March 4 - 3rd Sunday of Lent

3^rd Sunday of Lent – March3, 2018

I –The law was given through Moses.

R –Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

II – We proclaim Christ crucified a stumbling block to many, but to those who are called, the wisdom of God.

A – God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

G –Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

+ Our readings today have to do with the spiritual dynamic of “law which leads to freedom.” It is true that God created his people in love, to be his friends, to spend an eternity of bliss with him in an amazing union of glory! But in our fallen state (due to the sin of our first parents), we were forced into seeking the freedom, which God always had and has in mind for us, by a roundabout route: to be free, we must obey law, his law that he instituted for the very purpose of freeing us as total persons from what separates us from him and one another! And so we read in the Book of Exodus today that God gives Ten Commandments, laws, rules for those who wish to enter into a relationship with him: why? not to restrict them, but to offer them the freedom to make their own choice of whether to trust God enough to go along with these dictates (which they cannot help but sense are for their own good), or to choose their own standards and rules that will just never go well, or feel completely right – and end in a lot of chaos and confusion!

The point of the law, then, was to liberate and lead to freedom and not to enslave, by any means. Law, as our Psalm today (19) tells us, ought to be trusted as a source of wisdom: it says this so gently and beautifully, “the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple: it is more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold; sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb.”

Jesus, who is a sign of the power and the wisdom of God, in the gospel passage, speaks to us of the ultimate freedom to be won for us by his being raised up: he does this in a very dramatic way as he, who is consumed with zeal for the house of his Father, quite angrily and with a great show of displeasure overturns the tables of the moneychangers who made a spectacle of themselves as they translated the money brought by the poor people to pay for their sacrificial offerings to the Lord in the temple! It was not because they were there that Jesus was so angry, but it was because they were not paying attention to what was really going on in the temple and with the people: they were there to line their own pockets, to make a sideshow of things and to distract the people from their true purpose in being there!

Jesus also takes this dramatic moment to turn the entire validity of the temple itself topsy-turvy (which needed to be done sooner or later): from now on, Jesus proclaims, you must put all your focus and attention on ME, for I AM THE NEW TEMPLE, and when it is destroyed by Crucifixion, in THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT UP! This was not only an unheard of agenda, but Jesus most clearly establishes himself as the new temple, the new worship, the new ark, the new law and most importantly of all, the one who has the authority to do these things: HE ESTABLISHES HIMSELF UNDENIABLY AS GOD HIMSELF!

Jesus was certainly irrevocably in line for the Cross now, he has ramped up the stakes against him a hundredfold: and he does it in a very profound, radical, determined and unforgettable way! Everything is now different because of Jesus: and this is what we hear about, ponder, reflect on and celebrate each time we come to this place: the new temple of the new people of God (of which we are a part); with reverence, and awe, with undivided attention and devotion we engage in the marvelous program of worship that has come down to us throughout the ages, (which has recently been reformed in language), which is the cause of our joy, our hope and our peace! Let us continue now our Lenten journey with even more praise, thanksgiving and love for God who does so very much for us!

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.