Muriel Sowden. In the Temple people had been trying to buy God’s favour with sacrifices. They thought that righteousness was a commodity they could buy and that if they made the right offerings at the right time, they could be assured of salvation; believing that salvation was in their own hands and not God’s hands. Jesus was trying to show them that this was not the way. His actions in the Temple that day effectively brought the Temple worship to a complete standstill. Jesus offers us a pattern for a Christian response in the secular world to bring about justice in the name of Christ. The Church needs to constantly call for justice and solidarity in both national and international economic relations. This is trying to live out the Ten Commandments, our first reading this Sunday, from the book of Exodus. God’s eternal, perfect law. As relevant today, in our age as it has ever been. So the cleansing of the temple - what at first may seem like a straightforward case of "zeal for the Lord's house" actually has deeper levels of meaning. It has to do with the replacement of the old way of worshipping God with a new way of relating to God. His ridding the Temple of all that is unclean and sinful can also be seen as a metaphor for his work in us. First he converts us to new life, then he sets about transforming us to be more Christ-like. The Jerusalem temple then ultimately is symbolic of the body of Christ himself. Through baptism, we become part of that body, and we are sustained by grace. The Temple of God is not a building. The temple of God is God’s holy people. We are God’s holy temple. A sermon for the third Sunday in Lent. The readings were Exodus 20.1-17 and John 2.13-22.
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free