The first reading from
Exodus is basically the "rules of the road" for those folks going
together to new lands/places...i.e. here it is the Jews headed to the
Promised Land. It laid down pretty clearly that there is one
leader and identified those behaviors that everyone would do to keep peace
on the way.
John's gospel piece takes place at a time when Passover
(and the passion) were near. John tells a temple
story (mentioned in every gospel) of what Jesus actually did (if
historical) or could have done (if made up from a number of lesser
occasions. The story is either explanatory of why
the arrest/killing took place (“it was the worst sort of blasphemy”) or descriptive
of the culmination of the increasing number of serious ‘disagreements’ between
Jesus' behavior and what was acceptable to the Jewish leaders ("it was the
last straw"). Side
note: Mark 11:18 says that when "the chief priests and the teachers
of the law heard of [the temple business], they began looking for some way to
kill Jesus."
While we (i.e. the MOJO community) try to follow "the
rules of the road," "love God and one another," but there may be
times when we protest (in some way) against those rules and those actions (like
Jesus and the temple unrest). And those activities might not be peaceful
or popular (as Jesus' protest wasn't.) And some people might have
limits on the “amount or type” of protesting that is considered acceptable.
In all of this we need to remember the saying that "true peace
is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice" and
“if you want peace, work for justice.” But many times, justice can be or seem
to be pretty subjective.
Question: Today society looks to "the rules of the
road" (the law), hoping that it will establish and maintain peace. But there are times when parts of society
feels it must protest about the injustice that it experiences.
How do we understand the peaceable Jesus and the angry and
destructible Jesus? How do we understand our following the "rules
of the road" while engaging or participating in "peaceable
protests"?
www.marymotherofjesus.org
www.marymotherofjesus.org
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