Homily - 3rd Sunday of Lent – Year B - Sunday 3rd March 2024

Homily

3rd Sunday of Lent – Year B

Sunday 3rd March 2024

Jesus visited the second temple to be built. Solomon had built the first one. This was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar after the people of Israel and Judah had strayed from God. They carved sculptures with eyes, mouths and bodies which could not see, hear, or breathe. Lifeless figures were created by men to pray to but could not answer them. Those who stayed in Jerusalem or tried to escape to Egypt perished. Roughly 25% of the total population of Judaeans and Israelites went into exile.

Though they were under the rule of the Chaldeans, those in exile prospered because they had followed what God had chosen for them to do, by trusting in him. Seventy years later, God brought them out of exile, when King Cyrus of Persia fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy. The spirit of God was with Cyrus, and through him the second Temple was built.

The second temple was destroyed in 70AD when Titus’s army supressed a Jewish uprising. The whole of Jerusalem was sacked. Today, there is talk of a third temple being built in Jerusalem, but in today’s Gospel, when the Jews ask Jesus for a sign to justify his actions of chasing the marketeers out to the second temple, he said he would destroy the sanctuary, and raise it up in three days.

Cyrus had taken 46 years to build the second temple. The Jews could not imagine how a simple man could rebuild it on his own in just three days. But Jesus was not talking about a building made of stone. He was talking about something more precious. The sanctuary he was talking about was the Temple of the Holy Spirit, his own body.

King David had wanted to build the first temple, but God prevented him from doing so because he had blood on his hands. David sent Uriah the Hittite to the front lines where he knew Uriah would be killed so he could marry Bathsheba. Their first child fell ill and died because of David’s sin. However, God loved their second child, and it was he whom God allowed to build the First Temple. His name was Solomon.

Solomon knew his father had waged many wars against the enemies of God, but in his time, there was Great Peace, allowing Solomon to prepare and build the temple. Humans always desire to build a place for God to live in, but how can any building house the Glory of God?

Jesus is this temple. In human form, God came into this world fully God and fully human. In both the previous two temples, mankind had not followed God’s commandments, had turned away from God and followed their own way into ruin. The consequences of their actions led to the destruction of both temples. Jesus had seen how the people in the Second Temple had turned it into a marketplace. Even though many believed in him, Jesus knew what was in their hearts and minds. He could not trust himself to them.

They created other gods and carved images of bulls and other creatures to pray to. They misused the name of God in their dealings with each other, they worked on the Sabbath. Did they honour their fathers and mothers? Even King David’s eldest son Adonijah disrespected his father, firstly by trying to claim his throne and then by trying to take Abishag, the beautiful girl, who asked to keep David warm in his old age but remained a virgin. Adonijah died the day he made this request to King Solomon’s mother because of his disrespect. Adonijah had coveted his brother’s kingdom and his father’s maid. He had attempted to steal both.

Jesus could see the same actions in those who lived in Jerusalem. After leaving Jerusalem, Jesus travelled to Samaria and met the woman who had had five husbands and was then living with a sixth man. She had been truthful with him and realised he knew her secrets.

When he returned to Jerusalem, the Pharisees tested him with a woman they had caught committing adultery and they wanted to stone her. Interestingly, they did not bring the man she was caught with. Jesus told them whoever had not sinned could cast the first stone. He wrote in the sand and when he looked up, they had all gone, leaving just the woman. He refused to condemn her, telling her not to sin again.

If you consider Jesus as the third temple, he had come into this world, lived as we do, and was prepared to die, through crucifixion, in our place for the sins we have all committed, so we can be saved. This is God’s gift to us. Paul told the Corinthians how the Jews struggled with this, the pagans thought it was madness, but God’s folly is far greater than our wisdom.

In our world, where so many people seem to think they know better and know how to make progress without God, all we see is how foolish we are to have abandoned him. The riches of this world will fade away, but the glory of God is eternal. We need to keep our focus on Our Lord and Saviour, not trusting ourselves with those who think they know better but their hearts are not with God.

Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me will never die. Amen.

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