Third Sunday in Lent, Cycle B, March 8, 2015
Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, Malachi 3:1-6, John 2:13-22
Jesus cleansed the Temple on the day of Passover. Some of you might ask what Passover is. The Passover is a time when Jewish people look back to important events in their history more than 3,000 years ago. It is also a time when they look forward to the future, in the hope of better times to come. It reminds Jews of the time when they were slaves in Egypt, and God freed them from slavery. In this very important day, Jesus went up to the Temple to worship God the Father. But He found many people selling animals for sacrifice and the money changers in the Temple. He got angry and overturned the money changers’ table and drove all of them out of the temple.
Why did Jesus make such a disturbance in the temple on the very important festival day? Why was He so upset with them? It is because they no longer had pure heart and passion toward God but only left with greed to take benefit for themselves using the religious traditions and sacrifice system. Though it was a bit of violent action, Jesus made people realize the true way of worshipping God by purifying the temple that they were ruining. As it says in today’s Psalms that the Word of God is whole that revives the soul and the commandments of God are pure that it enlightens the eyes, Jesus Christ who is the Word, enlightened their sinful minds and their wrongful practice of worshipping God.
Interestingly, Malachi, the prophet, prophesized clearly about this incident in today’s reading. “Suddenly the Lord you are looking for will come to his temple… He will be like a fire that makes things pure. He will be like a soap that makes things clean. And he will purify the Levites, just as gold and silver are purified with fire. Then these men will bring proper offerings to the Lord.” And God says “Return to me. Then I will return to you,”
If Jesus Christ comes to us now, right here today, how would he respond to the attitude of our faith and our life? How would he respond to our worship? Would he drive us out of this church and rebuke us about what we are doing for God? Or would he gladly accept our worship and show that he is pleased with us?
Just like Jesus cleansed the Temple, what should we clean ourselves as God’s Temple? As I mentioned before, every year when the time of Passover comes near, Jewish people know that they must start to get the house ready, especially cleaning their house and foods that are not allowed during this holiday. God commended Jewish people not to eat food which contains yeast during the Passover. So they observed the commandment by having a family cleaning event on the evening before the holiday begins.
Most of the time, yeast represents sin or evil in the Bible. Yeast can give a good picture of sin. A very small amount of yeast mixed with flour can make a large amount of leavened bread. Carrying this out to sin, it can be said that a little sin can end up destroying the whole body. Just like God commended that all leavened bread should be cleaned out of the house, God also commended us not to defile our body and soul with sins but to clean our body and soul as God’s house.
Two weeks ago, I mentioned about what sin is very shortly. Sin is everything that hinders us from coming to Jesus Christ. Today’s Exodus reading tells us God’s Ten Commandments which defines what sins are very clearly. These Commandments are essential rules and discipline that God gave us to observe in our daily lives. It is hard not to commit these kinds of sin. We are jealous, we lie, we often hate each other, we often put ourselves priority than God, we use bad word in our conversations, sometimes we don’t respect our parents and elderly people, we often spread rumors to harm people’s reputation and on and on… you can name it.
But in Jesus’ time, Jewish people followed every commandment very well. Then, why was Jesus so upset with them and called them as hypocrites? Hypocrite means that “What they say is not what they do.” That is, when their behavior doesn’t match with what they say they believe. For example, people go to church but don’t believe in God. Another example is that Vegetarians eat only vegetables, not animals, but wear leather jackets. We often do such things in our lives. We judge others very often, but we do the same things. I am very aware of this, because preachers and teachers can easily become hypocrites. They can pretend that they are always right, the most religious and respectful, and they can make people do things which they are not doing.
According to the Bible, sin not only harms one’s own self and people around the person but also harm God since it is a rebellious act toward God. In Isaiah 43:24, God said that “You have burdened me with your sins. You have made me tired with the wrong things you have done.” Our sins make God angry and grieved because our sinful minds block us from seeing and feeling God’s abundant love and mercy. Sin keeps us away from God.
But God always calls us to return to God so that we can have a close relationship with God. Then, what can we do to return to God?
