Have you ever seen the comic strip of Jesus on a skateboard flying over an old church?
Accompanied by the caption “Jesus clears the temple.”
It was a meme before memes were a thing even your grandmother shares on the social media.
I was in a bible study this week looking at John 2, where Jesus famously turns over the tables in the temple. I had been thinking about that passage for a while prior, though.
The story is traditionally used to illustrate a couple of concepts – the greed of the moneychangers and the righteous anger of Jesus.
Greed bad.
Anger also bad unless it’s righteous.
Did anyone else read that last word in Jeff Spicoli’s voice? Just me? Okay.
Anyway. Some go so far in their condemnation of greed they expect everyone in ministry to work for free. To give away creative work, if it’s faith-based, for free.
Seriously, I’ve been told it’s sinful to expect people to pay to see a faith-based movie.
Bivocational ministry works in some situations. But God only put twenty-four hours in our day, seven days in our week, and he told us to rest on one of them.
And you wonder why clergy burnout is a thing.
Righteous anger.
I’ve heard the righteous anger of Jesus used to justify all kinds of anger I’m not sure is actually righteous.
I’ve heard Jesus’ “brood of vipers” insult toward the Pharisees used to justify slinging all kinds of insults at those the slingers perceive to be Pharisees.
(Brood of vipers was a high, profane insult back in the day.)
In some respects, we’re all Pharisees. We’re all vipers.
(Why did it have to be snakes?)
My opinion?
Using Jesus’ example of turning over tables and calling Pharisees vipers seems to me a lazy justification for constantly attacking … insulting … being mean … assigning motives … to large groups of people we’ve slapped a label on … to individuals we’ve slapped a label on … without recognizing individual (or indeed group) viewpoints may be far more nuanced than we’re taking the time to understand.
We’re too quick to believe everything we read, see, and hear. From a lot of sources that aren’t scripture.
We’re too quick to equate labels with sins and virtues.
Read that again. We’re too quick to equate labels with sins and virtues.
We’re too quick to equate someone’s political leanings with how good of a Christian or human they are.
We’re too quick to equate someone’s vote with their support of everything a candidate has ever done in their entire life, publicly or privately.
Good grief, in 2020 it’s come down to ascribing political motives based on whether someone is wearing a face mask in public.
I’ve noticed some people who seem to be angry all the time at something. Not at any one particular thing, although perhaps there’s a theme for them. I scratch my head over the phenomenon. Does their anger make them feel like their life has meaning? Does it just give them something to do so they don’t get bored?
Indeed, there are things in the world worth our righteous anger.
Worth our efforts to combat.
Worth – and I hate this phrase so much – our speaking out.
I don’t know, though. I feel like loving God and loving our neighbor should look more loving and less angry.
