THE LORD OF THE TEMPLE

A different Face of Jesus

I invite you to take a look at the images of Jesus we have: We have the suffering servant, the crucified Christ, the Sacred Heart, the Good Shepherd, the Divine Mercy, the Risen Lord, the Sto Nino, and Christ the King. All these images are very attractive to us because they represent the serene face of God. Yes, I am comfortable with Jesus because He is merciful, meek, humble and approachable. His serenity attracts me towards the Divine. I come to the Church regularly because I know the Lord would understand me, stand by me, comfort me, forgive me, accept me, and listen to my prayers. Yet, in the Gospel passage for our reflection today we have a different face of Jesus: A Jesus who is passionate about the house of God, a Jesus who is clearly angry, overturning the money changers and driving out the bad elements from the temple. No, this is not a Jesus with a cross in His hand rather a whip of cords that would fall on those who desecrate the temple, His Father’s house. Am I comfortable with a Jesus who is not only demanding of holiness from me but also forcefully exorcises all kinds of evil from within me? Yes, we have today a Jesus who is disturbing our conscience!

Jesus and the Temple

If there is one thing that the Lord Jesus cannot stand, it is the desecration of the temple. Jesus has a very special affinity and attachment to the temple. The Gospels present to us Jesus entering the temple on numerous occasions. His journey of life and mission begins with His presentation at the temple. When He was twelve year’s old He chose to remain at the temple making it clear that He should be at the business of His Father (Lk 2:49). During His public ministry Jesus went to the temple on customary feasts. The temple was the His favorite location for teaching the people. He made predictions about the destruction the temple (Mt 24:1-2) and also wept over the plight of the temple. On several occasions He told His disciples of His eagerness to go to Jerusalem and of His impending sufferings, death and resurrection which were to be culminated in the temple town. Remember, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness which pertained to proving His identity and power by jumping from the pinnacle of the temple (Mt 4:5-6). Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees and scribes were mostly held in the context of the temple. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple was the final point of that conflict which speeded up His crucifixion. The claims Jesus made at this point—“destroy this temple, and I will build it up again in three days”(Jn 2:19) were brought as the chief accusations against Him in His trial. It is interesting to note that most stories in the Gospel about Jesus association with the temple are conflict stories. No wonder, Jesus was moved inwardly so deep at the sight of the desecration of the temple that He found it necessary to use even physical force to drive away all the “unclean elements” from the temple. It is this cleansed temple that Jesus triumphantly entered on the Palm Sunday.

Jesus the New Temple

When Jesus cleansed the temple, the chief priests and the Pharisees were furious about it. So far they thought they were the Lord of the temples. But now Jesus reveals to them that He is not only the Lord of the Temple but He is the Temple par excellence. The image and purpose of the temple acquires new dimensions in His own very identity as the Son of God. This is why He challenged them to destroy the temple that His body was that He might build it up again in three days. In His conversation with the Samaritan woman he made it clear that the true believers will worship God in spirit and truth and not just in Jerusalem or on any mountain. Indeed, Jesus is the new temple, the meeting place between God and His people. His body is the new locus of worship and the object of devotion. He is the high priest and the temple. Jesus’ self sacrifice on the cross has now replaced all other covenantal sacrifices and ritual rites.

By virtue of His being God and man, Jesus now has become new temple, the only mediator between God and man, and the supreme locus of human longing for the divine. So wherever people are gathered in His name, He is there amidst them. His passion, death and resurrection have sanctified the entire human endeavors of worship. In Him we have found our salvation and sanctification.

You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit

Even as Jesus is the new temple, in Him, all the children of God are made temples of the Holy Spirit. St Paul reminds us: “Surely you know that you are the temple of God and that God’s Spirit lives in you…. God’s temple is Holy and you yourselves are His temple” (1Cor 3:16-17). God’s temple we are. By virtue of our baptism we have been consecrated to God. We are washed clean in the waters of baptism and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is why St Paul reminds us again that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. How pure and holy do I present before God as a living and loving temple?

Jesus could not stand the filth, the business-attitudes and the desecration that the temple was subjected to. If Jesus enters the temple that I am, will He be happy, will He find a clean, holy and acceptable place within me? Do I keep my body and mind with the purity that I received in my baptism? Or will Jesus be forced to exorcise the umpteen evil elements from within me?

Cleanse, Destroy and Re-Build

The temple that I am is prone to defilement and corruption. My body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit is susceptible to weaknesses and temptations. My mind is often the work-house of the devil. How come the temple that I am is alienated from others and encompassed in the fort of selfishness?

If we feel that the temple of our lives are defiled, we only need to come to Jesus the temple and the high priest par-excellence. Allow Him to cleanse your temple. Be willing to destroy the false temples that you have built around and about you. Allow Jesus to re-build the temple of the Holy Spirit within you.

This process of cleansing, demolishing/destroying and re-building of your temples is a painful and strenuous one. Like the Pharisees and the high-priests of Jesus’ time, we resist every instance of cleansing-destroying and re-building the temples of our life. This is so because these temples could be the fondest aspects of our life that we have built over years and which have become the objects of our worship. These have become so sacred that we resist every step of cleansing and demolition in these areas.

But what are those temples of ours that need knocking down? Perhaps our preconceptions. Perhaps our closed-mindedness. How often do we close our eyes and cover our ears When God speaks to us because we cannot imagine God speaking to us in new ways?
Maybe our temples are our bigotries, our prejudices against each other. Maybe there are habits we’ve gotten into. Habits that keeps us from reaching out to God and to one another.

Perhaps our temples are our comfort zones. Perhaps they are our attachments to the familiar. Perhaps they are our unwillingness to go beyond what is comfortable for us, and to explore new ways of Christian witness, new ways of Christian discipleship, and new ways of living out of our Christian faith. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a challenging and difficult Gospel. It does not allow us to view the world in the same way as we had before. It causes us to think critically about who we are, about the world we live in, and about our relationship to that world.

This can be had an unsettling thing. We’re not comfortable when God knocks our things down. We’re not comfortable when God asks us to knock our own things down. When Jesus knocks those tables in the Temple it’s upsetting to us. We want to live in security, and we get nervous when the Gospel calls us away from our security, into the risky business of being a disciple. Sometimes we need to destroy the old before we can build something new. Jesus’ mission was to proclaim the coming Kingdom of God. Kingdom of God is a kingdom in which there is a new Creation.

We are in the middle of Lent. On the road to Easter. Easter changes everything—most of all us. During this time of Lent we’re challenged to cleanse our temple. To sweep away the clutter of our sinfulness, preconceptions, our comfort zones, and clear the way for God to work a new thing in us. And we take comfort in the knowledge that we are accompanied by the one who went before us, who declared: “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” Destroy we must. Cleanse He will. Re-build He will, as well. For we are His temples Jesus is passionate about. Let his passion find a place in me!

Father James Thayil (Joy Chacko)