Lent Continues with Jesus cleansing the Temple

Dear Friends:  Please notice the correction to the ADV men's retreat brochure that Alan handed out this past Sunday.  Guys, I hope you can go to this -- it will really be a blessing to you!!

 

As we move through Lent, we move through the various places in the Gospel accounts where Jesus predicts His death and Resurrection.  The only place such a prediction appears in the Gospel of John is in the passage we are considering this Sunday, John 2:13-22.  It is tied to the famous "Jesus cleansing the Temple" scene, which occurs early in John but late in the other Gospels.

 

Perhaps some of us have heard the saying, "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild."  Well, whoever wrote that never read the story we are considering!!  Here, Jesus goes into the Temple grounds on a major feast day, when lots of visitors to Jerusalem were present to watch, and he overturned tables, chased out cattle, set birds free, and basically tore up the "marketplace" set up by the religious authorities.  Some have considered that Jesus just didn't like the selling of merchandise in God's House.  I have had some faithful believers get very upset at the youth group selling cookies in the Fellowship Hall to raise money for a mission project.  But I'm sorry, such is not the case.

 

What Jesus actually didn't like was the whole way "religion" was being packaged in that day.  For the Passover feast, visitors had to come in and purchase animals for the required sacrificial offerings.  What Jesus didn't like was not the vending of goods; rather, He didn't like this whole way of reaching out to God.  A new way of relating to God was coming.  Jesus' death and Resurrection opened up a whole new relationship with the Divine.  The trappings of the Temple practices were no longer needed.

 

Sometimes the Church has to stand up to practices that just don't relate people to God.  Perhaps Church officials and denominational leaders are teaching and doing things that just don't please God.  Sometimes we have to just run around and "tear up" things, starting afresh when the Church just doesn't please God anymore.

 

There is a whole lot more going on in this passage, but if I were to tell you all that, you might be tempted to sleep in this Sunday!!  So I'll see you then!!