Cycle B Lent 3rd Week Sunday

“[Where] is God,” [the madman] cried.

“I shall tell you. We have killed him—you and I.
All of us are his murderers. But how have we done this?
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?
What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned
has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us?
What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. This is what the German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche asserts in this short excerpt. We have killed God. This perhaps
explains Jesus’ violent cleansing of the Temple in today’s gospel.

How We Kill God

In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, the Lord gives his 10 commandments to
the Israelites. However, through time, these 10 commandments were amazingly multiplied to
613 commandments that a devout Jew needed to observe. With so many commandments, the
probability of breaking a law has increased; and breaking the law makes it necessary to make
amends. To atone for their sins, they go to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer animal sacrifices that
are killed ritually to appease and gain back the favor of God whom they have displeased.
Only certain "clean" land animals were allowed for sacrifice: only oxen or cattle; sheep;
and goats were accepted. Doves or young pigeons were included for poor people who could not
afford the bigger animals.
And because people came from different places with different currencies, and because Roman
coins were forbidden in the Temple, the people had to also go through dishonest money changers
before they could go and buy the usually overpriced special animals for the sacrifice.
But what really upset Jesus? Was it the greed of the animal traders or the dishonesty of the
money changers? As stated in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus was upset more over the fact that
the house of God had been turned into a marketplace: “Take these out of here, and stop making
my Father’s house a market place!”

Like the Jews, we have commercialized our relationship with God

 Lenten Season: we do acts of penance—fast & abstain, say more prayers, come to Church
more often than on ordinary times, give alms to the poor, give bigger amounts to charity and
do it more often
 Why? “nagbabayad lang sa mga kasalanan”—We are paying for our sins; buying back our
faults with our good works. Did the Lord ask us to pay for our sins?!
 Notice in today’s First Reading that God did not originally command animal sacrifices, not
even almsgiving, fasting and abstinence, or prayer. He only asks that we heed His
commandments (see Jeremiah 7:21–23; Amos 5:25). Why should we do this?
 Like the Jews, we have forgotten the context in which the commandments have been given
to us: “I, the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of
slavery.”
 These commandments were given to Israel after God had redeemed his people from slavery
through the Exodus. It shows that God now claims the full attention and the complete
devotion of the Israelites. The focus of the commandments is thus, not the law in itself,
but on living a life in which God remains at the center. As the psalmist proclaims, living
according to this commandments are “more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb” because they refresh the soul, give wisdom
to the simple, rejoice the heart, and enlighten the eye.
 In other words the commandments are not a set of rules to be followed to the letter, but a
program of life, a way of living, which, if followed leads to a life of deep joy because it is
lived with the Lord.
 We therefore do not have to pay for our sins for we can never buy back our sins. The
invitation is to have a relationship with the one who has saved us from our sins.
This brings us to our second point.

Keep Christ Alive in Our Lives

In response to Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple, the Jews question Jesus’ authority by asking,
“What sign can you show us for doing this?” And to this, Jesus responds: “Destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up.”
In other words, Jesus is the sign that the Jews have been looking for. As Paul puts it in our
second reading today: “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom. But we proclaim Christ
crucified . . . .” Paul reminds the Corinthians that, if they want to know the meaning of salvation,
they must not, like the Jews, look at a set of rules and regulations or, like the Gentiles, go after
false gods and idols. Paul tells the Corinthians to continue to keep their gaze fixed on Jesus, the
crucified Christ. Doing so will enable them to see the true meaning of life and will result in every
law, every rule, and every regulation, being transformed into love. And when that happens, we
begin to be faithful to the commandments not out of fear of punishment but out of love for
the one who has saved us.

Conclusion
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him
Today, in the cleansing of our temples, Jesus kills god; Jesus kills our false gods. He releases
us from slavery to a set of rules that we struggle to live by. And in its place, he invites us to a
relationship of love, a love that will make us desire to live according to his precepts.
God is dead. Our false gods are dead. They remain dead. And Jesus has killed them.
We are now free to keep our gaze fixed on the one true God.

If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.

If you look within you, you’ll be depressed.
If you look at God, you’ll be at rest.
-Corrie Ten Boom