March 3rd Lenten Reflection

John 2:13-22

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.

Reflection by Julie Gross

When I first heard this passage as a child, I flat out didn’t believe it. “Jesus, angry? Not my sweet, kind, loving Jesus! Jesus was, after all, perfect! “ Even today, many of my fellow grownups and I have trouble reconciling this “Angry Jesus” with the divine Son of God. But In this gospel Jesus shows us how empowering divine anger can be. Divine anger stands against things that defile God. Like money changers in the temple. Like hatred, bigotry, and racism. Without anger, we might instead offer up a kind of meek acquiescence to things that are cruel and unjust. I am not, under any stretch of the imagination, suggesting any kind of hatred or violence. Just that, like Jesus, when we see something that isn’t right, stand up and say or do something! We all, as followers of Christ, need to stir up a little good trouble.