Leading Change

I wasn't thinking of these reflections on Integrity under Duress and Leadership for Change as a series, but it just so happens that the Gospel for today is the scene in Luke where Jesus upsets the applecart in the Temple by driving the merchants out. For those of us who tend to reduce the Son of God to a nice guy from Nazareth, a gentle wisdom teacher and healer, this depiction of Jesus' anger and vehement, if not violent action is a bit jarring. What was going on that Jesus was moved to take a whip up and drive people and their profits out of the temple?

We know from historical research that the Temple was at the heart of the economy in Jerusalem, whereby the practices of slaughtering and sacrificing animals as ritual offerings consumed huge resources and was burdensome to observant Jews, especially the poor. There was also a Temple tax that helped to support the priests, scribes, and other functionaries. Within the Temple, there was a large precinct where people bought and sold livestock and birds for their ritual offerings, and which was no doubt a very lively place within the Temple boundaries. The Temple itself was a huge and very grand complex, awe inspiring for its grandeur and opulence.

Given what we know, it must have grieved Jesus to witness all this when his deepest desire was to bring Israel into right relationship with the Father, to restore and deepen his people's intimate relationship and dependence on the One. When three years of itinerant ministry, teaching and healing huge crowds, failed to bring about the revolutionary/evolutionary change that he was leading them toward, it seems that he went up to Jerusalem one last time for Passover with some intention to turn the heat up a notch. There is some conjecture that his dramatic action in the Temple was an event staged to bring the conflict with the religious and political authorities out into the open. While many have portrayed Jesus as a passive victim of the Roman and High Priestly officials plot to safeguard their control in Israel, this may be only a part of the puzzle.

All this to say that leading change can, at times, involve dramatic action, confrontation, and creative conflict to unfreeze the status quo and to provoke people into action.

Gospel
Lk 19:45-48

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.