The Third Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024

John 2, 13–25

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.  While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

The lectionary assembled for the new Roman Missal of 1970, and as subsequently revised, presents options for the celebration of the Mass on the Sundays of Lent.  For instance, for the Third Sunday in Lent the celebrant may choose John 2, 13-25.  This would be the “normal” Gospel reading.  However, to link the Mass more obviously to the ongoing Rite of Christian’s Initiation for Adults, John 4, 5-42 may be read in its place.  The proper prayers for the Mass, including the Preface to the Eucharist Prayer is also linked to this option.  My own preference lies with the “normal” Gospel Reading.

“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”  The obvious meaning is the selling of the animals within the Temple courtyard.  Two purposes are served by the building of a magnificent, awe-inspiring Temple: to praise God, and to inspire those who came to it to praise and worship God.  These purposes are largely thwarted when the courtyard of a Temple is filled with farm animals and the noise of commerce.  The Lord Jesus had grown up with these things on his many pilgrimages from boyhood until this time and his sense of outrage had built over time.  Here he acts for his Father, disrupting the trading of animals and the business of the money changers.  In doing so he won the admiration and thanks of many, for there was much grumbling among the people about this.  He also won the enmity of the Sanhedrin, the Temple’s rulers, particularly with the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, who had turned the Temple into a profitable enterprise for themselves.  

By the expulsion of the animals and their sellers, the Lord Jesus, at the beginning of Public Life, announces the end of the Temple worship, to be replaced by the true worship of God in the Holy Mass.  When the Lord Jesus offered his Body and Blood on the Cross, there was no further place for the sacrifice of animals, a sign then fulfilled.  The Lord would expel the animal sellers on Palm Sunday when he came to Jerusalem to die.  This first expulsion foretells the second and prepares the people for it.  The ending of the Temple worship is a seismic shift for all humanity and two signs are fitting for it.  The original sacrifices acted as signs but accomplished nothing in themselves.  The Sacrifice of the Lord on the Cross redeems the world, lavishes grace upon it, and offers the forgiveness of sins, leading to eternal life.  As we sing in the hymn Tantum Ergo Sacramentum: 

“Lo! the sacred Host we hail,
Lo! oe’r ancient forms departing
Newer rites of grace prevail.”