Day 3 (Tuesday) – “Sent to be a Challenge”
*Mark 11:15-17
Have you ever noticed that Christianity is sometimes equated with being “good”? Christians are supposed to be the “good” people of society. And yet, I often wonder if something is lost when we think that being Christian is mostly about being a “good person”, a model citizen, a rule follower. I fear that sometimes Christians get so caught up with being “good” that they completely miss the passion of the gospel. Jesus left us with a mission that requires passion and holiness, not a mission that requires arbitrary “goodness.”
You see, Jesus was certainly good, but Jesus wasn’t always esteemed as a “good” rule follower. He was crucified, after all, as an enemy of the state! Instead, Jesus was good because he was faithful to his mission to bring hope and salvation to the world. In this passage from Mark we catch a glimpse into one of those times in Jesus’ life when he was not behaving as a “good” person ought to behave. In this story Jesus enters the Temple only to find that it has been transformed into a marketplace. One vendor is selling doves at a hefty price, another is offering to exchange money – and they are all, in some way or another, ripping off their customers. Jesus, a champion of the oppressed, will have nothing to do with this – especially in the house of God. Before the watchful (and perhaps surprised) eyes of the crowd, Jesus turns over tables and merchandise displays and blocks the path for vendors to enter into the Temple. Filled with holy anger, Jesus refuses to allow God’s “house of prayer” to be turned into a “den of robbers.” Jesus’ concern for the poor and oppressed took precedence over his concern for keeping the rules. As we learned yesterday, Jesus’ mission involves proclaiming liberty for the oppressed – and we learn in this story that Jesus proclaims liberty through words and actions.
As we serve God and our neighbors in West Virginia, let’s consider what ought to fill us with holy anger. What systems do we need to challenge? Let’s consider those systems of oppression in our world that keep people in poverty, bondage, and fear. Jesus was angry about the “den of robbers” in the Temple because he knew that God had instituted the Temple to be a place of wholeness and freedom, and not a place of oppression and injustice. What are we to be angry about as modern disciples of Jesus, and what can we do to raise a voice against injustice and oppression? How are you sent to be a challenge?
As Christian disciples, we are sent to protest injustice and oppose the misuse of power. But we are sent to be more than loud picketers against oppression. We are sent to offer an alternative to the broken systems of our world. We are sent to speak out against injustice while we work for a world where love and wholeness are the norm. As Christians we are indeed called to be “good” – we are called to be holy as God is holy. Let us be a people so filled with the love of Jesus that we do good by passionately proclaiming freedom for the oppressed and by living as a community that is known for its outrageous Christ-like love.
--Laura
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