'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' John 2:13-22

Today's Readings

'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'  

John 2:13-22

 

Reading 1, Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12

¹ He brought me back to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream flowed eastwards from under the Temple threshold, for the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.
² He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.
⁸ He said, 'This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome.
⁹ Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.
¹² Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 84:3, 4, 5-6, 8, 11

³ Even the sparrow has found a home, the swallow a nest to place its young: your altars, Yahweh Sabaoth, my King and my God.
⁴ How blessed are those who live in your house; they shall praise you continually. Pause
⁵ Blessed those who find their strength in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of the Balsam, they make there a water-hole, and -- a further blessing -- early rain fills it.
⁸ Yahweh, God Sabaoth, hear my prayer, listen, God of Jacob.
¹¹ For Yahweh God is a rampart and shield, he gives grace and glory; Yahweh refuses nothing good to those whose life is blameless.

Gospel  

 

'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'  

John 2:13-22

¹³ When the time of the Jewish Passover was near Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
¹⁴ and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there.
¹⁵ Making a whip out of cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money changers' coins, knocked their tables over
¹⁶ and said to the dove sellers, 'Take all this out of here and stop using my Father's house as a market.'
¹⁷ Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: I am eaten up with zeal for your house.
¹⁸ The Jews intervened and said, 'What sign can you show us that you should act like this?'
¹⁹ Jesus answered, 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'
²⁰ The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?'
²¹ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body,
²² and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said.

 

Reading 2, 1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17

⁹ After all, we do share in God's work; you are God's farm, God's building.
¹⁰ By the grace of God which was given to me, I laid the foundations like a trained master-builder, and someone else is building on them. Now each one must be careful how he does the building.
¹¹ For nobody can lay down any other foundation than the one which is there already, namely Jesus Christ.
¹⁶ Do you not realise that you are a temple of God with the Spirit of God living in you?
¹⁷ If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy that person, because God's temple is holy; and you are that temple.