I wouldn’t say that I’m a super Christian, but I dabble.  I know some stuff.  I believe.  I’ve read The Book.  My favorite story in the Bible probably wouldn’t be the favorite of most people.  My favorite story is when Jesus goes totally ballistic.

Jesus has the unfortunate reputation of being kind of a wuss.  He is kind, loving, generous, pious, righteous, helpful, holy, wholesome.  He willingly walks to his death and carries a heavy cross on his back.  He doesn’t fight.  He obeys.  He doesn’t get angry.  Except for that one time when he loses His shit (metaphorically speaking) and it’s totally glorious.  It’s totally punk rock.

Mathew 21:12-14  And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”  And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

John 2: 13-16  The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making my Father’s house a place of business.”

The Jewish holy leaders allowed the merchants to invade the house of worship to make a profit in the name of God and Jesus wasn’t having it.  In fact, He turned that place upside down and ran out the merchants and livestock.  Then He got down to business and healed some folks because He is the Great Physician.

Is it no wonder that these verses resonate with me?  It reminds me of the current state of healthcare run by the profit hungry powers-that-be under the guise of making people healthier -of really caring about them.  They don’t.  They care about the money.  Doctors let it happen.  I let it happen.  I thought Obamacare would be like “turning the tables,” but it wasn’t.  It just got us in deeper.  In the moments when I contemplate the system that I find myself in, I ask almost jokingly-what would Jesus do?  I think I know what He’d do.  What better catalyst for change than righteous anger?  Sometimes you just gotta get mad, turn some tables, kick some ass (like a donkey), and clean house in order to make things right again.

photo credit:  Stephen J. Sullivan