Third Sunday of Lent
“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Summary
Throughout Lent we hear the promises of God, to Noah, to Abraham and this week to Moses: the giving of law at Sinai in Exodus 20:1-17 where God, once more, promises to be our God and outlines the fruits of living as God’s people. This passage echoes the creation story in Genesis: heaven above, earth below and water under the earth are all within God’s care, the stages of the creation end with a remembrance of the sabbath, the day of rest on which God delighted in creation. This is not a new promise, it is, like all the covenants, a re-creation, an invitation to be remade in God’s image. Our gospel, John 2:13-22, can also be read in this way. The violence of Jesus’ actions and the reference to the demolition of the temple may look like destruction but they are a prelude to a rebuilding. The temple, the place where God dwells, is not something that can be made by human hands or controlled by human power. The temple God chooses to dwell in is the body of Christ. These readings are a call to remember who we are, made in God’s image to carry the creative force and loving purpose of God into the world.
FIRST READING
Exodus 20:1-17
Then God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
GOSPEL
John 2.13-22
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.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
