Action Hero Jesus

I'm giving a shout out to you, fellow God-chasers! I'm glad you're back to participate with the rest of us in another conversation with God. We're tuning into what he wants to communicate to us in the Gospel of John 2:12-25. Please join me in the text and catch this shocking scene from Jesus' ministry.

Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, "Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a shopping mall!" (v. 15-16)

We see a different Jesus here in this story—one we’re not as comfortable with. I mean, wow! This sounds more like a scene from a Schwarzenegger flick. Action-hero Jesus! We like the gentle and compassionate Jesus, the non-threatening Jesus who quietly saves a wedding feast from disaster (see yesterday's blog). The Jesus we meet here in the temple is a bit of an enigma. There’s something fierce in him. Something dangerous. Something a bit wild.

What I hear God saying to me here is that no one loves like Jesus loves, no one serves and cares and understands like Jesus does, yet his heart won’t be tamed. God can’t be domesticated. He isn't boxed into our ideas of civility. Jesus isn’t just the gentle, surrendered Lamb of God. He’s also the powerful Lion of Judah. Like C.S. Lewis put it in The Chronicles of Narnia, “He isn’t safe; but he is good.”

I don't know about you, but I’m glad of that. Because there’s a time when I need him to fight for me. There's a time when I need him to fight for my loved ones. I need his fierceness then. I don’t want a soft Jesus when he’s up against ruthless forces of evil that are assaulting my life or my wife or my kids. It's not the gentle Jesus that I need when all that’s good and right is being threatened, when justice and freedom are being trampled on by the corrupt and powerful. I need his lion heart then. And it’s there for me...for you…for us.

If Jesus is going to be compelling enough to get me to lay down my idols, to stake all of my claim for life in him, to toss aside all my crutches, he’s going to have to be someone I’m willing to fight and die for. Someone that inspires me not only with his integrity and compassion, but his strength. And that’s the Jesus that shows up here on the big screen of John’s Gospel.

Jesus, you amaze me! I feel in awe in your presence. It's such an honor to follow a leader as wise and loving and as fiercely strong as you. Please fight for us, Lord! Fight for your people. You have shown yourself mighty and strong in this world where darkness is so rampant as you accepted the path to the cross. I can't wait to see how you follow it up when you return as the Conquering King! Just know that my loyalty belongs to you. Amen.

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