Lent 2023 post 4

 Mark 11:15-18 

(A Jew in the Temple) 

I was in the Temple on business 

making arrangements for my sacrifice; 

I had to exchange money 

and buy a dove at the officials’ inflated price. 

The whole process was expensive; 

that didn’t seem right to me; 

There was little regard for the poor man’s plight, 

not from the priests or the Pharisees. 

Suddenly there was a great commotion, 

I heard an angry voice. 

The voice of an irate visitor 

that rose above the market noise! 

He knocked over the tables of merchants, 

He seemed genuinely grieved. 

He said, “God’s Temple is a house of prayer, 

but you’ve made it a den of thieves.” 

He upended the stalls of doves, 

there was no stopping Him

His very heart was broken 

to witness the cheaters’ din. 

The chief priests were stunned, amazed

of course, they were angry, too. 

No one had ever dared speak against them

just this one renegade Jew. 

Yes, the man caused a lot of confusion, 

The man? Jesus was His name. 

And somehow I knew within me 

That day something significant had changed. 

(A Priest) 

His acts are outrageous, His words insulting

“A den of thieves,” He said. 

We’ve known we wanted to be rid of Him

we know what we want, we want Him dead! 

Questions He wouldn’t answer, 

ultimatums He’d defy. 

Certainly you can see what we saw

this rabble-rousing man must die! 

We don’t see many instances of Jesus expressing intense anger in the Gospels. When Jesus saw what the money changers and priests were doing in God’s name and in God’s House, He was irate! His Father and His Father’s House were being disrespected. Too often when I’m angry, it’s because someone has offended me. Not Jesus, it wasn’t about Himself, but the Father. I want to be more like Jesus. I don’t want to waste my anger on trivial, selfish things. I want to act like my Father’s child and care about the things He cares about. 

May the things that upset You upset me, the things that grieve You, grieve me. Open my eyes to see things through Your eyes, from Your perspective. May I revere You and worship You with humility and gratitude. You are a holy God, worthy of praise and reverence. 

In Jesus's name, Amen.