3rd Sunday of Lent

ILIZWI REFLECTIONS
Sunday, 3 March 2024***
3rd Sunday of Lent
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19:8–11
1 Cor 1:18, 22-25
John 2:13-25

JESUS IS THE NEW DECALOGUE AND THE NEW TEMPLE
“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace” – Jn 2:16

Like the desert (Lent week 1) and the mountain (Lent week 2), the Temple (lent week 3) is a place of special encounter with God.

The 1st reading presents us with the 10 commandments or the Decalogue. To most of us, the Decalogue is a set of do’s and don’ts we must strictly follow. This is why as young Catholics the Sabbath question is a big problem.

The Decalogue is more than this. It is a set of core principles for establishing and maintaining the covenantal relationship with God with other people. The first 3 define the relationship with God, the other 7 r/ship with people.

In the Gospel, Jesus cleanses the Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was the only place Jews went to sacrifice to God. These sacrifices were necessary for maintaining the right relationship between God and his people.

However, Jesus finds the Temple turned into a marketplace, full of noise and corruption. Out of zeal for restoration of the right relationship with God moves him to violently disrupt this business.

Jesus justifies his actions by saying destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in 3 days. This is a reference to his death and resurrection on the 3rd day.

In other words, Jesus is saying that he is the New Temple. The risen Jesus is the new place for establishing and maintaining the right relationship with God.

Only the gospel of John says they were selling sheep and cows in the Temple. By the action of driving sacrificial animals, Jesus is saying there is now no need for these. He is the lamb of God to be sacrificed.

Dear friends, the Decalogue and the Temple which were saved to establish and maintain the right relationship between God and his people have now been replaced by the Risen Jesus. They have been fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Jesus. They now can only be understood in the light of the Paschal mystery. It is for this reason John moves the event of the cleansing of the Temple which happened at the end of Jesus’ life to the beginning of Jesus’ life.

In the 2nd reading, St. Paul stresses that the center of Christian life is the cross, a potent symbol of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Sunday, the 3rd day, the day of the resurrection becomes the fulfillment of the Sabbath day in the Decalogue. The Eucharist becomes the fulfillment of the sacrifices in the Temple. This is our Easter faith, the Catholic faith.

By cleansing the Temple Jesus reminds us of Zachariah’s prophecy that when the Messiah comes “there will be no traders in the temple of Yahweh Sabaoth” (Zach 14:21b).

This is what the season of Lent also declares, the Messianic times have come. And we prepare for Easter by cleansing our bodies which are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:19). As Jesus enters your life today, what things in your life will he make a whip for? Which tables will he turn? What will he chase out of your life?

Beloved, it is through Prayer, Fasting, and almsgiving that you are cleansed. It is through encountering the Risen Lord in the Eucharist and sacrament of Confession that you are purified.

Have a Cleansing Sunday
Fr. Ncube, SVD
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