“What would Jesus do?” It’s a catchy little phrase that is supposed to help us discern the right thing to do in a given situation. Today’s gospel always reminds me that, when we ask this question, we need to remember that making a whip out of cords and beating people in church is among the possible answers to “what would Jesus do?”
Jesus gets so upset in the gospel because the sacred area of the temple in Jerusalem has been turned into a marketplace. They’re selling oxen, sheep, and doves. They’re carrying out financial transactions. We might rightly ask, “How did this happen?” I would propose that the answer is that it happened gradually, one little compromise at a time (listen below for all the historic details).
The same thing happens with us. Just look at the commandments. It’s not likely that we just all of the sudden commit serious sin and majorly violate the commandments. We start small with little compromises. Consider the command to keep holy the sabbath day. How are we doing on that? Think of all the things that happen on Sunday now that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. How did this happen? Gradually.
St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that Christians should be ready to be considered foolish by the rest of society. What we believe is truly incredible. God became one of us, he let us kill him, and then he rose from the dead in victorious glory. That’s not “mainstream.” That’s crazy… but it’s true! We should be willing to stick out. If we want to just blend in and go with the flow, then we start compromising. We start allowing more and more junk into our sacred space. Before you know it, there’s an ox in your living room and it just seems normal. Lent is a good time for cleaning out your temple. Do it yourself; don’t make Jesus show up with a whip.