Turning Tables -- Holy Monday thoughts

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Matthew 21:12-17:  Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, 'My house well be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"
     The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

     I love Holy Week – conceptually it encapsulates the journey of life and faith so we can experience the full range of emotions each year – and learn from that practice in a way that can help give us perspective on our own journey. The exultation and joy of Palm Sunday are important – they give us something to hold onto as times become more difficult as the week progresses.
     And as we move now to Holy Monday, things begin to get dicey. Jesus is causing trouble – it’s something he does very well. That is an aspect of Jesus we often forget – or want to forget. The peaceful, almost serene Jesus depicted so often is nowhere in evidence here. This is Jesus the rebel, full of passion and righteous anger. Why?
     I remember learning about this story in Sunday school as being about what should or shouldn’t be done in church:  Prayer, yes – selling animals or conducting business, no. It was about propriety, decorum. I always thought that was odd – because in making that point Jesus was overturning tables and causing a general mess – like a bull in the proverbial china shop. It was only much later that I learned that the money changers and sellers of livestock for sacrifice preyed on the poor. They were robbing those who came to worship God. This story isn’t about what is or isn’t appropriate for a house of worship, it isn’t about decorum, it’s about justice. And the propriety of righteous anger, and even disorderly conduct, on behalf of the poor and oppressed – even in a house of worship.
     So now, I think of this story whenever someone complains when social justice issues are raised in church – as though that wasn’t an appropriate topic to be discussed in worship. Sometimes, we need to overturn the carefully constructed tables in our churches – in our lives – to reveal what is going on beneath the surface – the things we may not want to think about, may not want to see. And express our own righteous anger, even if the religious authorities don’t like it.
     And yet – Jesus’ actions that day didn’t stop these practices at the temple. I’m sure that after his death they went on, just the same. It may even have been business as usual the very next day. So what did Jesus accomplish – except giving the authorities one more reason to fear him and kill him? So this is also, I think, a cautionary tale. Sometimes direction action like this is the only way to get the point heard, to begin the process of change. But such action can also put people so much on the defensive that it makes meaningful change almost impossible. Sometimes to get around a roadblock you have to go around – not straight ahead. And it takes prayer and discernment to figure out the past way through.
     What issues are you passionate about? What can you do to help work for meaningful change?