Third Sunday in Lent |
|
|
|
Scripture |
John 2:13-21 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem . 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 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. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 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 . |
Devotional |
“The temple was built as a witness to God, as a means of drawing persons near to God.” It becomes as act of adoration or pride, until it reaches the point of being an end in itself. Our devotion and piety can always become an end in itself. The advice we are given at the beginning of our Christian journey is “pray and read your Bible.” Only when our devotion and piety becomes an end in itself, do we discover no one has taught us how to pray or how to read the scriptures. Our prayer becomes a shopping list and reading the scriptures is no different than reading the morning newspaper. The cleansing of the temple takes place in the Court of the Gentiles. This is the place where the Gentiles came to pray, so there would not be room for their practice of prayer. How do we make space for God in our lives? Creating space fro God is not easy, nor does it just happen. “Prayer leads to a loving union with the Holy One but not for private enjoyment. Prayer draws us into unity with Christ, into communion and community. Compassionate action results, growing out of the love of God. We receive the love of God and return that love in grateful devotion. We pray, not to get what we want from God but to consent to what God wants. Prayer expresses relationship, sometimes with words, sometimes deeper than words can express.” “Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), a missionary and member of the lay community of St. Julian’s in Sussex , said that the purpose of prayer is to know God. Our needs come second. More than asking God for what we want, prayer goes deeper than verbal conversation. At its deepest level it becomes communion with the triune God.” 1 How do everyday activities crowd out devotion to God in our lives? Note that the changing of money and buying animals for sacrifice was essential to Jewish worship. How do good and necessary activities distract from our worship of God. How do secular concerns threaten our worship of God? What practices make it difficult for strangers to worship with us? How far do we go to protect our sacred space and discourage or shut out Jesus Christ in our lives? 1 J. David Muyskens, Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2006. p. 58
|