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Beethoven
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Then
they came to Jerusalem. And [Jesus] entered the temple and began to
drive out 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 would not permit anyone to carry
merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to
them, “Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF
PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’
DEN.” (Mark 11:15-17 NIV).
Christians
can sometimes rather flippantly say that we are to “hate the sin,
but love the sinner.” Thus we find ourselves with remarkable ease
applauding the assassination of Osama bin Laden—facilely obscuring
the identities of sin and sinner. At these times we must consider
that if God hates with a human hate, he had a strange way of showing
it—by sending his son into the world to be the crucified redeemer of
mankind.
Let
us consider an important event during Jesus’s ministry—when he
drove the money changers out of the temple—when he obviously was
beside himself with anger and even used a whip in his anger (John
2:15). If we had a snapshot of this scene and a close-up of the
visage of Jesus when so righteously indignant, would we not see the
very picture of hatred on his face?
Perhaps
I make a distinction without a difference; but I see, in this
instance of Jesus at the temple, a perfectionist who has encountered
something absolutely unacceptable. In my view this is significantly
different from an unleashed emotion of hatred.
Once
in a while I will try my hand at poetry. It is almost crazy the
extent to which I disallow what I see as imperfection in sound or
sense. Thus for a brief moment on a small scale I share the
notoriously tempestuous spirit of a great artist at the moment of
precision's induction.
Having
said this—that Jesus was a perfectionist—it is essential to point
out that Jesus was not a prude. He easily ate with tax collectors
and sinners and had disciples who were relaxed about washing their
hands before eating. Jesus was an artist of the spirit—of the
heart—and hurtful attitudes in this realm greatly troubled him.
I
have difficulty forming a visual of Jesus assassinating Osama bin
Laden. On the other hand, I’m certain he raged about heaven on
9/11 at the sometimes unlimited cruelly of man and his ability to
despoil the perfection of God's spirit.
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