Sunday Worship
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday of Lent. Today is the end of our Generosity Week, and we are celebrating with a Parish Eucharist at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, followed by refreshments and the opportunity to meet with the people who help to keep our churches growing and thriving.
If you're unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Be Still for the Presence of the Lord"
Today's Gospel
John 2:13-22 Jesus Clears the Temple
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 marketplace!” 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.
Reflection
I wonder what your immediate reaction is to this passage. What image comes into your mind when you read about Jesus ‘losing it’ in the temple.
Is this a Jesus that you feel comfortable with? It’s perhaps not the calm and loving image of Jesus that usually springs to mind. I wonder also what you think about Jesus making a whip of cords. How do you picture this whip? It is a huge leather whip like the Romans might have used to punish and torture people or a whip made from rope?
If we look at the literal translation from the ancient Greek, it would have been more accurately described as a collection of handful of twigs or reeds loosely bound together or held in a bunch. If you look closely at the picture, you might be able to distinguish what it may have looked like.
When we read John’s gospel carefully, we can see that Jesus wasn’t using the whip to strike the people or the animals and birds. We are told that he used it drive them away, rather like you might roll up a newspaper to wave it at a wasp or a fly to encourage it to go away.
So to read into this story that Jesus was hurting people would be unfair. Given that clarity, we may not be as uncomfortable with this uncharacteristic image of Jesus. Nonetheless, Jesus still appears to get angry. Can this be described as ‘righteous indignation’? A sort of anger some that Christians believe is justified and therefore not sinful, similar to how we may react today when we see examples of exploitation and social injustice.
Next, maybe we should think about why Jesus got angry.
Let’s put ourselves in Jesus’ shoes for a moment. Here He is, just before the huge Jewish feast of Passover, going to the temple along with hundreds, if not thousands of other preparing for this most Holy festival. As he looks around He sees that the temple, rather than being a place dedicated to worship, is in reality a huge marketplace with all kinds of trading and commerce taking place. We’re not talking about a few trinkets and souvenirs being sold, but all manner of commerce. It’s not a handful of stalls selling things in church, but more like a full scale retail park.
Very little that’s happening in the Temple is about worship and thanksgiving to God, nearly everything that’s going on is a distraction from what the Temple is really about.
What then do you think provoked this reaction from Jesus? After all, he wouldn’t really have been shocked by what was going on, He would have been to the Temple many times and seen this all before.
So, if it wasn’t what was going on that triggered His reaction, maybe it was the fact that there was an acceptance that this was alright. This sort of behaviour had been allowed to flourish and change the whole purpose and function of the Temple and people had just accepted it as the norm. People had become blind to what was happening and lost a sense of purpose about why they were supposed to be coming to the Temple in the first place.
How do we relate this to our lives today?
When I worked as a change manager, there were people who would always ask, how do we make sure that what we are changing has as little as possible impact on business as usual? I would bite my lip, and wonder at the absurdity of the question, because change after all is about doing something differently. To be fair, underlying the question was a sense of not wanting to upset anyone.
But sometimes business as usual means we are not living our lives to the fullest. We allow ourselves to sleepwalk through life on auto-pilot, doing the same old things each and every day, be that at home, at work or at church. When we do that, we can become complacent, or bored, and we can forget what life’s about.
We forget that we are created in God’s image and when He created us He said that ‘it was good’. We forget that Jesus was made flesh and came among us to show us how to live and that He sacrificed himself on the cross to save us. The same Jesus who wants us all have a fulfilled and rewarding life. Who wants us not only to live our lives for ourselves, but for others and for Jesus’ sake.
Lent occurs in Spring when we see renewal all around us in nature and in new growth. It’s also a time for us to look at ourselves and ask the question ‘what do I need to clear out or change in my life to see new growth?’ Do I need to change some of my routines and give my life a metaphorical shake up? Maybe overturn a few tables of my own.
How you go about that is up to you, but of course you can always ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. As Jesus reminds us, we are the Temple of God that was rebuilt in Him in three days. Let us allow Jesus to re-invigorate us and overturn a few tables in our lives in this season of Lent, to prepare for a new life in Him. Paul
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