Third Sunday in Lent, YEar B

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. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
~John 2:15-16
 
No animals were harmed in the making of this scene.
 
When Jesus overturns the tables, he drives out both the sacrificial animals and the merchants. Both groups are liberated—the sacrificial victims and their victimizers and the religious system of sacrifice to feed the appetite of a vengeful God is effectively shut down.
 
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,“ says the prophet Hosea. Jesus preaches a similarly revolutionary message, but in this case, no words are necessary.
 
As we consider in our own time the disruptions within our own religious and institutional systems, how are we to think about the uses of our buildings and our resources? How are they being used for liberation and freedom from the bondage of our own age? How might they?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Exodus 20:1-17 † Psalm 19 † 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 † John 2:13-22
 

​About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Christ Overturns the Tables of the Moneylenders, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58520 [retrieved February 26, 2024]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.
 
About the artist:
Peter Koenig is a Catholic artist whose goal in life is “to paint the drama, romance and poetry of the sacred book” (https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/). In this modern representation of the cleansing of the temple, Jesus holds a whip as he drives away the sheep being sold for sacrifices. The doves have been released and are chaotically flying around above the people, whose expressions are mixtures of shock, horror, irritation, and anger. Jesus has turned over the tables and money is scattering all around the moneylenders. This painting inspires viewers to reconsider what it means to be a church in today’s society. Should the church be a place of profit (a den of thieves) or should it use its resources for the good of people? Should it exploit the needy or should it help them? Should the church be an exploitative economic institution or one devoted to alleviating the suffering of all oppressed peoples?

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