Course Correction
Making a whip of cords, Jesus drove all of them out of the temple. – John 2:15 (NRSV)
What will Jesus find when he comes to visit us?
When Jesus came to the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus was displeased. He saw the bodies being sold in the temple yard. He saw the money changing hands. He saw and was viscerally revolted by the ways that the people had turned his Abba’s house into a marketplace.
What Jesus found when he showed up to the temple was something. But it wasn’t his. And it was so dangerous that he had to get everyone up out of there.
And they hated him for it. (This would get him executed, you see.)
But what he saw was so wrong. So out of pocket. So harmful. He had to do something.
The temple didn’t turn into a marketplace without a series of failures taking place first. Leaders failed their people. They doubled down. They surely lied. They enriched themselves with the selling of bodies in the place of worship in the name of “sacrifice.”
Jesus was having none of that. And they hated him for it.
But.
There is such a thing as a course correction. There is a path to redemption.
It requires self-examination. It requires penitence – sincerely saying “I’m wrong, I’m sorry.” It requires moving on. It requires looking around – maybe even in the mirror – and seeing if there are things in our surroundings that don’t fit.
Only then can we step into our truth. And right the wrongs. And be who God put us on this planet to be.
Who and what is that?
It’s quite simple: we can decide that we will be a blessing.
Or, at least, we can try.
Prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for showing us how to love, learn and bless. Amen.
About the AuthorKaji Douša is the Senior Pastor of The Park Avenue Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, in New York City.