Does Jesus have anger issues?
Something I have really been enjoying is preparing an emessage for each Thursday for St. Timothy Lutheran Church. Each week it's about one of Sunday's upcoming lessons. This exercise has helped me to focus mythoughts regarding the text. This Sunday it is John 2:13-22.
This is what I shared today regarding the above gospel reading.
John 2:13-22 The Message
13-14 When the Passover Feast,
celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up
to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep
and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.
15-17 Jesus put together a whip
out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the
sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left
and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house
consumes me.”
18-19 But the Jews were upset.
They asked, “What
credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple
and in three days I’ll put it
back together.”
20-22 They were indignant: “It took forty-six
years to build this Temple, and you’re
going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple.
Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said
this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in
Scripture and what Jesus had said.
Last week we talked about grumpy
Jesus in his exchange with Peter. In John's gospel, we see Jesus and he is
beyond grumpy, he's downright angry and aggressive. Last week it seemed like he
needed an attitude adjustment. At face value, in this week's gospel he may need
an intervention or an anger management group.
What makes the issue even graver
is that what the money changers and the sellers of animals did was provide a
service for the throngs of pilgrims who would come to the temple during
Passover. One other thing we need to consider is that the area the gospel
refers to as "the temple," was not the worship space as we would
think of it. It was in the part of the temple complex, outside the temple in
the court of the Gentiles. The Message version of this Sunday's gospel,
which is printed above, in many ways gives us a greater understanding of what's
going on. However, like every other translation, it refers to the area where
the money changers and sellers of animals were as the "temple."
So, what is Jesus really up to? Is
Jesus overreacting? Is John's purpose of including this story to emphasize
Jesus' humanity? There are lots of questions we should be asking about this
passage of scripture. I hope to see you Sunday and that you are full of
questions about this gospel text and that you will open yourselves to a
different way of looking at this part of John's gospel. You may go home with
some answers.
True to form, things are not
always as they seem with Jesus. He had bigger issues in mind. Come on Sunday
and we'll talk about that. Remember, we can't keep God in a box.
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