Nothing But the Blood of Jesus
Homily for the Third Sunday in Lent
The first reading from the Book of Exodus contains what should be a very familiar text. Back as far as the day on which we were judged to have reached the age of reason, the Commandments that are listed in this text were committed to memory in our religious education. The children of Israel had fled from their state of slavery in the country of Egypt. They were no longer governed by the laws of Egypt. God did not leave them without guiding principles. The commandments were to guide the Israelites’ relationship with God and their relationship with one another. The first three commandments are guides for our relationship with God while the last seven guide our relationships with our brothers and sisters.
As I have said before, people of the Middle East were driven by the pursuit of honor and the avoidance of shame. A careful reading of the Ten Commandments reveals this driving principal, for no society could say that it was based on the pursuit of honor and the avoidance of shame without these particular precepts. These guiding principles were not meant for Israel alone. God’s commandments are enough to guide every person, every institution, every organization, every nation, and our world. Our problem, as Jesus points out, is that human beings abandon God’s commandments and cling to human traditions. While all human traditions (constitutions, laws, canons, ordinances, etc.) are imperfect, the psalmist testifies, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye.” Wherever God’s commandments are not kept, the opposite becomes the case: disturbance of soul, folly, conflict, and blindness.
While it might seem at first glance that today’s Gospel text is not at all related to the text from the Book of Exodus, nothing could be further from the truth. Today’s Gospel text revolves around both the first commandment and the seventh commandment. Jesus cleanses the temple which was supposed to be a holy ground and serene place of prayer. Those who came for the feast of Passover were required to pay temple tax for the upkeep of the temple. Since the Roman and Greek coins had images of their gods and their emperors stamped on them and therefore were regarded as pagan coins which could not be used to pay the temple tax, money-changers stayed in the temple area and exchanged the pagan coins for Jewish coins. The money-changers cheated the people by offering them a very low exchange rate. Also, sacrificial animals were not to be brought from outside but must be bought from the sellers in the temple area. The sellers sold the animals at exorbitant prices. It was because of these corrupt practices in the name of God that Jesus “made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, ‘Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.’”
Our Lenten season is meant to be a time during which we cleanse ourselves. We may have forgotten that our bodies are also temples, temples of the Holy Spirit. Through our sins, those temples of the Holy Spirit are constantly in need of cleansing through acts of penance, through prayer, and through acts of charity. Jesus gave his life and shed his blood for our sake as we are reminded in the old 19th century hymn: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
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