THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS

THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS

When Jesus evicted the vendors from the temple I hope they had somewhere else to go. Their livelihood was at stake. The Zambian Government evicted the vendors from central Lusaka recently as part of their response to the cholera outbreak that claimed around 50 lives.  These vendors were directed elsewhere. I hope their customers followed them. Certainly it is a pleasure driving through the city now with the stalls, which used to encroach on the road to say nothing of the sidewalk, removed.

This cleansing of the streets is akin to any form of healing or renewal.  Not long ago I had a cataract operation on my eye. It was amazing to see clearly again after a long while of haziness.  But, of course, the healing is not total – neither for me or for Lusaka. And I suspect it was not long before the vendors crept back into the temple to resume their business.

But Jesus had given a sign. He probably only did his dramatic act in one corner of the vast concourse. But he made a statement: “There is something new here.” That “something new” is what we try to get our mind round in a time like Lent. Jesus wants to cleanse people’s hearts to prepare them for something greater which they cannot even conceive.  And one of the great shadow sides of our bright new “secular” age is that our minds are not attuned to even consider what that might be.

We are like children who have no idea what their adult life will be like.  And like children we can be totally absorbed in my own little world – my ambitions, my group, my country.  A lot of our politics is a struggle between selfishness and conviviality: we are torn between a desire to protect our own interests and another desire to live in harmony and happiness with others. We are caught between competition and cooperation and we do not know which is better.

John puts the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of his gospel where the others put it at the end.  But all four gospel writers see it as a sign; an announcement that the reign of God has come. From now on things are going to change. “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised” (Matt. 11:5), “captives are released and the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18).  These were the other “signs” Jesus did. It is all there on record, all for the “healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2).

March 4, 2018             Lent Sunday 3 B

Exodus 20:1-17                       1 Corinthians 1:22-25              John 2: 13-25