Meek and Mild
/“Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” -John 2:16
There are many, many stories in the Bible in which Jesus acts in a way that we would consider harsh. In fact, so many of these stories exist, I’m surprised that the prevalent view of Jesus as meek and mild persists! In the reading for this Sunday, for example, Jesus takes some cords and fashions a whip from them - a whip! - and drives all the animals that were on sale there out of the room. He picks up the containers containing coins at the money changers’ tables and pours them all out onto the floor (I imagine huge coffee cans of quarters being spilled onto a stone floor, bouncing and scattering every which way.) And then flips the tables themselves right over.
I mean, we’ve heard this story often, but just read it again and take a moment to stop and really imagine Jesus doing these things. This is anything but Jesus meek and mild. This is Jesus angry. This is Jesus offended. This is Jesus protesting in a way that is disruptive to the status quo. This is the kind of thing that got Jesus killed.
Maybe he could have done it a different way? Called a meeting? Taken the temple officials out for coffee? Drawn up a petition? If he’d done it some other, milder way, I suspect we wouldn’t still be reading about that particular day in the temple 2000 years later. I trust Jesus did exactly what he felt called by God to do, even though it was pretty radical. Maybe we keep on wanting to believe that Jesus was meek and mild because we’re not sure we really want to follow this whip making, animal chasing, money spilling, table flipping Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that you head on over to Walmart and start knocking over the cash registers or anything. However, I am saying that in following Jesus you may well find called to do things that challenge the status quo, to speak uncomfortable truths to power, and to participate in things that reveal you to others in a completely different light than they had perceived you in the past. You may find that in following Jesus, you too will sometimes have to leave being mostly meek and mild behind.
