Lent 3: Ears and a Heart to Listen to Jesus

These Lenten readings are hard passages. Taking up crosses, and now an angry Jesus. John 2: 13-16 "When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, 'Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!'"

I must confess though, that I had the theme picked out before reading the passage, and figured that the passage fit the theme pretty well. I wanted to focus on our ears listening to Jesus, but as I worked on the lesson, I realized I needed to talk about the heart listening too.

I told the children how Jesus was going to the temple to hear God speak, but there was too much noise and too many distractions. All the people could hear was, "You must do this... You must buy that... to be accepted by God." God wanted to show his love for his people, but they couldn't hear it. This made Jesus very upset. He chased all the animals away and told the people listen to God or get out so others can listen to God.

I realize that I paraphrased the story, but I don't think I softened the message. God doesn't want anything to distract us from his love. God instituted the sacrificial system to point to Jesus and to show his love, but the people at the temple were so caught up in fulfilling the laws, they completely missed the point. Similarly, sometimes going to Church and being nice and busy bags and prayers point us to God's love, but sometimes the do the opposite. Sometimes we get so caught up in doing the right things we miss the point of God's love. And God doesn't like that at all!

Sometimes he has to discipline us to get our attention! Sometimes he has to surprise us a bit so we can see what he is trying to say. But he isn't being mean; he is trying to get us to listen to his love. (Paraphrase of Hebrews 12:4-11)