Text: John 2:13-25
13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 He found in the temple those who were selling cattle, sheep, and doves, as well as those involved in exchanging currency sitting there. 15 He made a whip from ropes and chased them all out of the temple, including the cattle and the sheep. He scattered the coins and overturned the tables of those who exchanged currency. 16 He said to the dove sellers, “ Get these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place of business. ”
-Common English Bible
- Where is God? Where do you expect to see God at work? The following is from Lutheran theologian David Lose:
…But I think the unintended consequence of this salutary emphasis on Sunday worship and church in general is that we’ve unintentionally given the impression that church is this great big God-box where people should come to experience God. I mean, think about: almost all of our evangelism efforts in recent memory have been geared toward getting people to come to church. (And the gauge of just how strong the impulse has been is your immediate and unconscious reaction — come on, be honest 🙂 — of initially wondering what else evangelism efforts could possibly be about.)
Is he right? How does this relate to the the Gospel text?
- Why is Jesus angry? Before you answer, consider this quote from Anne LaMont:
“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
Now that you’ve taken that in, why is Jesus angry? Does it matter? Consider this quote:
We want to ask, “What was Jesus’ intent here?” But maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe this enigmatic passage acts as a mirror to show us our own faults, biases, and prejudices.
Come Sunday 