Some 30 years before St. John wrote today’s Gospel, the huge Temple in Jerusalem had been completely destroyed by the Roman army. Once it had been among the wonders of the ancient world, the most sacred place on earth for the Jews, the place where God dwelt among God’s people. Not it was little more than ruins. For John it was so much more than an ancient site. He had seen it is its glory days. Now he was old, but as a young man he had actually visited it with Jesus. It was Passover time and John had witnessed the huge influx of Jews, coming fro all parts of the Mediterranean world; he had seen the Temple courts being turned into a kind of bazaar, with the transactions of money changers… John could see that Jesus was distressed; more than that – He was angry. The next moment, He was clearing them out of the Temple – men and beasts and birds; He was tipping over the tables of the money changers, so that the coins went jangling across the stone pavement. “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market,” He cried. The Jewish authorities were not amused. Who did this young rabbi from Nazareth think he was? What sign could He offer to show what it all meant? John admits that it was only after Jesus’ death and resurrection that He realized what Jesus was getting at.
Within few weeks we shall be celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus; in the risen Christ we have the new, indestructible temple of God. This temple is made not of stones, but of the glorified flesh of the victorious Christ; this is where God is to be found and where God is worship in spirit and truth. This temple is build of living stones, and they are you and me. Together with Christ our head, we make one body, one temple to the glory of God.