THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 2006 March 19, 2006

Exodus 20:117  Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 1:2225 John 2:1325

1. The German word: Lent which we use to denote the Forty Days before Easter, originally meant nothing more than the Spring Season. We begin that officially tomorrow. Traditionally, it is a time for CLEANING - hence we speak of Spring Cleaning.
 

We bring out the Sheers and light curtains which we will replace for the Winter heavy drapes. Jesus does a different kind of Cleaning in our Gospel today. With a whip he drives out the buyers and sellers. Those familiar with the prophets, will remember the words of the Prophet Zechariah who had said that there would be no more traders in the Temple when the Messiah came. (Zech 14:21) Of course since the Scribes and the Pharisees had their eyes closed, they could not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and so they ask for a Sign. “What Sign can you give us for throwing our buyers and sellers out of the Temple.”

2. John in the Fourth Gospel puts this Cleansing of the Temple at the very beginning of the Gospel. It is a programmatic passage. This will be the pattern that Jesus is going to follow. He is going to clean out the stables of all the debris, all that has accumulated over the centuries. A New Order has come ! 

 John in the Fourth Gospel will also give a whole set of Signs that the Scribes and Pharisees are demanding. He will not speak of Miracles, each one of the Acts of Jesus will be a sign for them, each one of what the other Evangelists call Miracles will be a Road Sign pointing in the direction of the Messiah they were eagerly waiting for, but who would not fit in their pre-conceived Image of the Messiah. Having Eyes, these Scribes would not see, having ears, these Pharisees would not hear.

3. Each Spring, we have the spring cleaning, and each Lent we too are called to clear out the Temple of all the idols and false images we have erected during the past Year or years. In our First reading, Moses receives the Word from the Lord. We call them Commandments today. But the meaning of the word Decalogue means Ten Words given to us by the Lord. And the first One sets the Tone. “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have any false gods, or graven images.”

 Unfortunately, many of us have put our minds, hearts and soul on the E-Bay of life for a price. Esau sold his inheritance to Jacob for a Bowl of Soup, what are we giving up our souls for ?

4. The clue for our acting like this is our very way of thinking. We see this in our second reading.

• The Jews had a preconception of what the Messiah had to be. He would come in triumph, he would rid them of the Occupying Power of the Romans, he would keep the law, he would stay away from the Tax Collectors, the Sinners and not mix with those who had blemishes: the leper, the blind, the lame. He would keep the Sabbath

• Jesus said he was the Messiah, but he did not do what they expected him to do. He was found in the company of sinners and outcasts. He declared these belonged to the Kingdom of God. He died on the cross as a Criminal. That was a shock and a scandal.

• The Gentiles who were mainly Greeks were interested in Wisdom and Knowledge. They would be satisfied only with what made sense, with what was logically correct. If Jesus were the Saviour, he would be Strong, he would show the way.

• 5. But Jesus who was the Word of God, dies on the Cross, that was not wise, but foolish. He was not the Strength, but weakness. Whether we throw our lot with the Jews or the Gentiles we would come to a “dead-end” in more senses than one. It was not Life giving to think in these terms. Paul tells us what Jesus taught his Apostles, viz, God’s ways of thinking are so different from outs. It is in the weakness, foolishness and the Scandal of the Cross, that we will see God face to face.

So our Lenten/Spring Cleaning must be like Jesus with a whip he drove the Buyers and Sellers and the Bird Sellers whom he ordered out of the Temple. We are called to radically overturn some of the tables of our thinking and order out, or put in order the False Value systems by which we live.

6. We have a pattern in the reading from Exodus, which we commonly know as the Ten Commandments. These are not a series of “Do-s and don’t-s.” The beginning of the passage sets the tone. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. I am the Lord that gave you freedom, that gave you new dignity, that gave you a new identity. You are no longer a Slave, but free. You are now my Child. You have been given a New dignity. I have chosen you to be mine. And so the Ten Words as the word Decalogue signifies are not Commands, but an invitation. It is an invitation to live out what we are and who we are.

If we are children of God, brothers and sisters to one another - would we steal? Why should we, when brothers and sisters normally share and look out for one another. If we are children of God, brothers and sisters to one another - why would we commit adultery, that would be more or less like incest.

If we are children of God, brothers and sisters to one another - why would we murder or harm one another, rather we would protect each other, their property, their slaves, their spouses.

The Ten commandments would Ten words of Invitation calling us to closer intimacy with God and with one another. Then in the fullness of time, the Command of Jesus to love one another as Jesus loved us would truly be the Wisdom and Knowledge that the Greeks were searching.