{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjesus-unmasked.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fjesuss-kickass-mercy-in-the-temple-9XFGuwHj","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Jesus's Kickass Mercy in the Temple","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/a09dc918-65db-4126-ae2a-2ebc33306a71/868874b4-71ee-4cf2-991f-368ef8584353/jesus-unmasked-podcast-artwork-07.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"“Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.”\n\nIt’s raging Jesus! This is the fiery, zealous Messiah we’ve been waiting for, bursting in, whips blazing …right?\n\nEvery now and then, a meme of this scene pops up in social media, with a caption: “When asking ‘What would Jesus do?” remember that turning over tables and chasing people with whips is within the realm of possibilities.” Because, you know, Jesus could get violent when he was pushed far enough.\n\nExcept… no.\n\nThis is a kickass scene, but it’s kickass mercy.\n\nJesus is shutting down the system of sacrifice.\n\nThe temple is supposed to be where people come to experience God. In order to sacrifice in the temple, people would have to buy animals if they weren’t able to raise their own, and inflated prices exploited the most vulnerable. Beyond that, to make impoverished people feel as if they had to purchase sacrificial animals in order to experience blessing is hypocritical. Yes, Jewish law laid out provisions for sacrifice, but it also laid out provisions for caring for the poor and forgiving debts… and those mandates were not being fulfilled.\n\nThere was poverty, exploitation, corruption… and Jesus comes to shut it all down.\n\nThis is a prophetic act of mercy. Mercy doesn’t always look like meekness. Sometimes, it looks like turning the tables, overthrowing the powers of greed and violence, and setting everyone free.\n\nThe whip? It wasn’t for hitting people. It was for driving out animals… so that they can’t be slaughtered. They, too, are being freed from a sacrificial system.\n\nThe temple is where God was to be found insofar as where ever people gather, God is there. God is with us and reflected through us as human beings. But God is most especially reflected in the vulnerable, the poor, the marginalized. \n\nAnd God is in Jesus because Jesus is in complete solidarity with the most marginalized. \n\n“Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” The place where God is now located is not within walls, but within flesh. \n\nAnd God is still to be found within the most vulnerable. Whatever we do to one another, we do to God.\n\nA note of caution: John’s Gospel uses the words “the Jews” a lot. It is the religious and political elite that he is referring to, not the whole of the Jewish people. \n\nWe warmly invite you to join the conversation every Wednesday afternoon at 5 CT / 3 PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!"}