That First Commandment? God Is Serious!
Third Sunday of Lent
Exodus 20:1–17 [20:1–3, 7–8, 12–17] / John 6:68c / 1 Corinthians 1:22–25 / John 2:13–25
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Reflecting on the Word
By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger
Do you remember your most embarrassing moment? The time you tripped and fell onstage during a play? How about the day you threw up in biology class?
Psychologists say that negative memory weighs heavily. Your great-aunt can say all kinds of nice things about you, but you still remember the day fifteen years ago when she said something critical. If you have/had loving and patient parents, you still probably remember the few times they absolutely blew up. If they were the enraged-all-the-time types, you probably wouldn’t remember that at all, for it was the norm.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus gets mad. Really mad. Turning over the tables in the temple must not have been his norm: all four Gospels have an account of Jesus driving out the money-changers. Years later, when his actions and his words were being recorded, they remembered this moment of fury and every one of them wrote it down. Jesus wanted better: “This is my Father’s house,” he cried. “Make it right!”
Could Jesus be both sinless and angry?
If we see someone mistreating a child, we get really hot inside. We want better. If we are treated as an object—as nothing, as worthless—fire burns within us. We want better. Moral theologians tell us that emotions carry no sin in and of themselves. What we do with our emotions—that is our moral responsibility. Injustice should make us angry. Indignation must move us to action.
Jesus wanted better. My mom once said to me, “God takes the first commandment very seriously.” When the Lord gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, he said, “You shall have no other gods besides me.” And meant it.
Consider/Discuss
- When have you been angry about something that was not right? What did you do about it? Did you wish later that you had done something differently? How can we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our anger so that we do and/or say the right things, even in a moment of fury?
- Jesus wanted his Father’s house to be a place of prayer, not a stinking location of commerce. How do we safeguard reverence for places of worship? How do we safeguard reverence for the people who frequent those places of worship? How do the two sometimes conflict?
Living and Praying with the Word
Here in the middle of Lent, Jesus, you again plead to make things right. You want this world to be just. You yourself experienced deep emotion. You know human nature by sharing in it. So you know that feelings can throw us off. You know what passion can do— positively and negatively. Help us to sort through all of that so that we do the right thing in each circumstance.