Bible Study – Third Sunday in Lent – Cleaning the Temple
Share: Your highs (something that made you happy) and lows (something that made you sad) this week with others around you or write them down.
As in Advent, when we went inward to prepare to go outward with Christmas and Epiphany, in Lent we again go inward – in preparation. In the first two Sundays of Lent, Mark, brilliantly succinct, reveals the preparation Jesus experienced. During the next three Sundays John adds shimmering lights on Jesus’ ministry before we plunge into the Crucifixion, where we watch, from wherever we are, what Jesus must go through in order to give us Easter. These six vignettes invite us to take a closer look at the choices we are making in our lives and what we might choose to jettison, correct, or add.
Jesus teaches with elements that have immediate impact as well as lingering meaning. And they usually land well outside the expected. So, with Passover looming, Jesus goes into the busy temple and proceeds to clean house. "Take these things out of here!" he demands of the money changers, the animal merchants – even those who sold doves. Then he announces: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." A temple that took 46 years to build? Could he mean the temple God has been building since the beginning of time? What "things" need to be removed from our own personal temples?
Describe what your church looks like when you first walk in. Is there someone handing out bulletins for our service? Is there a place to hang coats? What else might we see? A coffee pot? People greeting us? Now picture this: you walk in, as usual, and instead of the things you have just described, there are a whole bunch of people buying and selling things. And some guys have set up a big table and are making change -- step right up, get your temple money here. What in the world would you think?
Opening Prayer: Gracious Lord, guide us today as we discover more about who you are and how we are to follow you in our lives each day. Amen
Please open your Bibles to John 2:13-22 and read or read the scriptures below.
John 2:13-22
Jesus Clears the Temple Courts
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 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. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[a]
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Questions (Answers at the bottom of the page):
- What did Jesus find in the Temple?
- What did he do about it?
- What does this passage tell us Jesus said?
- What did the disciples remember from their reading of Scripture? ("Zeal for your house will consume me," which could mean: "I love this place and it just kills me to see what is happening.")
- Then Jesus gave the people in charge of the temple a very strange answer. What did he say, and what do you think he meant? (Destroy this temple and in just three days I will raise it up. To figure out what he meant, what do we know was going to happen on Good Friday and then three days later on Easter?) They, of course, do not "get it."
Click here for the young learner’s lesson.
Videos (Click on url)
Lent 3B John 2:13-22 LUMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbP85CNskWQ
Gospel of John Summary – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2e9mMf7E8
Song: Cleanse Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhMthslLUnU
I’ve Got the Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoOyjO1sbXo&list=RDxoOyjO1sbXo&start_radio=1
Activities:
Temple Art: Take a piece of heavy paper/poster board and draw or trace a large temple. Use colored markers to decorate the windows of their temple to look like stain glass art. You can glue craft sticks on the drawing to create the look of a roof on the temple. When the temple is finished, draw a sign beside your temple with an arrow that says, “Worship Here”.
Treasure Chest: Take a small box and supplies to decorate your box to put coins into. Put real or pretend “coins” into your box as you think of today’s Bible lesson. How is your offering used for God? (Examples: to buy supplies, to help poor people, to share money with missionaries, to pay the church staff, etc.)
Cleaning House - Crossword: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/cleaning-house
Cleaning House - Word Search: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/cleaning-house-2
Cleaning House – Multiple Choice: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/cleaning-house-1
Ash Wednesday was February 14, 2024. It was the first day of Lent which is a 40 day season (excluding Sundays) before Easter. Lent is a time for praying daily and giving of our time and service for others. Please use the 40 Day Lenten Calendars below during Lent.
Prayer: Thank you, God, help us to remember that we are Your temple and that Your Spirit lives in us. Help us to keep our lives clean and useful for service to You. Amen.
