Homily for John 2:13-25
Jean Gilbert
3/4/18

The last statement in this gospel really caught me. The gospel says, “Jesus never needed evidence about people’s motives; he was well aware of what was in each one’s heart.”

Our heart is God’s Temple. It is where God resides; God doesn’t live in a building. The song, “This is Holy Ground” we are the holy ground; we carry God and Jesus in our hearts. This room, at this moment, is Holy Ground because we are here this morning to worship God. Before we entered this room, it was only a room.

When I read about Jesus going to the Temple and telling the moneychangers and the pigeon sellers to: “Take all this out of here and stop turning God’s house into a market!” Jesus was telling us to take the unloving feelings like judgment, hatred, greed, all things that take up room in our hearts. He is instructing us to take all that is unloving out from our inner temple and make room for God to be present in our daily lives.

Jesus came to teach us the power of LOVE, of COMPASSION, of CHARITY, of KINDNESS, of FORGIVENESS. These are our
challenges in this life, and for me maybe for all of us, it is work.

Jesus said, “Take all this out of here” meaning take all negativity out of your heart; “In three days, I will raise it up” meaning by our living by Jesus’ example, our heart will be renewed and become the temple where God resides and then become aware of God’s presence in ourselves again feeling God’s love within.

Two weeks ago, I experience the healing power of unconditional love. I was eating almonds and I suddenly felt one of my back teeth click and I started to feel pain. I prayed for it to just go away. But 2 days later, I woke up in pain and was not able to bite down on anything. I knew then that this was not going to heal on its’ own so I called my dentist. He said he was booked for the day and was leaving for vacation the next morning. I told them that I can’t take any antibiotics because of my allergic reaction to it in the past. I knew from how it felt that the infection had already started. Hearing this, they said if I got to the office right away, the dentist would see me. I was so grateful. The dentist said I needed a root canal done right away because through xrays they saw that infection had already started. This wonderful compassionate dentist placed three calls to other dentist he knew to do the root canal but they had no room for me for another week. I prayed as I sat there in the chair feeling helpless but hopeful.

The dentist came back to say he was calling in a favor from a dentist friend. They were able to see me right away. This new dentist was so kind and gentle and I surely needed that at the time. After the work was done, he told me I needed pain medication and antibiotics for a few days. I told him I couldn’t take medication and went to my car. I immediately called my friends to say healing prays for my quick recovery and to have this infection gone. By 10:00 that night, I was able to bite down and by the next morning, I had no more pain and I could even bite down hard and felt nothing. The area was healed and I so praised God for the quick work. I realized that the pure unconditional love my friends had for me and the prayers they sent for my healing was so strong that it healed in less then 12 hours. God is good.

Jesus came here to live among us to show us the power of God’s love within us. We are asked to take time to be aware of our inner temple and if we have days that are more difficult than another, we are asked to pray to Jesus to help build it up again so we can feel the strength of God’s love within ourselves. As is written in the gospel, Jesus is well aware of what is in each one’s heart all we need to do is ask for his help