Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Artist's comment:

Yeah, I know this text isn’t about bake sales in the church narthex, but I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that Jesus wouldn’t be crazy about that either.

LECTIONARY

Exodus 20:1–17 

Psalm 19 

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 

John 2:13–22

Summary

Traditionally, Lent was a time when catechumens prepared for baptism and penitent sinners prepared for restoration to the life of the church, and the passages aimed at them appear in Year A. The rest of the congregation was not aloof, but stayed in solidarity with these brothers and sisters, seeing in their situations opportunities for its own instruction and progress.

In the Year B readings, Jesus’ identity as the true Temple is revealed in the light of the Exodus. In driving out the money changers, the true temple purifies the old one. In the same way, Christ purifies us, since our bodies are set aside as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and it is fitting to see Lent as Christ clearing out the impurities in our own hearts to make us into honorable dwelling places for his Spirit. 

Other avenues to explore include the self-authenticating power of the death and Resurrection of Christ (which is what Jesus means by “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”). Paul calls attention to the Jewish preoccupation with signs seen in John 2:18, adding to it the Greek obsession with wisdom, but declares that the crucifixion and resurrection is a sign apt to be missed by the sign-searchers; its wisdom seems like silliness to the philosophers. Simple faith is what unlocks the power and wisdom of God, not an attuned intellect, or a penchant for wonderworking.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

THE WORD:

The temple is the focus of today’s Gospel.  Whereas the Synoptic Gospels place Jesus’ cleansing of the temple immediately after his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem, John places the event early in his Gospel, following Jesus’ first sign at Cana.  While the Synoptics recount only one climactic journey to Jerusalem, the Jesus of John’s Gospel makes several trips to the holy city.

Pilgrims to the temple were expected to make a donation for the maintenance of the edifice.  Because Roman currency was considered “unclean,” Jewish visitors had to change their money into Jewish currency before making their temple gift.  Moneychangers, whose tables lined the outer courts of the temple, charged exorbitant fees for their service.

Visiting worshipers who wished to have a sacrifice offered on the temple altar would sometimes have to pay 15 to 20 times the market rate for animals purchased inside the temple.  Vendors could count on the cooperation of the official temple “inspectors” who, as a matter of course, would reject animals brought in from outside the temple as “unclean” or “imperfect.”

Jesus’ angry toppling of the vendors’ booths and tables is a condemnation of the injustice and exploitation of the faithful in the name of God.  So empty and meaningless has their worship become that God will establish a new “temple” in the resurrected body of the Christ.

Of course, the leaders and people do not appreciate the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words, nor did the people who witnessed his miracles understand the true nature of his Messianic mission.  John’s closing observations in this reading point to the fact that the full meaning of many of Jesus’ words and acts were understood only later, in the light of his resurrection.

HOMILY POINTS:

In the temple precincts of our lives are “money changers” and connivers – fear, ambition, addictions, selfishness, prejudice – that distort the meaning of our lives and debase our relationships with God and with one another.  

Lent is a time to invite the “angry” Jesus of today’s Gospel into our lives to drive out those things that make our lives less than what God created them to be.  To raise one’s voice against injustice, to stand up before the powerful on behalf of the weak, to demand accountability of those who exploit and abuse others for their own gain is to imitate the “holy” anger of Christ.

Our late winter yearning for the newness, freshness, warmth and light of spring mirrors Jesus’ angry expulsion of the merchants from the temple.  Christ comes to bring newness to humankind, to bring a springtime of hope to a people who have lived too long in a winter of alienation and despair.  

Jesus’ cleansing of the temple challenges us to realize that our parish “temple” is called to reflect God’s Kingdom of compassion and peace, healing and justice, in this community.  Everything we do as a parish, from our music to doughnuts after Mass, from religious ed to the quilters’ group, is the revelation of God’s love — and becoming that kind of church begins by “showing up” and contributing to the working of revealing that love in our midst.   

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#march3