Overturning Interior Tables

Year B: Third Sunday of Lent

The forty days of Lent bring into focus a long biblical tradition beginning with the Flood in the Book of Genesis, when rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. We read about Elijah walking forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Mt. Horeb. We read about the forty years that the Israelites wandered through the desert in order to reach the Promised Land. The biblical desert is primarily a place of purification, a place of passage. The biblical desert is not so much a geographical location—a place of sand, stones or sagebrush—as a process of interior purification leading to the complete liberation from the false-self system with its programs for happiness that cannot possibly work.¹ —Thomas Keating

Year B, Third Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm: Psalm 19

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Gospel: John 2:13-22

Sermon - Overturning Interior Tables

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to 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. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. John 2:13–22

This is probably one of the most shocking events in Jesus’s ministry. Jesus, who told us to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek, begins chasing people out of the temple, pouring out bags of money, and turning over tables. What caused him to react so strongly? Some had made God’s house a marketplace.

This story of Jesus cleansing the temple is found at the beginning of John’s gospel account but at the end of the synoptic accounts. People have speculated why this might be, but I think the main point is theological. John employs so much temple imagery throughout his account of Jesus’s life that beginning the ministry of Jesus with this explosive story is appropriate. Through the death and resurrection of the Christ, the old temple has been destroyed and the new temple has been constructed.

Living on this side of the Cross and on this side of the actual fall of the temple, how might this passage be helpful to us, especially in this season where we contemplate repentance and prepare to, as a church, renew our vows to God on Easter through universally reaffirming the resurrection?

I think the answer comes in the second section of the passage.

In response to the chaos Jesus caused in the temple, some wish to see a sign so that they can know by what authority Jesus does these things. Jesus’s response is similar to one given in Matthew 12 and parallel texts: he would give them the sign of Jonah. Though it isn’t called that here, the idea is the same: he would die and be resurrected three days later.

In this context though, that meaning was only realized after his resurrection. What they heard was preposterous: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John explains that Jesus referred to the temple of his body.

Jesus, of course, was raised on the third day, but there is another way the Bible talks about the body of Christ. You and I, as members of the church, are members of Jesus’s body. We are baptized into this body. Just as we share in Jesus’s death, we share in his resurrection.

With this in mind, let’s think back to the first scene in this story.

Imagine Jesus shows up in your congregation or maybe even your home. How would he react? Are there tables that need to be overturned? Are there idols laying about? That is, are there things that you routinely place over God that need to be cast out?

In many ways, our culture of consumerism, the need to be entertained, and instant gratification has turned many churches into marketplaces of quick fixes, elevator religion, and little to no calls for radical change. But not only do we emphasize comfort, we also place way too much faith in our national allegiance than Jesus or his disciples ever did. Many churches are nothing more than fronts for a political movement or campaign offices for the next candidate who will save our country.

Do these tables need to be overturned?

And what about our interior lives?

While Jesus may not show up at our buildings to throw the flags off the stage or drive entertainers out of the sanctuary, he does dwell within us. In John 14:23, Jesus promised to live within those who believe in him.

During this Lenten season, I challenge you to preemptively overturn interior tables that need to go. Is there something within you that drains your peace and joy as well as the peace and joy of those around you? Is there something within you that is holding you back from being your best self, who Christ made you to be?

So many people, including myself, deal with anger, sadness, judgment, self-doubt, grudges, etc. that aren’t all that helpful. While everyone experiences these things, it can be easy to make them into our whole personality, which isn’t good for us or anyone else.

In the movie Soul (such a good movie!) there is this place people go when they lose their way. They get burned out or sucked into an endless routing or give up on their dreams. They look like this:

They are called lost souls, and I feel like this is how many people in the world live, including many Christians.

Turn over those tables! And if you can’t, consent to Spirit who is working in you to bring about the change you need. It may hurt. It might require sacrifice. You might have to change destructive habits. But we have gone for far too long as lost souls, devoid of joy, peace, hope, and love.

These sacrifices may look like changing your environment at first, but ultimately it is about changing yourself. Being “unequally yolked” is more about you than it is about the “unbeliever.” As Thomas Merton said, “We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things for God” (New Seeds of Contemplation, p.21).

Overturn your interior tables. Awaken to the presence of God who is within each of us just as Jesus promised.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 — Foolishness

The gospel of Jesus makes us question everything about how we think the world works. What we think is up is actually down. What we think is black is actually white, or more surprisingly, grey. What we think is right is wrong, and what we think is strong is weak. As some complained about Paul and his friends, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6).

In a letter written shortly after the time of these events, Paul said, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

How could something simultaneously be the wisdom of God, the power unto salvation, and the way of eternal life while also being foolish and weakness? Yet, this is how the gospel seems depending on who considers it.

Wars aren’t won by turning the other cheek. Elections are, sadly, not won through the fruit of the Spirt: love, gentleness, and self-control. Instead, wars, elections, and disputes among friends depend upon mastery of the wisdom of the world, which Paul calls the works of the flesh: enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissension, and factions (Galatians 5:18-23).

No, the gospel of Jesus doesn’t depend on that kind of wisdom. To the cross, that sort of behavior is foolish and unbecoming of those who wear Jesus’s name! When we proclaim Christ crucified, we are proclaiming a new way of living, thinking, and being. We are proclaiming a new way to interact with others and to even think about ourselves. We are proclaiming the wisdom and power of God.

We may think that “that’s just how the world works,” but Jesus has shown us a more excellent way.

Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.

1. Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.