Who’s On First

Understanding Jesus’ double meanings

3/07/2021

John 2:13-25 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

The gospel of John is famous for words that have a double meaning. The same word means two different things. Remember Abbott and Costello’s popular skit “Who’s on First”? The word “who” meant both a player on the baseball team as well as the interrogative pronoun “who.” The double meaning is what made the skit so funny. Jesus has a little fun with double meanings in the fourth gospel.

For example, in John 3, Jesus describes baptism as being “born again.” Nicodemus thinks on the natural level of being born again through your mother’s womb. Jesus, meanwhile, means the spiritual level of being born again by water and the Holy Spirit, the sacrament of baptism. Or, in John 11, Jesus’ close friend Lazarus dies but Jesus says he is merely “asleep.” Well, which is it: is Lazarus asleep or dead? In the gospel of John, Jesus means both. And therefore, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead as if he were waking him up from sleep.

That reminds me of this joke about double meanings I heard recently. A businessman ordered flowers to be sent to the opening of his friend’s new branch office. When the businessman got there, he was shocked to see the flowers with the inscription, “Rest in peace.” He was so outraged that he went straight to the florist to complain. The florist said: “It could be worse. Just think: today someone was buried beneath a floral arrangement with the message – ‘Congratulations on your new location!’”

Today’s gospel from John 2 presents us with yet another “Who’s on first” scenario, where the same word carries a two-fold meaning. You remember the scene: Jesus drives the money-changers out of the Temple with a cord, and dramatically declares: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in three days.” The Jews think Jesus means the building of the Jerusalem Temple, but in fact, Jesus means his own physical body. John tried to clarify the confusing by adding: “But [Jesus] spoke of the temple of his body.”

In other words, Jesus was talking about the death and resurrection that the temple of his body would undergo. Jesus’ body would be destroyed on the cross. Jesus would have gladly received flowers at his grave with the message: “Congratulations on your new location!” Why? Well, because our Lord knew that his resurrection meant that his permanent “new location” was to be in heaven. In order to grasp Jesus’ deeper meaning, you have to catch that the word “temple” can mean both a “building” and a “body,” just like “who’s on first” means both a player and a pronoun.

My friends, Jesus’ words about the destruction of the temple of his body also apply to the destruction of the temple of our own bodies. That is, we, too, will die one day; our bodies will suffer the destruction called “death.” While I was writing this homily on Friday evening, I received a call to give an elderly lady in hospice care the Last Rites. This woman was preparing, like Jesus in the gospel, for the destruction of the temple of her body. And also like our Lord, she looks forward to the resurrection of her body, not in three days, but on the last day. The anointing of the sick prepared her body for the destruction of death.

The season of Lent provides another opportunity to prepare our bodies for their final destruction by following Jesus’ example of driving the money-changers out of the Temple. How so? Well, when Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem Temple of sinful money-changers, he was preparing it and purifying it for its destruction in 70 A.D. when the Roman Legions would burn it and raze it to the ground. The only portion of the Temple still standing today is the “Western Wall,” also called the “Wailing Wall.”

On the spiritual and personal level, the penances and practices of Lent we perform carry the same spirit of purification of our bodily temples to prepare them for their final destruction at death. When we give up alcohol, when we give up sweets, when we stop scrolling incessantly on social media, when we don’t eat meat on Friday, when we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we drive the modern-day money-changers (another name for “bad habits” and sins) out of our temples.

We begin to see why John said about Jesus: “Zeal for your temple consumes me.” A similar zeal should consume us during Lent. That is, we purify the temple of our body by our fasting and sacrifices in order to prepare it for the day of its destruction at death, and its eventual reconstruction, namely, its resurrection.

Folks, “Who’s on first” “What’s on second” and “I don’t know is on third.” If you do not understand what that means, maybe you should go back and watch reruns of that famous Abbott and Costello skit. And if you do not understand what Jesus means by the destruction of the temple of his body and how he will rebuild it in three days, you should go back and reread John 2. Then you will not be upset if you receive a bouquet of flowers at your funeral that reads: “Congratulations on your new location!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!