Third Sunday of Lent (Year B)
First Reading - Exodus 20.2-17
A reading from the book of Exodus.
I am the Lord your God.
I brought you out
of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself any idol,
in the form of anything
that is in the sky above,
or the earth below, or the waters under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them,
or worship them,
for I am the Lord your God, and I grieve
at the rebellion
of those who reject me,
to the third and fourth generation;
but I show steadfast love
to a thousand generations
of those who honour me
and keep my commandments.
You shall not take
the name
of the Lord your God
in vain.
You shall remember the sabbath day,
and keep it holy.
Six days
you shall labour, and do all your work,
but the seventh day
is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
On the sabbath day,
you shall do no work.
All shall rest
on the sabbath day: you,
your sons and daughters, your servants;
the foreigners living in your towns;
even your livestock;
for in six days, the Lord made
the heavens, the earth, the sea,
and all that is in them,
but rested on the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day,
and made it holy.
You shall honour your father and mother,
that your days may be long
in the land
that the Lord, your God, is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbour.
You shall not envy
your neighbour’s spouse.
You shall not envy
your neighbour’s household, or home,
or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
This is the word of the Lord.
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 1.21-25
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.
The wisdom of the world
did not
lead people to God.
Instead, God has used
not the wisdom of the world,
but the foolishness
of our proclamation
to save
those who believe.
Greeks demand wisdom,
and Hebrews demand miraculous signs,
but we proclaim Christ crucified.
The proclamation of Christ crucified
is foolishness to Greeks,
and a stumbling-block to Hebrews.
But to those who are called -
both Hebrew and Greek -
the proclamation of Christ crucified
is both the wisdom of God,
and the power of God.
For God’s foolishness
is wiser
than human wisdom;
just as God’s weakness
is stronger
than human strength.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel - John 2.13-22
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to John.
The Passover festival was near,
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the temple, he found traders, selling cattle,
sheep, and doves;
and money-changers, seated at tables.
Making a whip of cords,
he drove them all out of the temple -
and the sheep and the cattle with them.
He scattered the coins of the money-changers,
overturning their tables.
He said to those who were
selling doves, ‘Get those out of here -
for you are making my Father’s house
into a market-place!’
And his disciples remembered the scripture that says,
‘Zeal for your house will consume me’.
The temple authorities said to Jesus, ‘What sign
can you show us, that gives you the authority
to do this?’
Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple,
and in three days, I will raise it up.’
They said, ‘This temple has been under construction
for forty-six years, and you will raise it in three days?’
But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
After Jesus was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered these words,
and they understood the scriptures,
and the words that Jesus had spoken.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.