Commemoration of Gregory of Nyssa, 394
Reading: John 2:13-22
“Making a whip of cords, [Jesus] drove all of them out of the temple…His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me'." (John 2:15,17)
The Temple complex in Jerusalem was built on a hill variously thought to be Mount Zion (2 Samuel 5:7) or Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2). The courts were a group of graduated rectangles set within each other, and as one moved from the outer walls inward and toward the west, one came closer to the Holy of Holies. The most exterior court was the Court of Gentiles, which was surrounded by colonnades, where the rabbis taught. This court had been set aside, in keeping with Isaiah 56, for any non-Israelites who wanted to worship God. But the Jewish Temple authorities had allowed the Court to be filled with livestock and commerce related to their own purity rites, ignoring God's command that it be a place of prayer. And then Jesus arrived. Prophecy, absent from the life of Israel for four hundred years, had returned.
God of all nations, you have a heart of love for all who seek you. May your house always be a house of prayer. Amen
READ ISAIAH 56 AND JEREMIAH 7, REFERRED TO IN THIS GOSPEL READING FROM JOHN.
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