Tuesday, March 3
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.
Imagine if we, as 21st century persons, could somehow have witnessed this 1st century scene. There we are standing, comfortable with our modern day temple package of beliefs of how we are supposed to understand and worship God.
Suddenly Jesus enters the temple and shatters its familiar and accepted routines. With great energy and force, he upends the tables of those making change, doves are suddenly lifting into the air in a great rush to escape. Cattle and sheep are running into each other trying to find their way. People are startled, confused and even angry as Jesus herds them out of the temple court amidst a deafening roar...
For the Jews, the temple was the place of God's presence on earth. Jesus is saying he, not the building, not the rules, not their familiar practices, is the presence of God on earth. Emmanuel, God with us.
May Jesus crash through the centuries into our individual lives today. md
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