Gospel: 'Destroy this Temple and in Three Days I will Raise it Up'

Today is the Third Sunday of Lent, and the Gospel passage will be lifted from the account of St John (2:13-25).

When the time of Jewish Passover was near Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there.

Making a whip out of cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money changers' coins, knock their tables over, and said to the dove sellers, "Take all this out of here and stop using my Father's house as a market."

Then his disciples remembered the words of the scripture: I am eaten up with zeal for your house.

The Jews intervened and said, "What sign can you show us that you should act like this?"

Jesus answered, "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up."

The Jews replied, It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?"

But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said.

During his stay in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did, but Jesus knew all the people and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about anyone; he could tell what someone had within.

In today's Gospel, we read about how Jesus overturned the tables of the merchants and moneychangers in the Temple at Jerusalem. In order to understand the relevance of Jesus' action, we must learn more about the activities that were going on in the Temple area. Worship at the Temple in Jerusalem included animal sacrifice, and merchants sold the animals to worshippers. Moneychangers exchanged Roman coins, which bore the image of the Roman emperor, for the temple coins that were needed to pay the temple tax.

Jesus' action at the Temple in Jerusalem is recorded in all four Gospels and is often understood to be among the events that led to Jesus' arrest and Crucifixion. The Gospel of St John, however, places this event much earlier in Jesus' public ministry than do the Synoptic Gospels. In St John's Gospel, this event occurs at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, after his first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana.

We must read the Gospel of St John carefully, especially in its presentation of Jesus' relationship with Judaism. This Gospel tends to reflect greater tension and animosity between Jesus and the Jewish authorities than the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of St John was the last Gospel to be written, and its narrative reflects the growing divide between the Jewish community and the early Christian community. Thus, greater emphasis on the distinction between Christianity and Judaism is found in St John's Gospel.

Reflecting upon the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem (AD 70), St John recalls the cleansing of the Temple and uses that story to interpret this later event. St John explains to his audience, an early Christian community, that temple worship would no longer be necessary because it was surpassed in the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. With greater frequency than the other Evangelists, St John intersperses post-Resurrection reflections of this Christian community in his narrative.

After clearing the Temple of the merchants and moneychangers, St John's Gospel tells us that the people asked for a sign of Jesus' authority to do such an audacious act. In response, Jesus predicted his death and Resurrection. Throughout the Gospel, the language of signs is distinctive. Jesus' miracles are called signs, and the people look to these signs for proof of his authority. Here we learn that the sign par excellence will be Jesus' passion, death, and Resurrection.

During Lent we reflect upon the meaning of this sign for us and for our world. We might take this opportunity to consider the quality of our prayer and worship. In our prayers we seek to deepen our relationship with the person of Christ. In our worship with the community, we gather to experience anew the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus and its significance in our lives. Christ promises to be present with us when we gather for prayer.

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The Gospel is sponsored by Listerine.