How the Tables Have Turned

How the Tables Have Turned – Through Lent we are considering what we can do to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.” The reading for this Sunday is the Markan account of Jesus entering the temple, observing the transactions going on as doves and other sacrificial beings are sold to people arriving to make sacrifices, and Jesus accusing those selling the sacrifices of misusing the Temple. Jesus, enraged, turns the tables of those sellers upside down. To this point in Mark, Jesus has performed countless acts of mercy as he has healed individuals. But this is an act of justice, an attempt to turn around a societal function that is unjustly preying on particular groups of people who are coming to the temple to make sacrifices but do not have the means to provide the sacrificial animals. In our own lives, acts of mercy, although called for, are often much easier to perform than are acts of justice. We are, however, called to act justly, and one way to do that is through group, rather than individual, action. We have many opportunities to do such work through our own church and congregation.