Reflection for LENT 3 on John 2.13-22 This Sunday we have a reading that we might be expecting on Palm Sunday. John, who never wastes a word or a scene, is playing with the chronology of Jesus’ ministry. The ‘Cleansing of the Temple’, as it is called, takes place at the beginning of John’s Gospel, rather than just before Our Lord’s arrest and trial, his death on the cross and his rising from the tomb, as we have in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. What is John up to? I think John wants his Jesus to make a bold statement as he sets out on his ministry. He is challenging the status quo and those who enforce it. He is making a statement to the Temple authorities. This is quite a challenge. It is the high-priests, the Sadducees and Herodians that Jesus is taking on. His disciples sum it all up be quoting scripture: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” This is some measure of the effect Jesus’ violence is having on them. It is awe-inspiring. Who is this man? This is the only time we see Jesus using force to make a point. Matthew and Luke have him overturning the tables of the money-changers, but John describes Jesus making a whip of cords and driving everyone from the temple area. (Mark has him going quietly home to bed! Perhaps Mark is uncomfortable with the violence, as many Christians still are.) When is it valid to resort to violence in a just cause? Many Christians are known as peace-lovers. Yet their Lord, at the beginning of his ministry causes a real turmoil in the House of God, the Temple at Jerusalem. Is being zealous justification enough? When we are faced by a situation we loathe, how do we react? Do we let others know how deeply we dislike what we are seeing? Are we zealous for the Lord’s work? Does that zeal consume us? We are British after all. It is clearly an individual choice how we respond to the situations we encounter in life. Jesus calls us to face each new situation with the same courage and fearlessness he shows in this Gospel today. The choice is ours. Eternal God, give us insight to discern your will for us, to give up what harms us, and to seek the perfection we are promised in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
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