Wednesday 8 April 2009

At the End of Holy Tuesday

What was Jesus Thinking? There are some Lectionaries, (BCP), which point us to Mark 11 today, and the driving out of traders from the Temple.  "My Temple should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves". If this was the "Tuesday event", then Jesus' soul may have been deeply troubled tonight. Anger, righteous anger, can be totally justified, but it still stirs up stuff deep within us. The adrenalin is still running, the "argument" is played and replayed over and over in our minds, and often we wish we had dealt with things differently. The crowds still seem to be highly impressed by this young Galilean, but the authorities are now out to get Jesus with a vengeance. He may have had a very troubled night indeed.

Anger can be the most debilitating emotion we experience. The justifiable anger of Jesus was dealt with on the spot. He expressed the feelings and that was a healthy and necessary thing to do. So many of us, though, are crippled with anger. Angry that we were left, abused, overlooked, ignored, physically injured, diagnosed with something dreadful, rejected love... oh, the list could go on and on.

Anger can fester inside us and cripple us as human beings, but first we must acknowledge it, own it, and do something about it.

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