Lent 3B (RCL) – A Preacher’s Ponderings

What sign?

Third Sunday in Lent; 3 March 2024; Lent 3B (RCL); Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25; John 2:13-22.

In the OT reading for this Sunday, we get the third in a series of covenants: Noah, Abram/Abraham, and now Moses, with the Ten Commandments. In the previous two covenants, God gave a sign of the covenant: with Noah, the bow in the clouds; with Abraham, circumcision (though we stopped short of those verses). Likewise in this Sunday’s reading, we stop short of the sign of the covenant: the two tablets of stone. Typically, in Christian iconography, we imagine five commandments on each stone: likely, all ten commandments were on both stones, one to be set up for the people to see, and one to be set up in the presence of God (in the ark of the covenant), so that both parties had a copy.

Cleaning house

Third Sunday in Lent; Lent 3B (RCL); Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22.

Christians often think that when Jesus “cleansed” the temple, he was simply getting rid of corrupt practices not associated with the worship of God. In fact, he is directly challenging the temple institution. People traveling to the great festivals would need to buy animals for sacrifice upon arrival, and to contribute to the Temple treasury, they would need to exchange their Roman coinage for Temple coinage. This activities were require for proper worship.

Get these things out of here!

4 March 2018
Third Sunday in Lent
Lent 3B (RCL)
Exodus 20:1-7
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

John’s Gospel moves the Temple act from the end of Jesus’ ministry to near the beginning. If anything like the Temple act really took place, it seems unlikely that the Roman protectors (oppressors) of Jerusalem would have waited for a trial to crucify the instigator. It makes much more historical sense at the end of Jesus’ ministry, so we are forced to ask why John would move it to the beginning. Continue reading “Get these things out of here!”