The cleansing of the temple by Jesus
It’s the 3rd Sunday of Lent and I hope that by now our faithful readers have already decided whether they should go on a retreat or at least have a recollection to make your Lenten season meaningful. Most of us use Holy Week as a time to go home to the provinces or our hometowns to meet up with their families or have a vacation. But here in Cebu City, at least I know that there’s a huge throng of the faithful Catholics who go on Visita Iglesia on Holy Thursday. For today’s gospel reading, we read from the gospel of John 2:13-25 (or in John 4:5-42.
“As the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the temple court he found merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, and moneychangers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple court, together with the oxen and sheep.
He knocked over the tables of the moneychangers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop making a marketplace of my Father’s house. His disciples recalled the words of Scriptures: Zeal for your House devours me like fire.
The Jews then questioned Jesus “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.” The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”
Actually, Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Only when he had risen from the dead did his disciples remember these words; then they believe both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken. Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, and many believed in his name, when they saw the miraculous signs he performed. But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all of them. He had no need of evidence about anyone, for he himself knew what there was in each one.”
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Today’s gospel is not a parable… as it really happened when our Lord Jesus entered the temple inside the walled city of Jerusalem and found that they have turned it into a marketplace. When we visited Jerusalem a couple of years ago, we saw a diorama of what the old walls of Jerusalem used to look like, especially what the temple looked like. The ancient temple had a large square similar to St. Peter’s Square, except the Vatican square isn’t really a square, but round.
The temple of the Jews was a huge square where the people mingled… and yes with oxen, goats, sheep and doves that were allowed inside because they were for sale to those who wish to have them sacrificed in the altar. These animals were sacrificed in the temple altar and it was really a bloody mess. So when our Lord Jesus Christ entered the temple… what he saw was not a place of worship, but literally a marketplace… and then he went berserk and using a whip out of cords, he whipped the oxen and upturned the tables of the moneychangers and caused a commotion inside the temple.
Of course Jesus created a scandal because the Sanhedrin or the Pharisees tolerated the Jews selling their wares, their animals and exchanging currency from other lands inside the temple. So when Jesus caused a stir inside the temple, it alerted everyone inside the temple so the Jews questioned his authority asking him, “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the right to do this?”
But instead of answering their question, our Lord Jesus said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.” The Jews were bewildered with his answer because they did not know what he was talking about. So they said to our Lord Jesus, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But they did not know that our Lord Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Even his disciples did not understand what our Lord meant… until after the resurrection on Easter Sunday did they come to realize that he really meant what he said when he entered the temple.
If you recall, during his crucifixion, when our Lord Jesus Christ gave up his ghost and died, the temple veil was rent into two. Do you think there is some kind of connection in today’s gospel and the ripping apart of the temple veil? I would like to believe so. The temple veil surrounded the Holy of Holies where only the high priest is allowed to enter once-a-year. So when our Lord Jesus expired… he rendered temple worship irrelevant because if we have a clean heart… then we can be temples of the Holy Spirit.
For this Lenten season… we too must find the courage to seek reconciliation with God through the sacrament of confession so we can also cleanse our bodies and make us pleasing to the eyes of God. Our sinfulness puts a wide chasm between God and us and only through a contrite heart can we be reconciled with him and become again the temple of the Holy Spirit.
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