Lent Journey: Week 3

John 2:13-22

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Story 

 

In 2013 Six activists, including two priests, are to stand trial for damaging a fence during a protest about reaper drones at an RAF base used to operate unmanned drone aircraft. In January Father Martin Newell and the Rev Sue Parfitt climbed onto the roof of a rush hour train to protest the damage being done to our climate. Protesting how the church has failed LGBTQ+ people, 125 priests, religion teachers, theologians and other church employees simultaneously came out. A week after Russia invaded Ukraine, beginning a war, Fr Fergal MacDonagh threw paint at the Russian Embassy in Dublin after hearing that they had bombed a maternity hospital in Ukraine

Questions 

2. Do you agree or disagree with the sentiments of the picture this week? Is anger ever ok? 
3. What is the angriest you have ever been? 
4. What does authority mean to you? Where does it come from?
5. Do you ever wish that Church leaders would act the same way Jesus did? 
6. Was Jesus turning over the tables because he was angry or was he trying to make others angry? 
7. The sacrificial system was being challenged by what Jesus did. People were only allowed to sacrifice animals deemed fit for sacrifice and market traders made money selling the “authorised” animals. Also, you couldn't use Roman money in the temple, so you had to change your money at a poor exchange rate for temple money. What is there about the way the world works that you'd like to “Overturn and drive out”? 
8. How does the story link in with the Bible reading? 
9. Which affects you more the reading, the story, or the image?