March 3, 2024
Third Sunday of Lent (Year B)
The First Reading and the Gospel for this Third Sunday of Lent hold a common theme, one that has been a longstanding teaching of the Catholic Church inherited directly from the tradition of our Jewish ancestors. However, although both readings are very familiar to us, at first glance the commonality between the two may not be readily apparent.
When we get to the reading from the book of Exodus (Exod. 20:1-17), the Israelites have already been through qite an ordeal. Under the guidance of Moses and Aaron they have made a harrowing escape from the Pharaoh and their bondage in Egypt. Nearly overtaken at the shores of the Red Sea, they have journeyed through the wilderness struggling to find food and water. It is only through the intervention of God that they have made it safely to the area of Mount Sinai.
When Moses and the people arrive at the foot of the mountain, they experience a great theophany. God appears to them with clouds, thunder, and smoke and delivers to them, by way of Moses, a set of guidelines which will guide them for living in right relationship to God and one another. These laws will eventually go on to number in the hundreds throughout the Torah. But in today’s reading we find those which we know as the Ten Commandments.
When we look at the Ten Commandments, we can see that they are basically divided into two parts. In the first three commandments are found the implications of the Exodus and the unique relationship God has formed with the Israelites. Having lived in a polytheistic land, the people are to worship God alone and resist the urge to make idols of their own (Exod. 20:2-4). God is to be revered and God’s name, a precious gift to Israel, is never to be taken in vain. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest, blessed and made holy for worship (Exod. 20:7-11). The second section of the commandments addresses societal issues important for the maintenance of a harmonious and holy society, by forbidding murder, theft, adultery, false witness and covetousness (Exod. 20:13-17).
Several chapters later, after the covenant with God is ratified by Moses, the Israelites receive a detailed set of instructions for building the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 35-40). These will become the primary objects for maintaining their closeness to God as they journey to the promise land. The Ark of the Covenant will contain three precious objects: the stones of the Ten Commandments containing the Laws of the Lord, the priestly staff of Aaron, representing the chosen priesthood, and a sample of the manna, the bread from heaven given by God in the wilderness.
The Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting, has an inner chamber, known as the Holy of Holies, which houses the Ark of the Covenant and its precious treasures. It also has an outer chamber which contains the lampstand, or menorah, the table of the showbread and an altar of incense. The Tabernacle was believed to be the portable traveling place of God and the key to their relationship with God. Whenever the Israelites came to a particular destination, the glory cloud appeared by day and the fire by night representing the very presence of God in their midst.
Several centuries after the Israelites entered the Promised Land, King Solomon, the son of the great King David, was given the task by God to build God’s Temple, a permanent dwelling placed modeled after the Tabernacle and containing the objects of both the outer and inner chambers. The significance of the temple for the people of Israel cannot be overstated as it would become the center for worship and religious rituals. Even during the time of Jesus, the Second Temple period after which Solomon’s Temple had been rebuilt, Jews from all of the surrounding areas would gather there for their annual feasts.
In the New Testament, we find several scenes where Jesus is preaching, teaching, or performing miracles in or around the Temple area. The Gospel from John for today is one such example of Jesus visiting Jerusalem and the Temple at the time of the Passover (Jn. 2:13-25). He has entered the courtyard where it is customary for merchants to be selling animals for sacrifice and moneychangers to be exchanging currency for pilgrims visiting during the feast.
But Jesus detects that something is out of the ordinary and he becomes very angry. He perceives that the merchants are taking advantage of the visitors from other parts and are inflating the prices normally charged for their wares. And the money changers are using extravagant rates for exchanging currency. In essence they are cheating people and taking advantage of them. This is when Jesus makes a whip out of chords and drives them out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and overturns the tables spilling coins on the ground. Enraged he shouts, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (Jn. 2:16).
What Jesus sees happening here is a perversion of the first few Commandments from the book of Exodus, as well as disdain for the holiness of the Temple, the dwelling place of God. Instead of respecting God and God’s place of worship, the idolatry of greed has overtaken those present turning the Temple into a place of mockery and graft. Reverence for God has dwindled or nearly ceased to exist. And the sacred Feast of Passover, holier than even the Sabbath, has become disregarded and blasphemed. Adding to the wickedness are the crimes of greed being committed against the unsuspecting pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. For any sin against a neighbor is also a sin against God.
These readings serve as a lesson for us today, as well. They teach us how we are to act in relation to our heavenly Father with awe and reverence. We are to place no earthly object as a priority in our lives before God and we are reminded to keep Sunday as a special day as much as we are able. This can be difficult in our world today where a recognition of God and religious worship have become secondary to almost everything else. Most often we are tempted to fall in with the crowd and choose secular activities rather than fulfill our duty required by God.
Therefore, keep in mind these commandments and the next time you are confronted with a choice to make concerning them remember the words of today’s Gospel: “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.” (Jn. 2:24-25).
