Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 9.4-12 and John 2.13-22
When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.” (Deuteronomy 9:9-12)
In this passage Moses is recounting the events surrounding the giving of the Ten Commandments. Notice first that the tradition of spending forty days in preparation for a profound religious event is a very old tradition. Our tradition of forty days of Lent is an offspring of this. Of course, in our modern world we find it difficult to spend forty minutes in preparation to hear the voice of God, and like the Israelites we become impatient waiting for God’s word and create our own image of who God is and what God wants.
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” – John 2:13-16
And here we see the image of God we here in America so often make for ourselves. In spite of our pledge that we are a nation under God, too often we are a nation who worships the “invisible hand of the marketplace.” People flock to churches who preach the “prosperity gospel.” Pastor’s tell them, “God wants you to be rich.” And so we turn our temples into marketplaces once again selling consumerism instead of citizenship in the kingdom of God.
What does God really want for us? Jesus, whose life, crucifixion and resurrection we seek to contemplate these forty days, sums it up in John 15:12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Now let’s be clear.
The love Jesus is talking about is not a warm fuzzy feeling for those we already think are lovable. Jesus cares about, nurtures and heals even those who hate him and kill him. He does not wish us wealth or fame or power over others or even fleeting pleasures. He wishes us something much better. “I have said this that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” – John 15:11
Being full of the love of God is the true joy and it is a spring of living water bubbling up into eternal life. The Jesus who died on the cross for his enemies, rose to forgive and love them, forever. This is the image we must contemplate for these forty days. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Rev. Tom Downing, Pastor Emeritus/Minister of Senior Adult Ministries
