The violence of Jesus by Carol Wolman

The violence of Jesus by Carol Wolman

 Mark 11:  ¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;  ¹⁷And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

 

This is the only instance recorded in the gospels where Jesus became physically violent.  He had just entered Jerusalem in triumph (Palm Sunday), knowing that He would be hanging on the cross before the week was over.  He used no weapons, may have pushed some people in "casting them out", overturned some tables.  His purpose was to maintain the division between the holy and the secular.

 

As we look at the effort of the Bush regime to merge religion and politics, to buy the churches with "faith-based" funding, to establish religious laws to please lobbyists, to use religion to cover his plundering ways, let us remember that it was this mixing that provoked Jesus to violence.  Let us also remember that He condoned symbolic acts of resistance.  Nuns pouring their own blood on missiles, for which they were given several years in federal prision, was a similar act.

 

As Christians, we are permitted to follow the example of Jesus in vigorously denouncing the pious politicians of our day, and exposing their lies and hypocrisy.  We may also resort to nonviolent civil disobedience- sitins, symbolic acts of sabotage, similar to Jesus overturning the tables. 

 

We are dealing with pathological liars, ruthless manipulators, greedy pirates.  Let us not be too polite.

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,  Carol Wolman