Gospel Reading John 2:13-22
He spoke about the temple of his own body
The story of the cleansing of the Temple is found in all four Gospel. But in John, Jesus' authority is contrasted with the authority of the Temple cult and is a criticism of the cult itself. Christians sometimes point to Jesus' anger in this passage as a way to point out Jesus' humanity. But this would miss the powerful point of the entire Gospel, that the Word became flesh. The point is not that Jesus' anger proves he is human. It is that a human being, in his words and actions, can claim the authority of God.
