Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
"It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves."
Jesus returned to the place which, as a child, he had called "my Father's house" (see Luke 2:49). He therefore took it personally when that house was subverted from its true purpose as "a house of prayer" but made instead "a dan of thieves". Now, the temple was not holy in virtue of the stones which comprised it. It was the fact of God's presence that mattered. People coming to the temple were meant to have a different attitude from when they were undertaking business in the world. They were not to act like it was a market, much less a den of thieves. It was the place where they had, in some measure, access to the presence of God.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him (see John 4:23).
Jesus predicted that the hour was coming, and had arrived in him, when there would be a new and more perfect way to worship and to have access to the Father. It had arrived because Jesus himself was in the world, revealing the Father. He himself was thus "something greater than the temple" (see Mattthew 12:6). That was a breathtaking claim.
We, in turn, by being united to Jesus become living stones in the new temple. We become in some sense temples of God ourselves in virtue of the Trinity coming to dwell in our hearts in baptism. Jesus was unwilling to allow even the old physical temple, only a sign and a shadow of the reality found in him, to be given over to corruption. How much less will he tolerate the subversion of our hearts to lesser things, the giving over of our lives to lower purposes than that for which we were made. As the old temple was made to give access to the presence of God so it is now meant to be the purpose of our lives to be united to him. But this is something with which we must concern ourselves, not only when we are in the courts of physical buildings, but rather at all times. God's presence in us does not cease when we leave church buildings. We must remain open to reality and aware of that great dignity at all times, so that our lives might reveal that presence to the world, and not merely commerce, much less corruption.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
It is right to hang on every word of Jesus. But we need more than a merely emotional resonance with those words. We need to build our lives on them as a foundation of rock. Otherwise we will be all too easy to sway by every wind of doctrine. We will then be like the crowds, praising him and singing hosanna on one day, and shouting crucify him on the next. If we enthrone Jesus in the central place in our hearts, and if our lives are ordered to worshipping him, we find ourselves made solid because of the solidity of our foundation in him.
For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar
and joyfully offered burnt offerings and sacrifices
of deliverance and praise.
Judas and his brothers rededicated the altar after a period of corruption when the temple had been given over to false gods and pagan worship. Similarly, if our hearts have been given over to the service of something less than God himself, we ought to rededicate them. Doing so can be a cause of even greater joy than that which the people experienced when the disgrace of the Gentiles was removed.
"You have dominion over all,
In your hand are power and might;
it is yours to give grandeur and strength to all."
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