and money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove them
all out of the temple court, together with the oxen and sheep. He knocked over the
tables of the money-changers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling
doves, “Take all this away, and stop making a marketplace of my Father’s house!”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture: Zeal for your house devours me like fire.
The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the
right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up.” The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six
years, and will you raise it up in three days?” Actually, Jesus was referring to the temple
of his body. Only when he had risen from the dead did his disciples remember these
words; then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.
Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, and many believed in his
name, when they saw the miraculous signs he performed. But Jesus did not trust
himself to them, because he knew all of them. He had no need of evidence about
anyone, for he himself knew what there was in each one.
READ: It was Passover. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple precinct, Jesus
saw the sellers and the money-changers. He drove them out. He told them to stop making
his Father’s house as a marketplace. The Jews questioned Jesus’ right in doing what he
did in the temple court, asking for miracles. Jesus told them to destroy the temple and he
would rebuild it in three days. Jesus referred to the temple of his body. Jesus remained in
Jerusalem. Many believed in his name. However, Jesus did not entrust himself to them
for he knew them.
REFLECT: Today’s Gospel is the Johannine version of the cleansing of the temple.
While the Synoptic Gospels place the narrative toward the end of Jesus’ public ministry,
John places it at the beginning. We may reflect that after Jesus performed the first of his
seven miracles, the Jews were demanding another one in the temple court. Yet, Jesus
knew their thoughts. They had appropriated the temple for themselves, turning it into a
marketplace. Appropriation can mislead us, making us believe that we can do anything we
want to the things we appropriate even if it is no longer in accordance with God’s will.
PRAY: Let us pray that God’s grace will nurture in us an attitude of non-appropriation.
ACT: Let us think of one particular thing that we tend to appropriate. Let us try to detach
ourselves from such, considering it as our way of cleansing the temple of our body in
this season of Lent.
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