The four Gospel writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – have a difference of opinion when it comes to the timing of Jesus’ defiant visit to Jerusalem’s temple. Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus cleansed the temple on Palm Sunday, soon after he rode a donkey in mock triumph into Judah’s ancient capitol. Mark’s date for the liberation of the temple’s sacrificial animals is the Monday in Holy Week – the day after Palm Sunday. But John’s Gospel fast-forwards Jesus’ temple takeover to the beginning of his ministry, as if to announce that the temple was a target of the Lord’s search and destroy mission from Day One. Why is that?
The conclusion of today’s reading from John’s Gospel (John 2:13-21) reveals what Jesus was thinking.
The Jews asked him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
Say what? His body? Jesus had a thing about the temple because his body was about to become God’s replacement for everything that happened in that sacred location. The sacrificial slaughter of animals, for example, was replaced by Jesus’ sacrificial offering of his body, once and for all, for the forgiveness of sins. In other words, Jesus doesn’t drive the temple’s sheep, cattle, and doves into Jerusalem’s streets in a fit of rage. His liberates them. He sets them free because their services will no longer be needed. And the prayers offered in the “house of prayer” that Jesus highlights in the Synoptic versions of this story will soon be offered to God “in Jesus’ name,” as we now say – to the Father, through the Son, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
If the temple served as a kind of bridge between God and humankind, Jesus was already anticipating – at the beginning of his ministry, if you read John’s Gospel, or by the final week of his priestly service on earth, if you go with Matthew, Mark, and Luke – Jesus was already aware that his body was soon to become God’s replacement for that rickety old bridge…for all people.
During the night of March 6, 1987, a ferry carrying 500 people sank in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, one and a half minutes after leaving the harbor. Some crew members carelessly left a number of critical watertight doors open. Others failed to check them. The resulting floods capsized the ferry and claimed almost 193 lives. Things would have been much worse, however, if a passenger, Andrew Parker, played it safe and refused to act. By stretching his body across a gap that was swirling with seawater, Parker made himself a bridge over which dozens of people fled to safety, including his own wife and daughter. Fortunately, he too survived.
For some reason, Palm Sunday gets most of our attention this week, while God’s temple replacement act goes unnoticed. Will Holy Communion this Thursday – “This is my body given for you” – not to mention our worship on Good Friday be richer because of today’s temple visit?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, how can I thank you for the bridge you built with your own body? Amen.
-Pastor Joel Guillemette
Sudbury UMC Lenten Devotions 