“But he was speaking of the temple of his body.”

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory.”

Who is God?

Where shall we look for God?

Where does God dwell?

How shall we worship God, Creator and Father of All?

You can look to the rocks, the trees, the sun, moon, and stars, planets in their courses. You can peer into ancient musty books to unearth divine secrets. You can go into the Temple, make offerings, and come into God’s courts.

All the gospels recount the incident of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem, raising a ruckus, wrecking it, one of my biblical studies colleagues has renamed it, not the mild term, “cleansing of the Temple, “but rather Jesus’ Temple Tantrum. Like his ancestor, the prophet Jeremiah does before him, Jesus calls out the Temple as corrupt, no longer worthy to house the name, no longer embodying its holy purpose.

The gospel of John recounts this story very early in the gospel, and it’s not the crime that instigates the plot to arrest and destroy him, but rather because it holds one key to the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

We are given the clue very early on, right after the joyous wedding at Cana. Like so much of John’s gospel, what is hidden is made known to the reader who has eyes to see. The passage speaks of the process of rereading, and remembering that created the passion narrative that we have, rich with allusive details, and resonant with scriptural echoes.

The earliest Christ believers told Jesus’ life after they had known the Risen Lord. They told and retold it, in light of their history of faith, and what happened in their community, in their searching of scripture.

“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

In John’s version, you can see Jesus’ zeal – in the description of his fury, even violence, with that cat whip of cords. Driving out the animals and emptying the banks, he speaks the words of the prophet Zechariah, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

As with many of Jesus mighty deeds, those who see do not understand, and Jesus’ “explanation” confounds them further.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.”

They take him literally, as people do, and miss the meaning.

“This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?”

What beautiful stones, how intricate, and how enormously sturdy are those towers. It took years, it’s practically permanent, we can rely on it. In their hostile question lies the truth. Here it is, the hidden meaning, in broad daylight, amid the scattered clutter of the ravaged building:

“He was speaking of the temple of his body.”

“He was speaking of the temple, his body.”

Compared with this building a human body is so fragile. Easily destroyed. Temporary.

Where do we locate God? Where do we go to worship? One answer: The temple, of course, where the name of God dwells. where we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, let the whole earth stand in awe of him.

Later on the gospel explores this question: Once upon a time by a well in Samaria, Jesus argued about worship with a woman who carried water.

“Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus answered:

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

And then she confessed him as the Christ, and he disclosed himself as the great I AM.

Today, on this Good Friday, in the passion and death of Jesus, the hour is here. The sectarian dispute between Jesus and Samaritans about the place to worship will be moot.

Those who worship in spirit and truth will locate God, in neither tabernacle or tent, mountain or desert, but in Jesus. It is here we will worship.

Jesus’ body, his flesh, is the place where God dwells, the location of the divine presence, the Word, made flesh.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Dwell there.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. They dwell in me.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. You will stay with me.

Jesus’ body, his flesh is the temple where God is present.

Attend to the body of Jesus in the Good Friday liturgy – Flogged, robed and crowned. Crucified. Pierced. Taken down. Stripped. Buried with piles of spices in the garden tomb. Then on Sunday morning, notice and marvel at the place where his body lay, only the linens and the headcloth to mark the space.

What began way back with the sign Jesus did in the temple, is coming to its conclusion on this day of crucifixion.

Zeal for God’s house will consume him today. Let us experience it, let us contemplate, let us worship.

“Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.”

Amen.