Preaching on the Violent Jesus

Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple.  That is my passage from John tomorrow.  I have heard more commentary on this passage regarding the fact that John places it early in his gospel account versus the Synoptic gospels that place the story near the end of their gospels, as a trigger event for his final arrest.  More pages have been devoted to the possibility that Jesus did it twice in an attempt to harmonize the gospels, rather than deal with a Violent Jesus.


We do not want to deal with the fact that Jesus committed violence, against property and against the persons of the moneychangers in the temple.  And, since by presumption, Jesus was without sin, he committed violence without being sinful.  In John, the disciples would remember the Old Testament quote, "Zeal for his house consumed him" as the reason for the Violent Jesus.


"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."  That is us.  This is the line in the Declaration of Independence that justified the use of violence by the colonial governments against the government of England.  Funny I should be reminded of that from the movie "National Treasure".


There was a line across which a response of violence would be provoked.  That happened to Jesus.  It could happen to us.  For some, it is an expected response. 


We train up Peace Officers and War Officers, our police and our military, to proceed violently when the need arises.  They act in the name of the state, justified and protected when their actions are justifiable.  It is a tremendous responsibility.  The roots of that responsibility are found in Jesus himself.


With the Violent Jesus, one might look at the merits of the case.  It was not permissible to give money to the temple that was tainted with images of other deities, including that of the Emperor.  The Jews looked to the Law of Moses to protect the Temple from the influences of other religions, even from their money.  But the Jews who pilgrimaged to Jerusalem had only the money of their hometowns.  Thus, the moneychangers were present to exchange their currencies for what was permissible in the temple.  On the face of it, a very workable solution.


But the extortion that resulted, the entire Temple environment was dominated by these moneychangers, living off the backs of the pilgrims.  They and the purveyors of sacrificial beasts for Temple sacrifice.  The Temple had become a place of this religious commerce, and crooked commerce at that.  The injustice of this perverted worship of God drove Jesus to violent ends. 


Did it stop the practices?  No.  In fact, the demonstration of the Violent Jesus is a contributing factor to Jesus' final arrest and execution.  But what it showed the world, the willingness to put your life on the line for what is truly important, such a lesson of power.  And amazingly, the great leaders who have followed the lessons of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, they have changed their nations without resorting to violence.


What is the line you are willing to cross to become a Person of Violence?  Have you truly considered where that line lies?  Are you justified as the Violent Jesus was?  Are you willing to pay the price, as Jesus did?