Daily Lesson for February 23, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 13 through 21:

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Yesterday the 500,000th American died of COVID-19 and this morning I was told that if we took a minute of silence to recognize every passing, we would have to be silent for a year. It is an astounding figure. With every passing there was a story and a life and somebody's broken heart.

It didn't have to be this way. There were way more lives lost than what was necessary. Had we acted more quickly and decisively and with greater togetherness we could have curtailed the numbers dramatically. But instead, we argued and politicized and ultimately decided that it was more important to go on with business as usual. It was a shame.

We are in Lent now. It is a time for self-reflection. It asks that we take the time to reflect on the past year, it's losses, and what they say about America, what they say about the shame of a number like 500,000 dead.

The Lesson this morning is especially poignant. The body is a Temple. Jesus wanted people to see and understand that and know that human beings are more important than business. They are more primary and valuable than the economy.

We decided from an early point to put the economy over people and we ended up losing both. The economy will come back -- is coming back -- but the people will not. They were sacrificed.

Jesus, too, was sacrificed for an economy. He put himself in harms way to protest and economy that deprived people of their personhood, which robbed them of their dignity, and plundered the Temple of the Body. Two thousand years ago, He was sacrificed and killed upon the altar of commerce. And now, two thousand years later we've sacrificed Him also.

When will we learn?

Will this Lent make a difference?

Will the silence of 500,000 dead speak?

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.