Last week, we had the temptation in the desert, the quintessential Lenten text. This time, we get Angry Jesus. I have a soft spot for Angry Jesus. What Jesus is angry about is the stuff we already know, but rarely give attention to. It falls into two parts: the hypocrisy of leaders and their support of empire.

In this passage, it isn’t the usual whipping boys, the Pharisees  that receive the tongue-lashing–but Jerusalem–the city itself. I think this mostly has to do with the Temple leadership and the King (Herod) being in bed with empire (Rome) and meeting the needs of self-preservation rather than supporting the mission of GOD and bringing the Kingdom closer.

Mixed in this is Jesus’s own walk to Jerusalem, His own conviction and crucifixion as a terrorist, His own mixed relationship with the city of David. The city that would embrace Him as Messiah and reject Him as heretic in a matter of days. The city that knows better and does worse.

But it need not be so.

Eating Scripture is a short video series in which we explore the juicy and the crunchy in this week’s gospel in four minutes or fewer.