The subversive political religion of Jesus

Mark 11:1-21Big Ideas - Jesus subverts the expectations of everyone - In order to understand why, we have to look at the Old Testament - Everyone had nationalistic, violent, xenophobic ideas of what the Messiah would do - They expected the Messiah to violently expel the "pagans" from the Temple - Instead, Jesus symbolically casts out those excluding outsiders - The message is that Jesus cares about earthly things - He is fixing politics and all the injustice we see. But he is doing it in a way that is upside-down of what we expect. Questions - Have you been told that Jesus isn't political? - How about the idea that Jesus doesn't care about earthly things, just spiritual ones? - If Jesus cares about politics and "earthly" issues, what does that change for how we should act as Christians? - Based on Jesus' unexpected interaction, what's an injustice around you that you can address in a radical new way?