The Sacred but corrupt Jewish Temple, part 2

The sacred but corrupt Jewish Temple, part 2.

What are some of the lessons to be learned from the Temple confrontation initiated by Jesus?

1.  Social evil in social institutions is deeply ingrained, legitimated at times by religion, and therefore is highly resistant to change.

2.  In order to bring about change, social conflict must be initiated.  The social evil and the oppressive leaders must be aggressively and publicly exposed so the people will understand what is really going on.

3.  At the same time that a person exposes social evil, she must present a positive alternative, i.e., the just kingdom of God social order.

4.  Social change must be two-pronged: the negative exposure of social evil and the positive presentation of social justice.

5.  In this process, the common people must be central.  Remember as Jesus taught in the Temple "all the people hung on his words."  Prior to this the chief priests and the teachers of the Law were the leaders of the people using religion to manipulate the people (Luke 19:47).  The chief priests wanted to kill Jesus immediately, but they did not dare to act because of the power of the people.  Luke refers to "the people" a number of times.

6.  Great care must be identifying the key social evil in society.  What most people and especially the leaders identify as the main social evil may, in fact, be in error.  It may be a smokescreen to divert attention from the really important social evil.

Note that Jesus did not target the Roman headquarters in Palestine or take a trip to Rome to expose social evil.  Though Rome's was oppressive in its imperialistic domination of Palestine, Jesus never engaged in an anti-Roman campaign.  Many Jews did see Rome as the great social evil from which they desired deliverance.  Roman occupation was more than a minor convenience; it added to the already existing oppression by corrupt Jewish leaders.

But Jesus was shrewd enough to realize where the heart of the problems for the Jewish masses.  In Jerusalem.  At the Temple.

Politicians and others who benefit from a system of oppression will often focus on an outside system of oppression as the great social evil to fight against.  Unless Christians are biblically wise, they, too, can be mislead and manipulated and end up battling against the lesser of two social evils.  Beware of anti _________ campaigns which focus on "them" as the bad guys and "us" as the good guys as a cover for a greater social evil in our midst.

For example, Jesus identified Jewish economic oppression and religious ethnocentrism, not Roman oppression as the greater social evil.  Many in the U.S. regard Russia or China or terrorism as our greatest evil when internal wealth inequality or on going ethnocentrism or mass incarceration are likely greater evils.