Text: John 2:13-22
One of these links:here or here should work (from WSJ, so one might be behind paywall.) The author is calling on Obama to correct his party on one issue and is using Obama’s own words as a spur.
Here is the money portion…
All of which leaves the First Parent with a decision to make: Will he stand up for those like his own children’s schoolmates — or stand in front of the Sidwell door with Mr. Durbin? It’s hard to imagine white congressional Democrats going up against him if he called them out on an issue where they have put him in this embarrassing position. This, after all, is a man who has written of the “anger” he felt as a community organizer, when his attempts to improve things for Chicago school kids ran up against an “uncomfortable fact.”
“The biggest source of resistance [to reform],” he said, “was rarely talked about . . . namely, the uncomfortable fact that every one of our churches was filled with teachers, principals, and district superintendents. Few of these educators sent their own children to public schools; they knew too much for that. But they would defend the status quo with the same skill and vigor as their white counterparts of two decades before.”
In our text, John relates Jesus in the original template for “anger” meeting “uncomfortable fact”. The temple, the center of Israel and God’s house, was occupied primarily with economic exchange. The message being portrayed was not the God of salvation, but the god who could be bought, and bought cheap. Instead of being the foundation and the center of Israel’s life (Deut 6:7), God had become an adjunct to be appeased. Jesus’ reaction to this was zeal. Another word for that would be righteous anger.
Society is never comfortable with righteous anger. Society has a stated interest in itself, and righteous anger is the response to abuse of power. Righteous anger is directed at how society has aligned itself and says repent. What we in the church often fail to recognize is that Jesus’ righteous anger is directed against the Temple – the religious establishment. When we know better or should know better, we have a responsibility to act better. We are called to be salt and light to society. When we don’t, repentence is necessary.
Jesus’ overturned the money tables and called for the tearing down of the temple. That physical temple would no longer be God’s house. God was doing something new. The tough part of our Christian pilgrimage is discerning when that is the correct answer or when repentance and reform are correct. Following Jesus isn’t easy – life and death decisions never are.
