Cleansing of the temple was a symbolic action by Jesus, God’s messiah coming to his
sacred space. Jerusalem temple was the sanctuary where the ark of the covenant was
kept, that contained the tablets of the ten commandments, a small box of manna that
God gave the people of Israel in the desert and the staff of priest Aaron. It was called
the Kabod Yahweh, or presence of God’s glory. This reminded God’s love and saving
action for the Israelites. Jesus wasn’t pleased to see this sanctuary turned into a
business center by the chief priests and temple authorities. A house of prayer was
desecrated by the noises of money changers, people buying and selling animals for
sacrifice. Jesus’ action fulfills, Zechariah 14:21: ‘there shall no longer be a trader in the
house of the Lord, that day’. Worship of God that must be transformative was turned
into an commercial establishment. External rituals without the movement of the heart
to God’s presence or a heart that seeks God is mere noises. Heart is the true temple
where God dwells.
French writer Elizabeth Leseur: ‘so many moving thoughts and ardent desires and
generous resolutions should be translated into deeds. One will either not be
understood or be understood wrongly and that one will perhaps suffer at the hands of
humanity for having willed the good of humanity’. Jesus is thought and desire of God
for the good and salvation of humanity and his words and actions are misunderstood.
Jesus says: ‘destroy this temple, I will rebuild it in three days’. He was speaking of his
sacrifice on the cross that would end the animal sacrifices of the temple and in his
resurrection people will learn to worship God in Spirit and truth. True worship must
renew human hearts to greater fellowship of love with God and fellow human beings.
Hebrew saying: ‘God is an earthquake’; he shakes up the mind; free us from man made
clutters that reduce faith into external rituals or a cultic belonging of group of people.
Psalm 51: God doesn’t delight in your sacrifices but he wants a contrite heart that is
enlightened by the gospel of Christ. Lent is a time to shake up our minds and let God’s
desire for our well-being happen in us!
In Nikos Kazantzakis book Francis Assisi, Francis tells this story: ‘the first animal to
appear at the gate of heaven was the snail. Peter asked: what are you looking for my
fine little snail? immortality, the snail answered. Peter couldn’t stop laughing,
immortality and what do you plan to do with it? don’t laugh, said the snail. Aren’t I one
of God’s creatures? Just like Archangel Michael? Archangel snail, that is who I am.
where are your wings of gold, your sword and the scarlet sandals of archangels? Inside
me, asleep and waiting. Waiting for what, Peter asked. The great moment, this one,
now, said the snail. Before he had finished saying , ‘now’, he took a great leap and
entered paradise. Each one of us is uniquely precious to God; he comes into the
absence created by our grief, pain, trials, sinfulness, to awaken the possibilities of our
hearts. Lent is a time to awaken what is asleep and waiting in us, to spread the wings
of faith to leap into the arms of God with renewed trust.