Saturday, December 31, 2022

 

Saturday, December 31, 2022


Psalm 83

Isaiah 31

John 2:13-25


Observance: John Wyclif, teacher and reformer (d. 1384)


But Jesus on His part would not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for He knew what was in everyone.


There is a very great difference between the God of the Bible and any other god. Whether we are talking about another religion, or a spirituality, or even no opinion on the matter at all, everyone worships some god.


Spiritualities without a god worship the god of self: they are each and every one a never ending labyrinth trod in an ultimately vain effort for self-enlightenment, or self-improvement. Other religions worship a god invented by men: any religion that does not worship the God of the Bible is either overly mystic, where the spiritual myths are taught with the intention to convey human philosophical and moral principles; or they enforce blind faith in an invisible entity through violence. Those who follow nothing at all worship themselves: they hold a blind faith in their own importance and their own mental character.


It is all too easy to take one of these human-designed worship systems and place them over the top of the one true God of the Bible. The most common is for people to imagine Yahweh in the Old Testament as Zeus on Mount Olympus, white beard and toga, lightning bolt in hand, ready to strike anyone He doesn’t like. This image does not last long when we read about the omnipotent Being who defends the faithful and the oppressed of today’s readings from Isaiah and the Psalms.


Jesus is often misrepresented as a self-help guru, who had gotten closer to self-enlightenment than any before or since. His cleansing of the temple, while quoting Old Testament scripture, defies this reading. Firstly, because He got rid of the sacrificial system, which by His time had gone rotten. Sacrifices were not being offered to give thanks to God or to remember the weight of the sin from which He forgives us; they were being offered as a transaction, so that God would keep the lightning bolt in the clouds and not on their heads. Jesus wanted people to instead offer a sacrifice of themselves, which would be displayed in their giving. This is in fact what we do today, and we do it out not out of fear, but out of love. And this love is directed to a Person: the Person of God.


Secondly, Jesus is getting rid of the sacrificial system because it was only a shadow of what was to come on the cross. Some ancient Jewish sacrifices had to be offered in order to take away sin. But because humans cannot help but sin, those sacrifices had to keep being made. Jesus’ one big sign to prove that He had the authority to cleanse the Temple was His resurrection. He has taken our sin; His was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.


He knows us all intimately as our Creator. He knows we need a saviour who not only shows us the way, but makes the way possible in the first place. He is both guide and path; source and object of love.





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