God?

Daily Challenge

To reflect further on these things, read Malcolm Guite’s poems “Ash Wednesday” and “All the Kingdoms of the World,” which are found on his blog. You can even choose to hear the poems read in the poet’s own voice.  (For the second poem, you’ll need to scroll down to find it—and you may want to reflect on the others posted there as well.)