3rd Sunday of Lent (B)

In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, we hear God giving Moses the Ten Commandments; the kernel of the Mosaic Law. When you hear “the law” what is your reaction?

Most Americans have a negative attitude towards the idea of law. We tend to view laws as mostly restrictive. A slightly more positive attitude that many of us have is to view law as something that is protective; the law protects the innocent from the guilty. 

Few if any of us would have the attitude that the composer of today’s psalm had for the Law. The Psalmist praises the law as “refreshing the soul” and “rejoicing the heart.” The law is seen as something “more precious than gold” and “sweeter also than syrup or honey.” In another Psalm, King David describes a person as “blessed” if he is able to “meditate on his law day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

Why such a difference of attitudes between us today, and the Jewish people of the Old Testament? Why did they love the law?

For the Jewish people, the Law was so much more than a list of rules and regulations. Oh, they will create quite a list of rules and regulations to further those of the Ten Commandments — all you need to do is read the Book of Deuteronomy, which literally means “Second Law.” For the Jewish people the Mosaic Law was a covenant, which is an extension of kinship by oath. In other words, the Mosaic Law was God’s inviting the Jewish people to become members of His family.

Every family has rules; whether it be about bedtimes, chores, letting people know where you are. And for all the kids in the congregation who have thought “I can’t wait until I’m all grown so that I don’t have all these rules to follow,” let me tell you — I am 59 years-old and I still have rules to follow where I live: I have to let them know if I am going to be “home” for a meal, and I have to mark on a board by the door if I am out or in. Like all “family rules” the Mosaic Law was meant to help the family — God’s family — to live in peace, both with God and with each other.

Now we might better understand why King David described as “blessed” the person who “meditates on his law day and night.” We meditate, or spend time thinking about, that which we love. A person who has just fallen in love with someone might just sit there staring into space; they are thinking about their beloved who is so beautiful that they cannot get their face out of their mind. For today’s Psalmist, the law was loved, dreamed about, more than the face of any human beloved. It is our loss if we do not have that same kind of love for God’s law.

The law — God’s Law — is like an umbilical cord connecting us with God, the God of all meaning and goodness and hope. For pious Jews, reading the Mosaic Law was like reading a love letter from their beloved. Love asks the beloved, “What do you want? What do you desire? What do you love? I want to fulfill your desire because I love you.” Well, God, their beloved, answers those questions with the Law, starting with the Ten Commandments. It is God saying to them, “This is what I love: these values, this kind of person, this kind of life. Being that kind of person and living that kind of life is what would make me proud of you and happy.” [This is largely taken from Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle B) by Peter Kreeft, “Third Sunday of Lent”].

With the coming of Jesus, the Law receives that face of the beloved that we should never be able to get out of our minds. Jesus is the embodiment of the Law. Jesus gives himself to us so that God’s Law may be inside us. We can see this in today’s Gospel reading.

I already noted that the Mosaic Law became more than just the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments could not explicitly cover every possible circumstance, so over time the Jewish people elaborated on the Ten Commandments. We can find many of these “elaborations” in Deuteronomy, but also in Exodus and Leviticus. As we will see in today’s Gospel, the elaborated laws often had “loopholes.”

Why were there merchants and money changers in the Temple area at the time of Jesus? One of the elaborated laws that was intended to make the worship of God easier was to allow the people of Israel to sell their livestock for money, travel to the Temple, and then purchase other livestock for sacrifice. The original law called for people to take the sacrificial offering from their own flocks, however, if you have ever tried to get a flock of sheep or goats from one place to another, you know that it is not easy. So this “second law” made things much easier; you still had to get rid of one animal from your own flock, but then just take the money — which travels much more easily — to Jerusalem, buy another sheep or goat to then offer for the sacrifice. Sadly, this second law, which was intended just to make worship of God more easy, became corrupt as the businesses near the Temple took advantage of the Jewish pilgrims by making a lot of profit. The merchants and money-changers were basically breaking the commandment, “You shall not steal.”

Jesus enters the Temple as the very embodiment of the Law. Written laws can be abused and develop loopholes; persons do not have loopholes. Jesus points out boldly, clearly, and violently the abuse of the second law. The merchants and money-changers could no longer be deceiving themselves; Jesus tells them explicitly that they are thieves.

Lent is a time for us to allow Jesus to do the same thing for us. We should invite him into our souls, which are all “Temples of the Holy Spirit.” If we allow him, if when we receive the sacraments in docility and faith, Jesus will enter and clean up our “Temple.” He will help us see how we are deceiving ourselves, not living God’s Law as a love letter from our beloved, but as merely a set of rules which we look for loopholes to let us off the hook.

As we continue our Lenten journey, especially as we prepare ourselves to receive the Eucharist — the Body and Blood of Jesus who is the embodiment of God’s Law which is God’s Love — let us ask him to continue to “clean our Temple,” as we stay faithful to our practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.