St Matthew 21: 12 – 17
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Reflection
This passage brings home the full humanity of Jesus. We have a tendency to view Jesus passively – the baby in the manger, at prayer or suffering silently on the Cross. Jesus’ humanity is much more than these images. He is the man of action walking on water, enjoying a feast or the sharp edge of debate. A man frequently exasperated by the lack of faith shown by the apostles. Think of his strong admonishment to Peter, or his sharp reaction to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as he heals the man with the withered hand. As followers of Jesus we too find much hypocrisy in our own world at this time. It is hardly surprising when Jesus saw the poor exploited by the sellers of birds for sacrifice and the wheelers and dealers contaminating his holy place that he reacted with anger. Like many of us at such times, his anger is demonstrated physically as he hurls over the tables! He is very human at this point.
We live in a world where it is difficult to stay calm. A world where governments and powerful corporations push back against scientific knowledge to continue polluting our planet. A world where arms companies refine their weapons and increase their profits while men, women and children die in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and so many other areas of our troubled world. A world where the rich get richer and the poor get left further behind. So like our Saviour we cannot ignore the evil in the world. However, we must also understand that our indignation must be tempered by the other parts of Christ’s message in particular forgiveness and love, even for our enemies.
Martin Luther King said: “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him”, even as he fought for people’s basic human rights. I know I am prone to anger and hope that I can keep this example in my heart while faced with the injustice of this world.
Let us pray
Our prayer is that you will walk with us
in our flawed humanity.
We ask that you open our eyes to injustice.
So we ask for strength to stand up
against the wrongs in our world,
whatever the cost,
but we ask too that you give us judgement
to always balance our anger
with understanding and forgiveness.
We ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen