Third Sunday of Lent
(Exodus 20:1-17; I Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25)
What is the Law to a Jew?
One Jewish scholar calls it “a yoke that becomes a tree of life.” It is a demanding teacher from whom we could
never draw an “A.” Nevertheless, this
teacher shows us not only how to think but how to live. Jesus, being a devout Jew, loved the Law and
lived it every moment of his life.
In today’s gospel Jesus acts on the Law’s first tenet. He finds the temple’s vendors and money
changers making gods out of their businesses.
Being Son of God with special rights in God’s house, he throws the
infidels out. The act bursts open the
Jewish social structure. “By what
authority does he act as the Temple police?” the people would wonder. The
priests see it as sheer insolence. “Who is he to determine right and wrong in
the temple?” they would rage. Since they
cannot tolerate his audacity, they will plot to have him executed.
How should we think of Jesus’ zeal? Uncompromising with the temple merchants, he would
find our grasping for power, pleasure, fame, or fortune similarly intolerable. He asks us to put such pursuits away and give
him our attention. He promises us that
we will find God, our Father also, in doing his will. That is, we are to live jot and tittle the
Ten Commandments at the heart of the Law.
Also, we are to love others as much as we love ourselves.