March 3, 2024 - The Third Sunday in Lent
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Ps 19:14).
On this third Sunday in Lent, as we continue to journey towards Jerusalem and the cross, we are in the territory of frameworks for living out our faith. This is the case whether it is the Ten Commandments shared with God’s people at Sinai (Exodus 20:1-17); the teachings of the Psalmist (Psalm 19); Paul’s exhortations to a divided church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:18-25); or Jesus, as he drives traders out of the Temple (John 2:13-22).
Starting with the reading from Exodus, we get the framework for living a faithful life given to God’s people as they enter a completely new context. Previously they had been slaves in Egypt. The rules that they had lived by had been imposed upon them by Pharaoh. The Decalogue is provided as a framework for living now that God’s people have been set free, not a condition for that freedom.
It is, for example, guidance about not coveting the possessions of others within your community after generations of no one in your community having any possessions that could not be taken away by a slave owner. Or being able to look after and honor your parents in ways that were unimaginable for a slave.
Separated from this context, the Ten Commandments easily become a set of graceless laws. Indeed, they are the code on which so much of our legal system is based. However, it is worth noting that this is not how they were first given. There weren’t punishments included for failure. They were rather, to quote Walter Brueggemann, “strategies for staying emancipated.” And they were given not primarily to individuals but to a community, a people.
Many commentators highlight that the commandments can be divided into three inter-related elements: honoring our relationship with God, taking one another seriously, and in the middle the commandment to keep the Sabbath. The commitment to the Sabbath allows us to continue to be shaped by God while at the same time avoiding imprisonment to power and greed.
The Psalm today, according to many commentators, was originally two (or perhaps three) separate hymns: celebrating God’s presence in nature (vv1-6); celebrating God’s presence in the law (vv7-10); and the prayerful response of the servant (vv11-14). Regardless of the origins of these passages they fit well together as a cohesive unit.
The first section is a glorious narration, seeking to put into words that which cannot be captured in prose (or even poetry) – the wonder of God's creation (“the heavens are telling of the glory of God”, v1) and of God in creation (“their voice goes through all the earth and their words to the end of the world”, v4).
The second section relates to teaching instructions for humanity – about how we might live our lives in relation to God. By comparison to the earlier verses, there is a clear framework. They are all about different ways in which the law is being expressed. It is worth noting that, once again, punishment for a failure to keep the law is not present. Rather, the Psalmist writes: “the ordinances of the Lord are true … more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb”, vv9b-10). This is law that does not carry the threat of punishment so much as the offer of joy.
The third section returns us to the expansive language of the early verses of the psalm, trying to put into words – into a prayer – that which cannot ever fully be expressed. It ends with the familiar verse: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (v14). These are words which many preachers use as a prayer to begin their reflection on God’s Word, and you might note that even though it’s not my normal pattern, I did that for this week’s worship.
Moving on to Paul’s words, we read Paul’s response to the many fractures of the church which he planted in Corinth. Perhaps division in the church was inevitable. Corinth is what we would now call an international hub, and so the church in the city was likely very diverse. Many would be influenced by Greek culture; others by Jewish tradition; and still others by a Roman way of understanding the world. Paul is encouraging the believers to root themselves not in any of those understandings, but rather in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
To some, the idea that the Messiah might be killed (even give himself up to be killed) is a scandal and disgrace. To others, the notion that belief is based on anything other than rational thinking is unimaginable. Even to those whose tradition meant that they perceived the possibility of the death of a god, it was incomprehensible that that could be anything other than a heroic death. Paul suggests that the Christians in Corinth are looking for the wrong things and in the wrong places.
Paul is trying to navigate his way through, and to point instead to a very different framework. This is the framework of the cross. The idea of God on a cross makes no sense until you believe and accept it. And then, nothing could possibly make more sense.
Moving on to John’s Gospel… The first thing worth noticing is that this episode – Jesus’ encounter with the traders in the Temple, occurs in a different location from the other gospels. For Matthew, Mark, and Luke this incident takes place near the start of Holy Week, just after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, whereas for John it comes near the beginning of the Gospel, straight after the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Like that event, it marks a turning of the tables, of the ushering in of a way to relate to God which take us beyond traditional laws, customs and frameworks.
We shouldn’t get over concerned about the differences with the writers, far less try to smooth these differences out. John’s purpose in writing is significantly different from that of the other gospel writers, and his account is being constructed at a time when the other Gospels were already in circulation in the early Church. If these differences didn’t matter to Christians in the first and second centuries, they shouldn’t be a big issue for us.
When it comes to the purpose of this passage, there is a little marker in verse 13 if we know to look for it. Throughout his gospel when John refers to the Passover (“the Passover of the Jews was near”, v13), it is a signal that this passage is about the passion of Christ. As becomes evident later in the passage, John’s primary concern here is about what (or who) the Temple is.
The Temple throughout the Hebrew scriptures is a place where people encounter God. John is highlighting that, in Jesus, the location of that encounter has shifted. It is no longer the physical Temple, which by the time that John was compiling his gospel already lay in ruins, but the person of Jesus. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (v19).
Another difference between John’s account and that of the synoptic writers is less obvious but, nonetheless, significant. Whereas their focus is on how the Temple has been turned into a “den of robbers” (Mark 11:17), John’s concern is more nuanced: “He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!’” (v16).
John is less concerned about the illegality, or otherwise, of what is happening in the Temple courtyards and more about how what has developed as regulation and law now obscures the Temple’s foundational purpose – to be a place of encounter with God. For John, it is not simply the sheep, cattle, doves and money changers who are being driven out, but the capacity to relate to God.
So, taking the readings as a single unit today, we have the full message of the redemptive power of God. God speaks that we have been called out of slavery and into freedom and given communal commandments as a tool for living life in that new reality. The Psalmist praises God’s presence and offers a humble way of acknowledging that. Paul’s urgings to the Church in Corinth remind us that we need to be rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – symbolized for us by the cross. And the Gospel writer John reminds us that our bodies are a place to encounter and relate to God.
Our response to the cross – the two barren pieces of wood hung in front of us now – determines whether we are to be saved and redeemed for destroyed. Those who reject the idea of Christ are in the process of being destroyed. But for those of us who believe, the cross tells us that daily we meet the living God. For us,
goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
and life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours, victory is ours,
through Him who loved us.