Lent 2024: Week Three - We Didn't Know What Love Was Until It Came! (John 2: 13-25)

As we approach the half-way point of Lent, we’ve come out of our deserts, being tempted by evil, but ministered to by the angels. We’ve been led up the mountain to see our Lord for who he truly is, and we’ve been called back down to continue our mission following him, doing the will of his Father, called to leave behind ourselves in favor of serving others and therefore the will of God!

But we’ve also recognized that taking the easy way out is in fact the easier option; that living day to day does in fact create the need for survival tactics. So because of this, we fall back into old habits of fashioning false idols into the god(s) we need that can best help us in the moment. Sometimes those moments are hard and our little tin god gives us a sense of control over what we feel is a chaotic day or even stretch of life. Over time, OUR god needs a convenient place to reside so we build pseudo-temples built on foundations of choice and personal preferences, ensuring that our god is here to serve all that we need.

Have you identified the “easier path”? What about the more difficult and necessary path? Can you make that commitment today, and will you involve the Lord in that journey?

Remember, the People of God have struggled with this many times. We had it all in the Garden and we gave it away for a bite of the apple. We had it all our midst, but we insisted on building a tower (of Babel) to attempt to conquer even heaven itself. We were freed from slavery, survived the wilderness, exiled and brought back home. Our Promised Land became a Kingdom, as God gave us EVERYTHING we needed, asking only for our love in return, celebrated in our worship as a community.

Our Lord Jesus loved his Father and loved his Father’s house! The Gospel of Luke recalls that in his younger days, when Mary and Joseph lost track of his presence, they found the young Jesus in the Temple sharing Scripture. Responding to their worries, he reassured them, asking “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” It’s just where he wanted to be. Fast forward two decades and we find the Lord well into his mission, preaching that the reign of God was at hand. He shared about his Father’s love for all, and offered parables and real examples of how that love can heal us and make us whole again. I think it’s fair to say that the Lord must have worshipped in the Temple often, for he had a “zeal for his house.” (cf. Psalm 69:9) So it’s no surprise that when “Jesus went up to Jerusalem [and] he found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (John 2: 13-16)

Now this is where bloggers and teachers like me often interject their own human emotion, as our Lord was infinitely patient and loving, even in his anger, but as I read this, I see thousands of years of frustration boiling over on behalf of the Father who worked so hard to love what has been called this “stiff necked people.” But after I remove my human emotion from the story, we can see God’s true plan working through His beloved Son. “Destroy this temple,” Jesus said, “and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19)

The Body of the risen Christ Jesus is now the Temple (cf. John 2:21)… We come to him to worship. Our church is built on the foundation of his true presence, and God’s true love. Again, my blogger words, not the Lord’s: We can no longer be trusted with ourselves and our world. We always seem to take what the world offers as gospel truth, when, in the spirit of John’s Gospel, the actual Word is Jesus, who is the Truth that we seek. We worship “through him, with him, and in him!”

Can we just spend time with him in prayer and worship this week?

"All The Way To Kingdom Come"

Rich Mullins

We didn't know what love was 'til He came
And He gave love a face and He gave love a name
And He gave love away like the sky gives the rain and sun

We were looking for heroes He came looking for the lost
We were searching for glory and He showed us a cross
Now we know what love is 'cause He loves us
All the way to kingdom come (All the way)
All the way to kingdom come

Love is a miracle
It's a miracle if you can find it
And miracles are hard to come by these days (these days)
But the sweet Lord Jesus he's a miracle man
He's got holes in His feet in His side in His hands
And if you ask for love love pours through them
Like a ray of light like a raging blaze

We didn't know what love was 'til he came
And He gave love a face and He gave love a name
And He gave love away like the sky gives the rain and sun

We were looking for heroes He came looking for the lost
We were searching for glory and He showed us a cross
Now we know what love is 'cause He loves us
All the way to kingdom come (All the way)
All the way to kingdom come

Life is a mystery
It's a mystery we're all living
This world is so fragile
And we're so frail, so frail

Yeah with the sweet Lord Jesus His mysterious heart
Keeps the life-blood pumping at the center of it all
If He let go of us we'd all blow apart
But He holds on tight His love don't fail

We didn't know what love was

We didn't know what love was 'til He came
And He gave love a face and He gave love a name
And He gave love away like the sky gives the rain and sun

We were looking for heroes He came looking for the lost
We were searching for glory and He showed us a cross
Now we know what love is 'cause He loves us

All the way to kingdom come...