If Jesus is God dwelling among us, what more do we need?
Have you ever wondered why Jesus storms the temple in John’s Gospel, overturning the moneychangers’
tables and wreaking havoc in the marketplace? The disciples believe that he is standing up
for God’s house, that the merchants who have set up shop must somehow be
defiling this sacred space. They have
encountered the love of God in the person of Jesus, yet their reading remains
literal… but we know there is more going on here. Destroy
this temple, Jesus says, and I will
rebuild it in three days. His
reference is, of course, to the temple of
his body: Jesus carries the presence
of God within him, is the presence of
God among them. And Jesus will be the final sacrifice necessary: we proclaim Christ crucified, Paul tells
the Corinthians, we proclaim a Christ whose final act, whose ultimate
sacrifice, is beyond our comprehension; it is wiser than human wisdom, stronger than human strength.
We don’t fully understand all the implications of Jesus’
sacrifice for the redemption of humankind.
We can follow God’s commandments as set out in Exodus, and trust, as God
tells Moses, that God will bestow mercy
down to the thousandth generation on the children of those who love him.
These are the words of everlasting
life, as Psalm 19 proclaims. But, as
Paul says, neither signs nor wisdom suffice: neither is as strong as faith. We discover God partially in the law and in
wisdom – but God works beyond these limits, and God’s love has no
boundaries. This, then, is the
challenge: to encounter the love of God, to find Jesus, dwelling among us – and to turn toward that love, in faith, to follow it no
matter what it demands of us. If our
hearts open us to the power of Jesus to save us, what more do we need, really?
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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