Third Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024 – Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25

If, as a citizen of the Village of Wurtsboro, I didn’t like the annual Street Fair, and took umbrage at their cluttering up my beautiful main street and making it impossible for me to drive down it easily, and I didn’t like all the junk being sold on the street, and as a result, I decided to walk down and start turning over the tables of the merchants, I wouldn’t get much past Danny’s before the State Police would arrest me. So, how come Jesus gets away with this? And, more to the point, who is this Jesus? What happened to the nice Jesus that appears in the gospel week after week, healing this one and healing that one, and multiplying the bread, and making more wine? Where did he go and who is this mean person taking his place? Huh. Well, there are a couple of things to notice. 

First of all, Jesus is wrong about what was going on in the temple. It was essential to the worship of the Jewish people that there be moneychangers in the temple. Because, if you were coming from any place outside of Palestine - outside of Judea and Galilee - you had Imperial coins in your purse, and they were unclean. If you wanted to make an offering for the poor in one of the poor boxes located throughout the Court of the Visitors, you had to do it with coins minted for that purpose. And so, you had to go someplace and change your Imperial coins into coins that were not unclean. By the same token, if you were coming to make a sacrifice - perhaps because you’d been healed, or in thanksgiving for a first-born, or something else like that - and you didn’t want to drag a sheep or a lamb all the way from your home on the long journey to Jerusalem, you could buy one there. And then those merchants would take what you bought and give it to the priest, and they would take it into the holy of holies and offer it for you. And so, in order for people to do what they came to do, in order for the worship life of the temple to move smoothly, there had to be these people. So, Jesus taking umbrage at their being there is sort of beside the point. And how come he didn’t get arrested? It tells us right in the story. The Jewish temple officials came to him and said, “Who are you? Show us some sign that gives you authority to do this.” They were not particularly upset at his doing it, they just wanted to know what spiritual authority he had for doing it. And that’s where this story intersects with the Second Reading. 

That’s why I asked you to pay very careful attention to what it is that Jews and Greeks want. It says, “Paul said, ‘The Jews want signs. The Greeks seek wisdom.’” People of his own faith are impressed by wonders. Pagan people want rationale behind their spirituality. Those two things are still true today, aren't they? In many branches of Christianity, what draws people to them and impresses them, is wonder working of some sort. Whether it’s the rumor of miracle or some big showplace, it is flash that draws some people. On the other hand, there are other people who say, “You know, I would probably come to church, or I would be very interested in your particular religion, except there are certain things I don’t understand or certain things I don’t agree with and I don’t understand your explanation for them. If you could give me a better explanation, if you could make it make sense for me then I would come.” Both of those things are stumbling blocks to real faith.

St. Paul offers a connection point between mystery and rationale. He says, “What I offer instead is Christ crucified.“ Which is a stumbling block, a stumbling block, for those who seek wonders. And insanity, foolishness, for those who expect reason. The thing of it is though, that you and I instinctively understand the Crucifixion. We don’t need a Catechism to explain it to us. Anybody who has sat by the bed of a sick child, anybody who has run into traffic to grab some kid, anybody who has offered a kidney to somebody who needed one, anybody who has made some tremendous sacrifice out of love for another person, instinctively understands the Crucifixion. Anyone who, as a profession, puts their life on the line every day, leaves their house in the morning, not knowing for sure that they’ll come back at night, anybody who works long, long hours putting off rest for the sake of other people’s well-being, instinctively understands the Crucifixion. And so, it’s really not either a stumbling block or insanity in the long run. 

The reason why Jesus did what he did has nothing to do with anger. There are two passages in the Old Testament, one in the Book of Malachi and one in the Book of Zechariah that describe the actions he performed in the temple. That predict that someday somebody would come who would make the temple a truly spiritual place. And so, when Jesus does this, he’s doing something that Jews expected all the time. That prophets would sometimes act out their message instead of speaking their message. And so, what we have here is an acted-out prophecy on the part of Jesus. And this acted-out prophecy comes down to us in the word sacrament.

Sacraments beautifully combine the need for wonder and the need for rationale. Remember what we were taught in our Catechism - those of you who went to Catholic school up to around the year 1970, 1972? A sacrament is an outward sign - an outward sign - instituted by Christ to give grace. And then it described how a sacrament works. A sacrament has to have matter and form. In a couple of minutes, the sacrament I am performing has matter, as bread and wine, and form, in the words of consecration I say over them. If I am doing a Baptism, the matter would be the water I pour over the baby’s head, the form would the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

The words that we pray give reason to the actions we perform, or the objects we manipulate. And the objects are easily accessible. The simplest things in the world. Water, wine, bread, oil, a human gesture. They’re so accessible, they don’t need to be explained. But the mystery behind them needs to be informed by the words that we say.

Sacraments open the door to mystery, but they do it in a meaningful way. So let us prepare now to take part in this sacrament, and pray with and for those who, at one or another time during the next week or month, will receive another one of those sacraments.