Reflection for Thursday 11 March 2021

Reading : John 2:13-22

“With a whip of cords, Jesus drove all of them out of the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the coins poured out over the floor”

This image of Jesus disturbs us.

Jesus who kneels to wash feet, eats with sinners, will soon suffer the humility of the crosswalk the road of humility towards the cross is, on this particular day, absolutely furious.

What’s set him off we ask? Why this violent uproar?

Surely these people were providing a service to those who were coming to make their sacrifices of animals and birds.

Coins needed to be exchanged into the correct currency so that the offerings could be made.

All this fair enough.........................but...................the problem was...................those who were providing this service, were taking unfair advantage of those who were coming to worship by adding exorbitant interest rates for exchanging the money.

This account of unfair interest rates is something we know only too well in these days.

We’ve all heard of loan sharks and companies like payday loans, who take advantage of people who find themselves in need of money. And we’ve seen in recent years the downfall of banks, who offer seemingly “good” deals to unsuspecting customers who are quickly penalised if they fail to make the repayments on time.

We can perhaps imagine how Jesus would deal with such wicked practices.

Let us pray,

Lord of all, no part of our lives is off limits for you. You require us to be faithful in little and in much, with our money, our time and our talents.

If there are practices in which we engage which make you angry, send your Spirit so that we will see where we fall short and change our ways.

Amen.