Temple

Sunday Reflection – Lent III, March 3, 2024

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Jesus at the Temple

John 2 13  Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.

16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17  The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”

18 The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?”

19  “Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”

20 The leaders replied, “It took 46 years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”

21 But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22 And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

Kids Korner: Give to God (Oct. 22nd)

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Read Matthew 22:15-22 with your family.

Many people know this story, even if they don’t attend Sunday school or church regularly. But why was this a trick and why did Jesus know it was a trick?

When Jesus was a small child, another person from Galilee named Judas (not any of Jesus’ friends and followers) encouraged a tax revolt around the year 6 CE. The Romans were fierce in putting it down and many Hebrew people suffered. After that, Rome and her officials, including the Temple leadership in Jerusalem, watched to see if anyone else would suggest not paying taxes to Rome as a way of encouraging rebellion.

Jesus knew this history of his people and he knew that the Temple leadership was trying to trick him.

Jesus rarely answered questions directly and never for the Temple leadership. But in his answers and new questions he showed us different ways to look at the world.

Jesus never asked us to be outside the world and not interact with others.

Jesus asked us to change the world, and share the gifts that God gave us.

Sunday Reflection – October 15, 2023

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Parable about the rich landowner and tenants

Matthew 22 Once again Jesus used stories to teach the people:

2 The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a king gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 The king sent some servants to tell the invited guests to come to the banquet, but the guests refused. 4 He sent other servants to say to the guests, “The banquet is ready! My cattle and prize calves have all been prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the banquet!”

5 But the guests did not pay any attention. Some of them left for their farms, and some went to their places of business. 6 Others grabbed the servants, then beat them up and killed them.

7 This made the king so furious that he sent an army to kill those murderers and burn down their city. 8 Then he said to the servants, “It is time for the wedding banquet, and the invited guests don’t deserve to come. 9 Go out to the street corners and tell everyone you meet to come to the banquet.” 10 They went out on the streets and brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike. And the banquet room was filled with guests.

11 When the king went in to meet the guests, he found that one of them wasn’t wearing the right kind of clothes for the wedding. 12 The king asked, “Friend, why didn’t you wear proper clothes for the wedding?” But the guest had no excuse. 13  So the king gave orders for this person to be tied hand and foot and to be thrown outside into the dark. That’s where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. 14  Many are invited, but only a few are chosen.

Kids Korner: Get ready for the banquet (Oct. 15th)

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Read Matthew 22:1-14 with your family.

In our story today Jesus continues to use parables to tell the leaders in the temple that they are not doing a good job of representing God to the people. This time Jesus compares God to a King who wants to hold a special wedding feast for his son (meaning Jesus), and invites all the power people who like to think they are important. But all of those people say ‘no’ to the invitation and even kill the messengers.

Jesus tells the Temple leaders that after that rejection, the King, or God, calls ordinary people who are not rich or powerful, and they are the ones who will get to enjoy what the King/God has given to our world.

Sometimes in the church when people think they are important, and other people treat them as important, they start to think they are better than others. This story reminds those people that God calls everyone. But in order to be part of God’s world, you also have to do the work and live the way God calls us to live.

It’s not good enough to say we are Christian, we have to mean it with the way we behave and treat others..

Sunday Reflection – October 8, 2023

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Parable about the rich landowner and tenants

Matthew 21 33  Jesus told the chief priests and leaders to listen to this story:

A land owner once planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it and dug a pit to crush the grapes in. He also built a lookout tower. Then he rented out his vineyard and left the country.

34 When it was harvest time, the owner sent some servants to get his share of the grapes. 35 But the renters grabbed those servants. They beat up one, killed one, and stoned one of them to death. 36 He then sent more servants than he did the first time. But the renters treated them in the same way.

37 Finally, the owner sent his own son to the renters, because he thought they would respect him. 38 But when they saw the man’s son, they said, “Someday he will own the vineyard. Let’s kill him! Then we can have it all for ourselves.” 39 So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

40 Jesus asked, “When the owner of that vineyard comes, what do you suppose he will do to those renters?”

41 The chief priests and leaders answered, “He will kill them in some horrible way. Then he will rent out his vineyard to people who will give him his share of grapes at harvest time.”

42  Jesus replied, “You surely know that the Scriptures say,

‘The stone the builders
    tossed aside
is now the most important
    stone of all.
This is something
the Lord has done,
    and it is amazing to us.’

43 I tell you God’s kingdom will be taken from you and given to people who will do what he demands. 44 Anyone who stumbles over this stone will be crushed, and anyone it falls on will be smashed to pieces.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew Jesus was talking about them. 46 So they looked for a way to arrest Jesus. But they were afraid to, because the people thought he was a prophet.

Kids Korner: The rich landowner and the tenants (Oct. 8th)

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Read Matthew 21:33-46 with your family.

Sometimes we have to listen very carefully to what Jesus meant in his parables, and sometimes we don’t have to wonder at all.

In this parable the priests who were listening knew Jesus was talking about them and about how they had not respected or accepted the messengers from God who had come to teach them about how God wanted them to live. They felt guilty but they did not want to change how they behaved or how rich they were because they worked at the Temple.

