Third Sunday of Lent

If you were to watch any programme about the last few days of Jesus you would usually find this story as the catalyst for what was about to happen to him at the end of his life. It is presented as a turning point in the relationship between Jesus and the authorities. Why then is it that in the Gospel of St John it appears in the first few chapters.  I think that John is laying out for us who this person of Jesus was. He shows us that at the heart of Jesus is worship of his Father by going to the temple to pray. The Jewish Temple was the holiest place it was here that God himself resided. And so you can understand how angry Jesus was when rather than his house being one of prayer was a noisy market place selling animals for the sacrifice at marked up prices. It was not the pursuit of spiritual things that seemed the most important but material things. It highlights for me two things that we as Christians need to be very careful of: Money and Anger.

It seems to me that in modern society that we have made an idol out of money. For many people it controls their whole life they don’t care who they hurt or abuse to get it. For with money comes power and with power comes control and greed. It can also seduce us into believing that we are doing some good out of it. Matthew warns us in his Gospel “we will either hate the one or love the other or we will be devoted to one and despise the other.” And from this we have now a must have culture where we must always keep up with the Jones wanting better things. But I wonder what would happen if people put their energies in our spiritual life rather than money?

Jesus saw this and we are told that he got angry. This is one emotion that I think as people we find the most difficult to understand in ourselves. We all get angry. Even those who say that they never get angry is in fact a passive aggressive statement that shows their anger. Anger can come out in so many different ways it can come out by sarcasm, by stubbornness and even in a person’s body language and how they hold themselves. I wonder of you have ever commented about another person.  “Look their goes an angry person." They are tense and awkward and often walk in a very funny way.  

First of all I want to say that it’s ok get angry.  It is a very natural emotion. It is what we do with it that is the most important. Anger is energy and so what we can do is channel that energy into doing other things let it be a creative force rather than a destructive force. Jesus used his anger and was very destructive in the temple by over turning the tables and driving the money changers out and yet we can see that it was justifiable anger. We can get angry about injustices in the world and we can use that energy to do something about it. Jesus used his aggression and anger for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. We as Christians should challenge society those with power and money. Where there is injustice then we can use that energy that comes from anger to change and challenge. Jesus disturbed the peace in the temple and sometimes as Christians we need to disturb the peace and make people stop and think.