REFLECTION ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Think of the outrage. The Messiah comes, for the first time, to the Holy City of God. He, the successor of King David, who is to rule on David’s throne for ever, arrives “veiled in flesh” at his capital city. He enters by the Golden Gate, climbs the steps right up to the great esplanade on which the Temple is built; mount Zion itself! And his first view is not of a place of prayer, but of a chaotic Middle-Eastern market. A market with a monopoly on over-priced sacrificial animals which could only be bought with special Temple shekels at exorbitant rates of exchange (something about which we South Africans know a thing or two!) and clearly based on kickbacks to the controlling interests.

Are we surprised to see Jesus burst forth into righteous anger? That not even the worship of God is sacred, but merely a means for turning in a dishonest shekel. When we think of how big that market must have been, we get an inkling of how terrifying the righteous anger of God must be; Jesus, on his own, literally wrecked the entire market, and no-one appears to have resisted him.

There is a serious warning to us in today’s Gospel. It is quite simply this; that those who exploit the work of God for financial or any other gain, will incur the wrath of God. Governments who try to manipulate the Church, religious leaders, businesses or individuals, anyone, in fact, who exploits religion for gain; all of these set themselves against God. There is no kinder way of putting it. Jesus does not put it kindly; for him, the Temple market is simply a “den of thieves”. In days gone by it was called simony, after Simon Magus in the Acts of the Apostles, who tried to buy the “secret” by which the Apostles were able to heal the sick. But call it what you will, it is still with us today.

But righteous anger is not negative. Jesus is not only anti-something, he is he is much more pro-something. He wants his Father’s house truly to be a house of prayer. And he is, in this, unstoppable. “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up”, he says, referring to his own Body and Resurrection. Jesus’ anger is because “…God so loved the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved.” When we read about the anger of Jesus we must not simply react to it, either by trying to excuse it or being shocked or outraged by it. Jesus shows righteous anger out of love for us, outrage against anything that threatens our faith. And for that, there is only one response: profound thankfulness.

Fr. Phillip