The Third Sunday of Lent Year B

The Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20.1–17
1 Corinthians 1.18–25
John 2.13–22

Jewish jokes testify to the terror of the Ten Words from Sinai. Headache? Do what Moses did: take two tablets. Moses to the people: we’ve got them down from twenty to ten, but adultery is still in. Moses to God: How much do these tablets cost? God: They’re free. Moses: Fine, I’ll have two.

Irreverent? No; rather the reflex of reverence, the nervous need for safe space between us and God. The Commandments are spoken, not intimately to Moses, but in thunder and trumpet, audible for miles around...

Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright