The Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 7, 2021

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. 

St. John twice describes the Lord casting the money changers and the sellers out of the Temple: at the beginning of his public ministry, as though to serve notice that the Son of God has arrived to take possession of his house, and then at the end of it in order to give a sign of our redemption for which he would suffer, cleansing it of all sin and filth so that, purified, it might be totally worthy of God.  

Taking this as a sign, the Lord expels greed, in the form of the money changers and sellers, from our souls, and also the pride that allowed them to think of the house of God as simply another location for making money.  We can also see the expulsion of the devil here, inasmuch as the merchants possessed the animals to be sold for sacrifices.  The animals go free from those who had owned them.  Likewise, we are set free from the devil’s dominance by the power of Christ.  We see here also an example of the ruthlessness and total commitment with which we are to root out our sinful tendencies and addictions.  Just as no money changer or merchant was spared by the Lord, no matter what excuses they might have brought up, we cannot give any quarter to the tearing up of our former way of life in order to live not for self but for God.  The Jews saw nothing wrong with having these people in the Temple precincts and tolerated them.  In the same way, we are surrounded in society with people who see nothing wrong with the sin in their lives and an outlook which puts self and pleasure before all else.  They may look askance at us and may even feel “judged” — and they should, for this is a term that, as they use it, means to “to be made to feel guilty”.  Perhaps this might be a step towards their conversion, the quiet witness we give with our lives.  “Many believed in his name, seeing his signs which he did” (John 2, 23).  The signs that we do are the virtuous acts we perform, which only a Christian can do.