On Justifying Violence with Jesus’ Whip – Fr. Kenneth Tanner
This weekend a lot of Christians around the world will hear in worship the story of Jesus and the cleansing of the Temple.
People these days like to reference the whip of cords that Jesus made to drive out the animals. It comes up in a lot of online debates and discussions.
Jesus fashions the whip from what the original Greek identifies as basket-weaving materials, from reeds. It’s not the sort of whip that led to the deep stripes Jesus or Paul bore.
I wonder how many sermons this weekend will excuse all sorts of human anger and violence in the name of this unusual scene?
James tells us that human anger does not produce the righteousness God seeks. The apostle does not qualify his wisdom. He does not give us caveats where human anger works. Yet this particular human driving animals out of the Temple is God enfleshed. Jesus is the human God and that matters for how we understand and how we use this moment.
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