First, count your sins daily. David prayed to God in his Psalm that “For I know my faults, and my sin is always before me.” David always reflected on what he had done wrong in front of God. He counted his sins carefully and honestly. He knew that he was not perfect before God. Counting your sin makes you humble. You cannot judge others if you realize that you are a miserable sinner.
Second, read and meditate on God’s Word daily. Today’s Psalm tells us that “The law of the Lord is perfect and it gives us new strength. It gives us wisdom. The commands of the Lord give light to our minds and give joy to our hearts.” The Word of the Lord teaches us what is right and what is wrong so that we can clearly see and find what we should do. And it warns us what we should not do. The Bible is a guidance that teaches us how to live appropriate in God’s favor and the Bible is a mirror that reflects on God’s great love and abundant grace while we are still being disobedient to God.
Thirdly, pray to God daily. Then, what should we pray about? David in today’s Psalm gives you ideas. He says that “who can know their own mistakes?” So ask God to enlighten our eyes so that we can clearly see our own mistakes and faults. And pray God to forgive our hidden faults and to keep us from the sins that we want to commit. Then, God will give you strength and wisdom to overcome your sins. And God will forgive you and keep you not to fall into the sin again. I love the last two sentences which are “Lord, may these words of my mouth please you and may these thoughts of my heart please you also. You are my Rock and my Redeemer.” We can imagine that David always wanted to be favorable in God’s eyes and he wanted to please God by repenting his sins and by meditating God’s Word and by praying to God to ask for God’s help.
You might already know the secret methods to return to God. I know it is very simple methods - Repent, Read the Bible, and Pray. But you also know that it is hard to practice in a daily basis. People are too busy to reflect on themselves and have time to read the Bible and pray. But remember that we say that we serve, worship and love God. But are our actions the same as what we say? We need to stop making God waiting for us. It is now our turn to show God that we truly want to have deeper relationship with God. So, try to follow these simple practices especially during this Lenten season. God will be pleased with you and you will also find great joy in God. Thanks be to God!
Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, Malachi 3:1-6, John 2:13-22
Jesus cleansed the Temple on the day of Passover. Some of you might ask what Passover is. The Passover is a time when Jewish people look back to important events in their history more than 3,000 years ago. It is also a time when they look forward to the future, in the hope of better times to come. It reminds Jews of the time when they were slaves in Egypt, and God freed them from slavery. In this very important day, Jesus went up to the Temple to worship God the Father. But He found many people selling animals for sacrifice and the money changers in the Temple. He got angry and overturned the money changers’ table and drove all of them out of the temple.
Why did Jesus make such a disturbance in the temple on the very important festival day? Why was He so upset with them? It is because they no longer had pure heart and passion toward God but only left with greed to take benefit for themselves using the religious traditions and sacrifice system. Though it was a bit of violent action, Jesus made people realize the true way of worshipping God by purifying the temple that they were ruining. As it says in today’s Psalms that the Word of God is whole that revives the soul and the commandments of God are pure that it enlightens the eyes, Jesus Christ who is the Word, enlightened their sinful minds and their wrongful practice of worshipping God.
Interestingly, Malachi, the prophet, prophesized clearly about this incident in today’s reading. “Suddenly the Lord you are looking for will come to his temple… He will be like a fire that makes things pure. He will be like a soap that makes things clean. And he will purify the Levites, just as gold and silver are purified with fire. Then these men will bring proper offerings to the Lord.” And God says “Return to me. Then I will return to you,”
If Jesus Christ comes to us now, right here today, how would he respond to the attitude of our faith and our life? How would he respond to our worship? Would he drive us out of this church and rebuke us about what we are doing for God? Or would he gladly accept our worship and show that he is pleased with us?
Just like Jesus cleansed the Temple, what should we clean ourselves as God’s Temple? As I mentioned before, every year when the time of Passover comes near, Jewish people know that they must start to get the house ready, especially cleaning their house and foods that are not allowed during this holiday. God commended Jewish people not to eat food which contains yeast during the Passover. So they observed the commandment by having a family cleaning event on the evening before the holiday begins.
