Phat writes:
Does anyone think that Jesus would be any nicer to these non prophets?
Does anyone have a problem with making a buck in church to cover expenses?
I am going to guess that there will be various takes on these two gospels.
Is it the buying and selling that made Jesus mad in itself, or that the whole thing was a secular mess?
Taking it literally, Jesus was mad because the church/temple is a place of worship. It is unpopular today to make churches all hush-hush and unwelcoming, but from a Catholic perspective I think Jesus could be very mad at buying and selling or any other disrespectful displays being done today. In Catholic churches there is the tabernacle of course, and usually a consecrated host signifying that Jesus is really present in the church. You are expected to behave in the manner you would if Jesus was in the room in person.
Of course, you can always take the Body of Jesus out of there if you need to do something in the church, but I have never understood the big necessity of holding choir performances, baptism classes, sales and fundraisers right in the middle of the churches when there are usually 3 or 4 defunct convents and schools nearby, not to mention parish offices and social centers, school gyms, etc. All you get is a bunch of people milling around in a bad mood and totally fogetting about all the fake rituals they do when they come to church on the weekends.
I don't imagine it to be the type of thing you would get condemned to hell over
but in life you need some things to be treated just a little bit more seriously or it gets very hard to say 'enough is enough' and to keep the sense of the sacred in a place where everyone in the neighborhood has climbed all over the altar.
It's not about God wanting us to be miserable and afraid to be human in church, but since we bother believing in this God, I think it makes sense to act like we do. You stop acting the part, you stop believing. Personally, I don't hesitae when it comes to throwing out the Avon magazines in the ladies' rooms.