March 7, 2021 Third Sunday in Lent

John 2:13-17  (The Message)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Jesus had two faces.  He was “meek and lowly in heart”;  and  “he looked at them with anger”.  (Mk 5:5)  He was gentle but not anemic,  as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”

Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple.  He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up.  It must have been a wild scene!  The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed.  The people likewise.  

Jesus was not always an easy person to be with.  For example, when he said:

“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the                kingdom of God.”  Lk. 9:60

“No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  Lk. 9:62 

“He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me.”  Mt. 10:37, 38

This may sound harsh and in some ways it is.  It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin.  It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”

Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the  Savior we need.

“Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee…

but be not silent...toward us.”

           Martin Luther

Prayer though for the week:  “Lord, open my heart to your ‘tough love’ and help me change who I am to who you would have me be.”