Zeal for My House

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. John 2:13-22 

Most of the time, we know love by tenderness, compassion and inclusion. There are also times when love takes the form of harsh protection, tough and fierce, fighting for the people and places which are holy and precious. Sometimes the love of God is blind justice, but a fury, an awakened and embodied living righteous anger, displayed for all the world to see, upsetting all of our comfortable and familiar behaviors. 

Jesus entered the temple, the sacred heart of his community to find faith and forgiveness being sold, becoming a marketplace rather than a safe place of prayer. Jesus is uncharacteristically furious and lashes out, disrupting the comfortable, familiar behaviors. Sometimes, we are called by God to use the anger we have at rampant abuses, and fight for the holy places and holy people.

Today, I ask God to help me know how and when to speak and act in the face of injustice in this world. May we be compassionate and active for our holy places and people who need our zeal.