Worship Helps for Lent 3

Christ chasing the Moneylenders from the Temple

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Worship Theme: For centuries Christians have spent Lent meditating on Jesus’ suffering and death, which atoned for our guilt. Lent is the “serious season” of the church year in which we put extra emphasis on recognizing and confessing our own sins. Congregations with special mid-week services usually keep a somber, reflective tone. The Sundays in Lent, however, serve as “mini Easters”; their readings and hymns bring comfort to the believer who is reflecting on his/her sins and Jesus’ passion. The third Sunday in Lent reminds us of God’s perfect law and his demand that we fear and love him. Thankfully, Jesus has fulfilled God’s law in our place.

Old Testament: Exodus 20:1–17

Then God spoke all these words:

²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.

³You shall have no other gods beside me. ⁴You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. ⁵Do not bow down to them or be subservient to them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, if they also hate me. ⁶But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished.

⁸Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. ⁹Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work, ¹⁰but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you, nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, ¹¹for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

¹²Honor your father and your mother so that you may spend many days on the land that the Lord your God is giving to you.

¹³You shall not commit murder.

¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵You shall not steal.

¹⁶You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

1. Why does God remind the Israelites that he brought them out of Egypt before giving the Ten Commandments?

2. Since God already gave us his commandments on our hearts, why did he etch them on stone (and in the Bible) for us?

Epistle: Romans 8:1–10

So then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³Indeed, what the law was unable to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin. God condemned sin in his flesh, ⁴so that the righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

⁵To be sure, those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does, and those in harmony with the spirit think about things the way the spirit does. ⁶Now, the way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks results in life and peace. ⁷For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in fact, it cannot. ⁸Those who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives in you. And if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

3. Were you born neutral toward God and his commands? Or even favorable toward them? (See 8:7.)

4. How much does God blame you now, in his courtroom? (See 8:1.)

Gospel: John 2:13–22  

¹³The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. ¹⁵He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!”

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”

²⁰The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. ²²When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.

5. Why do you think the Jewish leaders allowed the buying and selling of animals in the temple courts?

6. How do you know that Jesus was not sinning by angrily overturning the tables and driving out the money changers?

7. Why are Jesus’ words in verse 19 significant?

Answers:

1. The holy God who demands we keep his commandments wants love and trust from his children. His law cannot instill that love and trust. Only his gospel can. By reminding the Israelites of how he rescued them from Egypt, he is putting in the forefront of their mind his love and mercy. That rescue from Egypt reminds us that the same holy God sent Jesus to rescue us from our sin.

2. Our own sin and the sin around us combine to darken and callous our hearts, so we need God’s law written down― in detail― for us so we know exactly what his will is.

3. No. We were all born hostile to God. We did not submit to God’s law. We could not.

4. You are completely innocent in God’s courtroom, because of Jesus’ blood. There is no condemnation for all who are in Christ Jesus. None.

5. The Jewish leaders let people buy and sell in the temple courts, presumably, because those who sold animals and changed money made a profit. However, nothing should disturb God’s people from hearing God’s Word, or coming to God in prayer and praise in thanks for his mercies.

6. Jesus was not sinning, because what was at stake was the glory and honor of God. His temple was to be a place for worship. But isn’t anger always sin? No. God the Father “expresses his wrath every day,” but never sins (Psalm 7:11). Jesus never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). He could not.

7. In John 2:19 our Savior predicted his own resurrection from the dead. When he fulfilled his promise, he proved he truly is God and keeps his Word. That truth gives us sinners hope and comfort. Only God can save us; Jesus is God. He has rescued us! (See Romans 4:25.)

Putting your faith into action

How often does a review of God’s commands cause us to bow our head in shame? And rightly so! Yet hear again God’s opening, “I am the LORD your God,” and lift up your head! God is our God because he chose us, not because we chose him. He rescued us from the bondage of our slavery to sin and gave us new life here on earth and with him in heaven. These words are our gospel motivation and encouragement to follow all his commands in thankful response for all he has done for us.

A reading from the Book of Concord for Lent 3

This is the Gospel, namely, that for Christ’s sake, and not for the sake of our works, we obtain the forgiveness of sins through faith.  Our adversaries work to suppress this Gospel by means of distorted passages, which contain the doctrine of the Law or of works.  Christ often connects the promise of the forgiveness of sins to good works, yet not because He means that good works are an atoning sacrifice.  Christ makes this connection for two reasons.  One is because good fruit must necessarily follow.  He reminds us that if good fruit do not follow, the repentance is hypocritical and fake.  The other reason is that we have need of outward signs of so great a promise.  A conscience full of fear has need of much consolation.  Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs that continually remind, cheer, and encourage despairing minds that their sins are forgiven.  The same promise is portrayed in good works, in order that these works may remind us to believe more firmly.  Those who produce no good works are not encouraged to believe, but despise these promises.  On the other hand, the godly embrace them and rejoice that they have the signs and testimonies of so great a promise.  So they exercise themselves in these signs and testimonies.  Therefore, just as the Lord’s Supper does not justify us by the outward act without faith, so alms do not justify us by the outward act without faith. – Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article V, Love and Fulfilling the Law (paragraphs 153-155)

                       

He Stood Before The Court

He stood before the court On trial instead of us;

He met its pow'r to hurt, Condemned to face the cross --

Our King, accused of treachery;

Our God, abused for blasphemy!

These are the crimes that tell The tale of human guilt;

Our sins, our death, our hell -- On these the case is built.

To this world's pow'rs the Lord stays dumb.

The guilt is ours, no answers come.

The sentence must be passed, The unknown pris'ner killed;

The price is paid at last, The law of God fulfilled.

He takes our blame, and from that day

Th' accuser's claim is wiped away.

Shall we be judged and tried? In Christ our trial is done;

We live, for he has died, Our condemnation gone.

In Christ are we both dead and raised,

Alive and free -- his name be praised!