The last part of the story was the land owner, meaning God, sent his son, meaning Jesus, and they beat and killed him too.

Jesus barely finishes telling the story when those same priests were planning ways to get rid of Jesus – like they hadn’t even heard the warning in Jesus’ story that they better leave Jesus alone.

There are a lot of people who call themselves Christian leaders, but who are more interested in the power to tell others how to behave rather than living like Jesus wanted them to.

Jesus knew about them and how they chose power and money over God’s teachings.

That is also why Jesus taught us we don’t need anyone else getting in the way of our relationship with God. We can pray to God, sing to God and do the things Jesus taught us to do to make the world into a fair place where everyone is treated properly.

Sunday Reflection – October 1, 2023

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Challenges from the Temple priests

Matthew 21 23 Jesus had gone into the temple and was teaching when the chief priests and the leaders of the people came up to him. They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

24 Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. 25 Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

They thought it over and said to each other, “We can’t say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn’t believe John. 26 On the other hand, these people think John was a prophet, and we are afraid of what they might do to us. That’s why we can’t say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.” 27 So they told Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Then I won’t tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”

28 Jesus said:

I will tell you a story about a man who had two sons. Then you can tell me what you think. The father went to the older son and said, “Go work in the vineyard today!” 29 His son told him he would not do it, but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The man then told his younger son to go work in the vineyard. The boy said he would, but he didn’t go. 31 Which one of the sons obeyed his father?

“The older one,” the chief priests and leaders answered.

Then Jesus told them:

You can be sure tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will! 32  When John the Baptist showed you how to do right, you would not believe him. But these evil people did believe. And even when you saw what they did, you still would not change your minds and believe.

Kids Korner: Temple priests challenge Jesus (Oct. 1st)

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Read Matthew 21:23-32 with your family.

Jesus did not come to start a new religion, he came to fix the problems in the Hebrew tradition that he loved and had been raised in. He was very frustrated with the priests in the Temple because they were teaching rules about how to dress and eat, but they weren’t teaching the people how to love each other.

Jesus wanted them to change. He wanted them to listen to what he was trying to teach them, but they refused to hear anything.

Instead, the priests in the Temple got very angry with Jesus and eventually helped to get him killed. This story is part of a larger story we call Holy Week, that ends in Jesus being killed on Good (God’s) Friday and rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.

The priest asked Jesus who gave him authority because the priest wanted power to stop Jesus teaching about God. Unfortunately for the priest, Jesus was very smart and he challenged the priest instead. The priest didn’t want to answer because he knew any answer he gave would anger the people.

Jesus wasn’t concerned about angering people, he was only interested in showing how much God loves and accepts everyone, and how the Temple priests had forgotten about God’s love.

Sunday Reflection – November 13, 2022

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Destruction of the Temple

Luke 21 5 Some people were talking about the temple, how it was decorated with beautiful stones and ornaments dedicated to God. Jesus said, 6 “As for the things you are admiring, the time is coming when not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.”

7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will these things happen? What sign will show that these things are about to happen?”

8 Jesus said, “Watch out that you aren’t deceived. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I’m the one!’ and ‘It’s time!’ Don’t follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end won’t happen immediately.”

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other. 11 There will be great earthquakes and wide-scale food shortages and epidemics. There will also be terrifying sights and great signs in the sky.12 But before all this occurs, they will take you into custody and harass you because of your faith. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.13 This will provide you with an opportunity to testify. 14 Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. 15 I’ll give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to counter or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed by your parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends. They will execute some of you. 17 Everyone will hate you because of my name. 18 Still, not a hair on your heads will be lost. 19 By holding fast, you will gain your lives.

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Kids Korner: Destruction of the temple (November 13th)

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Read Luke 21:5-19 with your family.

Every time we read the Bible we have to remember both the people around Jesus when the stories first happen and the people with the writer who heard the stories after they were written down. Listening with our imagination in two places will show us if the message of the story was for the people with Jesus or the people decades later reading and learning about Jesus through the stories.

When the people first heard this story read from the Gospel of Luke, the Temple in Jerusalem had already been destroyed by the Roman army (it was destroyed about 40 years after Jesus’ resurrection). The Hebrew tradition was focused on the Temple because they believed God lived there, and the destruction of the temple meant the destruction of their way of understanding and caring for God. The Hebrew people were very sad.

Jesus never told his followers that he was more important than the Temple, but he did tell them God lived in all people, not just the Temple. That meant God was for all people, not only those who lived in the Holy Land.

The people who heard the story from the Gospel of Luke understood that even though the Temple was destroyed and Jesus was crucified on the cross, God was still very much alive with the people. Jesus was resurrected, but the temple was never rebuilt. God was no longer restricted to one place.

All the floods and wars and hard times were not predictions to watch for, they were normal life that people all over the world experience. Jesus was not giving us a checklist of bad things until something good happened. Jesus was telling us that even in the bad things, God is there and ready to work with us to make a new world where this things will stop happening.