First Tuesday in Lent 2021

John 2:13-22 (NRSV)

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making 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. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 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.

Folks that like to think of Jesus as "meek and mild" are disturbed by the thought of him making a whip of cords and thrashing around, turning over tables, and running people out of the temple. We like to think that a loving, forgiving, reconciling Jesus would use some other way to get his point across. However, in the second chapter of John, here we have it that he is driving out the sheep and cattle from the temple portico.

There is some confusion about this passage. Money changing wasn't unusual. Sometimes people making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem were not able to carry their sacrificial animal with them. Therefore, they would purchase one when they arrived. Another thing is that the Roman coin wasn't allowed to be used to pay the temple tax. The "changers" would be exchanging the Roman denarii to the Jewish shekel. However, the money changers were known to skim off the exchange rate and defraud the people. Whatever the reason, Jesus was not happy with the way things were going and lost it.

My first thought is that this plays a part in the larger story of fulfilling the prophecy "zeal for your house will consume me." Jesus needed to do this to live into what he was called to do. Also, this act is the turning point of his journey to the cross. It all goes downhill from here. The Pharisees and scribes begin to draw closer and closer to trip Jesus up in their pursuit to get him to commit some sort of offense that will allow them to get rid of him. Jesus almost says, "bring it on." By telling them that they will destroy the temple and he will rebuild it in three days.

Anger is something that we all deal with from time to time. It's a very human emotion that, if not controlled, controls us. I've heard this passage referred to as righteous anger, that Jesus was within his right to toss the tables. To me, it seems that his humanity has reached its breaking point. The result is a fit of rage that does nothing but provoke the authorities to action. Jesus obviously saw this as a last resort and fully knew what it would lead to. He took responsibility for his actions.

In the Lenten season of self-reflection, we might ask ourselves, "do we let ourselves get to the point of rage when we are upset about something?" Another thing we could ask is, "how might we respond to things that upset us that build up rather than destroy?" The answer should never get to us turning over tables.