Most of the time, yeast represents sin or evil in the Bible. Yeast can give a good picture of sin. A very small amount of yeast mixed with flour can make a large amount of leavened bread. Carrying this out to sin, it can be said that a little sin can end up destroying the whole body. Just like God commended that all leavened bread should be cleaned out of the house, God also commended us not to defile our body and soul with sins but to clean our body and soul as God’s house.
Two weeks ago, I mentioned about what sin is very shortly. Sin is everything that hinders us from coming to Jesus Christ. Today’s Exodus reading tells us God’s Ten Commandments which defines what sins are very clearly. These Commandments are essential rules and discipline that God gave us to observe in our daily lives. It is hard not to commit these kinds of sin. We are jealous, we lie, we often hate each other, we often put ourselves priority than God, we use bad word in our conversations, sometimes we don’t respect our parents and elderly people, we often spread rumors to harm people’s reputation and on and on… you can name it.
But in Jesus’ time, Jewish people followed every commandment very well. Then, why was Jesus so upset with them and called them as hypocrites? Hypocrite means that “What they say is not what they do.” That is, when their behavior doesn’t match with what they say they believe. For example, people go to church but don’t believe in God. Another example is that Vegetarians eat only vegetables, not animals, but wear leather jackets. We often do such things in our lives. We judge others very often, but we do the same things. I am very aware of this, because preachers and teachers can easily become hypocrites. They can pretend that they are always right, the most religious and respectful, and they can make people do things which they are not doing.
According to the Bible, sin not only harms one’s own self and people around the person but also harm God since it is a rebellious act toward God. In Isaiah 43:24, God said that “You have burdened me with your sins. You have made me tired with the wrong things you have done.” Our sins make God angry and grieved because our sinful minds block us from seeing and feeling God’s abundant love and mercy. Sin keeps us away from God.
But God always calls us to return to God so that we can have a close relationship with God. Then, what can we do to return to God?
First, count your sins daily. David prayed to God in his Psalm that “For I know my faults, and my sin is always before me.” David always reflected on what he had done wrong in front of God. He counted his sins carefully and honestly. He knew that he was not perfect before God. Counting your sin makes you humble. You cannot judge others if you realize that you are a miserable sinner.
Second, read and meditate on God’s Word daily. Today’s Psalm tells us that “The law of the Lord is perfect and it gives us new strength. It gives us wisdom. The commands of the Lord give light to our minds and give joy to our hearts.” The Word of the Lord teaches us what is right and what is wrong so that we can clearly see and find what we should do. And it warns us what we should not do. The Bible is a guidance that teaches us how to live appropriate in God’s favor and the Bible is a mirror that reflects on God’s great love and abundant grace while we are still being disobedient to God.
Thirdly, pray to God daily. Then, what should we pray about? David in today’s Psalm gives you ideas. He says that “who can know their own mistakes?” So ask God to enlighten our eyes so that we can clearly see our own mistakes and faults. And pray God to forgive our hidden faults and to keep us from the sins that we want to commit. Then, God will give you strength and wisdom to overcome your sins. And God will forgive you and keep you not to fall into the sin again. I love the last two sentences which are “Lord, may these words of my mouth please you and may these thoughts of my heart please you also. You are my Rock and my Redeemer.” We can imagine that David always wanted to be favorable in God’s eyes and he wanted to please God by repenting his sins and by meditating God’s Word and by praying to God to ask for God’s help.
You might already know the secret methods to return to God. I know it is very simple methods - Repent, Read the Bible, and Pray. But you also know that it is hard to practice in a daily basis. People are too busy to reflect on themselves and have time to read the Bible and pray. But remember that we say that we serve, worship and love God. But are our actions the same as what we say? We need to stop making God waiting for us. It is now our turn to show God that we truly want to have deeper relationship with God. So, try to follow these simple practices especially during this Lenten season. God will be pleased with you and you will also find great joy in God. Thanks be to God!