Third Sunday in Lent, 2024

I challenge you this morning to modify the image you bear in your minds of the Lord Jesus. Does your image match well with the actions described in our Gospel Lesson? Does it include a disturber of the peace who drives out with a whip money changers and animals from the temple? Does it include one who went about overturning tables? Does it include the one who said in Matthew 10, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (v. 34)? Or who said in Luke 12, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” (v. 49)? So, what’s going on in our Gospel Lesson this morning.…