Pray or Make a Whip?

The cleansing of the temple which happens during Passion Week in the Synoptic Gospels might have been the primary reason why Jesus was arrested, tortured, and executed. The narrative comes at the beginning of Jesus's ministry in the Gospel of John.

How do we imagine this scene? Jesus drives the sheep and cattle out of the temple. He pours out the coins of the money changers and overturns their tables.  And he has a whip which he makes himself!

Many of us cannot imagine Jesus raging with anger. Many of us cannot imagine Jesus doing what the passage tells us he did.

When the temple which is supposed to represent God’s presence among God’s people becomes a den of thieves that takes  advantage of the poor and the most disenfranchised; when institutions that are created to remind people that Yahweh is liberator and deliverer of slaves and the most dispossessed become systems that proclaim the rich as blessed and the poor as sinners, what do we expect the One whose name means ‘Yahweh Liberates’ to do?

Pray? In this occasion, he makes a whip.

When women who are supposed to have equal rights with men still receive salaries much lower than men; when they face harassment, discrimination, and violence in places that are supposed to be safe; when they continue to experience blame and demonization when they are victimized, what do we expect women and those who confess to follow the One whose name means ‘Yahweh Liberates’ to do?

Pray?
#IWD2018