Call me “old fashioned”, but I like Lent. This 40-day before-you-get-to-Easter season has always appealed to me. As a child, I “gave up” things for Lent. Candy. Soda. Swearing. I never made good on most of these sacrifices, but my intentions were pure.

One of my favorite Lenten-things-to-do was filling up those Special Lenten Offering folders where you tuck a coin into a slot representing each day of Lent. I liked the fact that the Special Lenten Offering helped support Priscilla, my home church’s Wycliffe Bible missionary.

There was a heavy feeling about Lent, as if death was in the wind which – of course – it was. There was a seriousness to Lent that somehow made me feel as if something really important was going on.

Trouble for me nowadays is it’s hard to find Lent here in the Bible Belt.

In these parts the Sunday theme is usually spiritual self-help – or “Jesus-self-help.” Like the sermon I heard on TV last week. It was about the time Jesus was teaching in a crowded house. These guys show up carrying a paralyzed friend on a stretcher. They can’t get in for all the people. So they go up onto the roof, make a hole in it and lower their friend. Jesus heals the man.

The preacher notes that there are important “principles” to be learned from the story. For one thing, true friends should bring broken friends to church so Jesus can heal them. For another, when you face an impossible barrier you should LOOK UP (the roof is a metaphor for God and God always has a better way for your miracle to happen). Not only that, but sometimes you have to destroy things (like the roof) to get to your goal.

It wasn’t a bad sermon and most preachers I know have preached stuff like this. Including me. It just misses the point.

That’s why Lent is important. Lent provides a context for interpreting Bible stories because it reminds us where the Gospel finds its ultimate destination. The cross. That is the central meeting place of our faith – at the cross. And in the reality of Jesus’ death we find the lens through which the scriptures can come alive in a new way.

Why did they kill Jesus?

Well, it wasn’t because Jesus taught people to have faith. It wasn’t because he loved them enough to heal them. It wasn’t because he brought new emphasis to the ancient Levitical commands to love God and neighbor. All that is good and wonderful, but it’s not why they killed Jesus.

“Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus said to the man.

That’s why they killed Jesus.

“Who can forgive sins but God alone????” the religious authorities complained.

Why would they kill someone for forgiving a poor paralyzed man? Well, Jesus has placed himself in the position of God according to the religious tradition. He has taken and used something – the gift of forgiveness – that belongs to God alone. That’s blasphemy.

But there’s more to it than that. The subtext here is that Jesus has actually challenged the religious institution – the Temple. Only God can forgive sins and ONLY THE TEMPLE can distribute it through its elaborate sacrificial system. You want forgiveness? Go to the Temple and make the appropriate offering.

The complaint, “Only God can forgive sins!” really means, “Only WE (the Temple) can forgive sins.”

And another subtext: We-the-Temple is the bedfellow of the occupying Romans. Rome allows the Temple to function. And the Temple keeps the people under control for Rome.

If the Temple falls, Rome’s hold on the populace falls.

So when Jesus forgives…

Blasphemy and sedition all rolled into one.

They have to get rid of him.

If you let go of the “find a self-help/how to improve your faith message in every Gospel story” and look instead for the “why did they kill Jesus?” angle, the Bible comes alive with what Lent so powerfully offers – an opportunity to be confronted with our own participation in those things that stifle and prevent the kingdom of God from breaking out. Lent demands honest self-examination.

You will see it in this week’s Gospel text from John 2 – the “cleansing” of the Temple. John shows Jesus arriving at the Temple. He drives out the sellers and money changers, saying, “Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

Many preachers use this story to criticize the Sunday School kids for selling cookies after church for their summer mission trip. “Don’t commercialize the church, or Christmas,” they say. Nonsense. Don’t ever knock kids for raising money for good causes. Buy the cookies. Seriously.

The real question Jesus raises at the Temple that day is “Into what have you turned my Father’s house?”

And that’s the question confronting us on this third Sunday in Lent.

Whether a church-goer or a member of the Church Alumni Association, Lent asks, “What have we done to the Church, our church, my church, your church?”

It’s a good question to ask every church and all who follow Jesus.

“What have we done to God’s house? Where are we failing to be who and what we are called to be? How do we need to change to be more faithful to Christ?”

Asking such questions can demand unsettling change in us. They can also get you into a hell of a lot of trouble with the religious powers-that-be.

Maybe that’s why Jesus said, “If you would come after me you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”

And that, dear friends, is why we need Lent.