March 7, 2021

Homily for the THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

MARCH 7, 2021

AMDG

(Please read: Exodus 20:1-17)

“Through the words of the Gospel, may our sins be wiped away.”

As we read today’s Gospel passage, the one question that you might not want to ask is: what would Jesus do?

Because in this scene from St. John’s Gospel, we see exactly what Jesus did to those who had turned the temple of God into a marketplace.

The tension that arises in today’s Gospel is not something that we might expect.

Yet, to see Jesus make a whip out of cords and to spill all of the coins of the money changers, and even to overturn their tables, is not what we expect from the one who would soon – and with deep humility - forgive those who nailed him to the cross.

Jesus drove everyone out of the temple and told the merchants who were selling doves to get them out of the temple and to stop making “my Father’s house a marketplace.”

What is amazing about this story is the response that it brought out of the apostles AND the people driven from the temple.

The apostles recalled the words of Scripture that say, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” And, it did. Jesus really was consumed with zeal for the house of God.

But the Jews present that day, surprisingly, did not seem to become angry at Jesus. Instead, they asked Jesus to give them a SIGN that would explain why he was turning the day-to-day business of the temple upside down. After all, anyone going to the temple in Jerusalem needed to buy oxen, sheep and doves to offer as sacrifices to God.

And, their normal money was not allowed as they offered their tithes in the temple. They needed to exchange their secular currency for money that was approved for use in the temple. So, they needed the moneychangers to exchange one currency for the other.

But, the problem was that all of these merchants were not set up outside of the temple area. They were all located within the gates of the temple itself.

So, when the Jews asked for a sign from Jesus, he did – in fact – give them a sign. He said to the crowd, “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

This confused the people because they knew that the stone temple in Jerusalem had been under re-construction for the past 46 years. How could anyone destroy it and rebuild it in three days?

But, Jesus was not talking about the temple of Israel. He was talking about the temple of his body that would be crucified and destroyed, but would also be raised up again in three days.

This was the sign of Jesus. But none of the Jews had any understanding of what he meant.

As we see Jesus literally turning the day-by-day workings of the temple upside down, we have to wonder why Jesus did this? Why did Jesus become so angry on this day?

Was he punishing the merchants for their abuse of the temple? Or was he using this as an occasion to teach about his coming death and resurrection?

It seems that what Jesus was doing on this day was taking natural law – something so common that God writes these laws, like the 10 commandments, presented to us in the first reading, on the hearts of every human being – and then moving natural law to perfection. “Keep holy the Sabbath” is taken to the level of perfection: do not defile the temple of God!

To understand this, if we look back at today’s Psalm 19 we heard a reference to this perfection of natural law. Psalm 19 says, “the law of the Lord is PERFECT, refreshing the soul.”

The moneychangers and the merchants sitting behind those overturned tables that day would probably have said, “you need what we sell anyway, so why not make some money at it, right?” It is just common sense.

But Jesus points out by his righteous anger that the “law of the Lord is perfect.”

Jesus is not concerned with money, or even with sacrifices offered to God. Jesus is concerned for the souls of those going to worship his Father in the temple.

As we heard in Psalm 19, Jesus wants to “refresh the souls” of his people by cleansing the temple of the Lord.

So…perhaps that is the reason for the angry response of Jesus on this day.

Or, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Jews were looking for Jesus to give them a sign for why he caused such a ruckus.

The Jews wanted a sign. And, in fact, St. Paul refers to this in today’s second reading. St. Paul writes, “Jews demand signs.” It is just common knowledge, isn’t it?

“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom.”

But, as St. Paul writes, “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

And, in fact, this is the sign that Jesus gives to the Jews at the temple on that day. He proclaimed his own death and resurrection, which was a “stumbling block” to the Jews who thought that he was referring to the destruction of the temple itself.

St. Paul writes also that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Perhaps this is the reality of what we see in today’s Gospel. What the Jews saw happening as Jesus did what was unthinkable – making a whip, and turning over tables – seeing his perceived weakness and his anger; seeing what seemed to be the foolishness of Jesus right before their eyes…yet that weakness and that foolishness is wiser than their wisdom and stronger than their human strength.

They would not understand any of this until they put Jesus to death – and then saw him raised from the dead, and saw his Church growing beyond anything they could have imagined. What is seen as the “foolishness” of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the “weakness” of God is stronger than human strength.

As we reflect on the scriptures today, can you think of any examples that you see of God choosing to show us what we perceive as his weakness and foolishness to test our obedience to him?

Is there anything happening in our world today – or in your own life – where you find yourself wondering, “where is God?” Where is the all-powerful God who has created this universe?

And then you look at that cross, and there he is.

Christ our Savior, who is stripped of his clothes and nailed to a wooden tree. Is there any other depiction that could even come close to the helplessness and the sorrow and the weakness that you see in that crucifixion?

One time, at another parish that I was at years ago, we had our crucifix restored, as this one was. And when the crucifix was back in place, I went over to church to see it. And it was beautifully refinished.

I remember looking at the crucifix and saying, “how beautiful that is!”

But, there was a man working in that church at that time. He was an electrician. He was also not Catholic. And he said, “I think that it is terrible to look at.”

Now, keep in mind, as a Protestant, he would have gone to a church that most likely would have had a cross in place – but not a statue of Jesus on the cross. And, maybe that is why he struggled to look at the crucifix – it really IS hard to look at Jesus depicted on the cross. There is a weakness and a helplessness that is depicted on that cross.

Yet, as Catholics, we also know that without that moment of our Lord’s weakness in suffering for all of humanity, there would be no resurrection. We look at the crucifix, but we see beyond Good Friday. We know that Easter Sunday is the meaning of that crucifix.

Jesus went into the temple and he cleaned house. And the people simply did not understand why he did this. But…one day, they would understand the power and the glory and the wisdom of this man that they simply assumed to be weak, now brought to perfection.

PRAY EVERY DAY!