Ex. 20:1-17;
1 Cor. 1:18, 22-25; Jn. 2:13-25
George Wythe was an American lawyer, a judge, a
prominent law professor and "Virginia's foremost classical scholar."
Wythe was a planter and slave holder. He became an abolitionist after the
Revolutionary War. After his second wife's death, he divested himself of most
of his
slaves. He freed his housemaid Lydia Broadnax, as well as Benjamin, a house servant, and other slaves. He also provided them with support for their transitions to freedom.
slaves. He freed his housemaid Lydia Broadnax, as well as Benjamin, a house servant, and other slaves. He also provided them with support for their transitions to freedom.
In 1776, George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and Edmund
Pendleton began the task of reworking and updating the laws of the state of
Virginia. The task took most of their time for three years. It was really an
extraordinary piece of work. However, they took for granted the law preventing
the blacks from testifying at trials against
whites.
In 1806, Wythe was poisoned by his
grandnephew, George Wythe Sweeney. The only person who saw Sweeney commit this
act was Lydia Broadnax, Wythe's devoted housekeeper. As Negroes were forbidden
under Virginia law to testify in court against whites, she could not testify at
the trial; and Sweeney was acquitted of murder.
If George Wythe had recognized the rights of African-Americans, his killer
would not have gone free.
It reminds us that there are
times we take for granted injustice, and never bother to raise our voice
against it, even when we have the power to do it.
In today's Gospel we see Jesus
exercising his power to abolish some evil practices that existed around the
temple of Jerusalem.
The Passover was the greatest
feast of the Jews. The law laid it that every adult male Jew who lived within
fifteen miles of Jerusalem was bound to attend it. By this time Jews were
scattered all over the world and it was the dream of every Jew to celebrate at
least one Passover in Jerusalem.
There was a tax that every Jew
over nineteen years of age must pay to the temple. As pilgrims arrived from all
over the world with all kinds of coins money changers sat in the Temple courts.
The temple consisted of a
series of courts leading into the Temple proper. The first one was the Court of
Gentiles, then the Court of women, then the Court of the Israelites, then the
Court of the Priests. The Court of the Gentiles was reserved for the Gentiles
to pray. But all the buying and selling took place in this Court. The Temple
authorities and the Jewish Traders were making the Court into uproar and a
rabble where no one could pray.
There are two reasons why Jesus acted
as he did. First of all, Jesus found that God's house was being desecrated. In
the temple there was worship without reverence. Worship without reverence can
be a terrible thing. Of the many problems that plague the church, a lack
of reverence in worship is a particularly irritating one to those who desire to
worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). In
worship that reverence is to be directed towards God. Acting in an irreverent
manner puts these people in the same dilemma in which Ananias and Sapphira
found themselves (Acts 5:1-11). Even though they thought they were only lying
to men, the apostle Peter told them that, in reality, they were lying to God.
When people act up in or disrupt worship today, they are not just being
disrespectful to those people around them, they are being disrespectful to God,
an act just as evil as that of Ananias and Sapphira.
From the very beginning every civilization has
considered the dwelling place of God holy, and any disrespect
was meted out with divine punishment. Ovid - Tells the story of Medusa from Greek mythology. Medusa was one of
the Gorgon sisters. She wasn't always hideous, but had once been so beautiful.
Once she desecrated temple of Athena. Athena was furious that her temple had
been desecrated. She punished Medusa by turning her hair into snakes and making
her so horrible men were turned to stone by just looking at her.
Today it is quite common to
use the churches for anything and everything. We forget the fact that it is the
House of Prayer. Secondly, giving concentration to external perfection of the
ceremonies causes a lot of distraction. A non-believer may see our services as
occasions to showcase the technical perfection and talents. The action of Jesus
in the temple, reminds us that it is high time we reacted against
such tendencies. Our primary responsibility is to abstain from anything
that goes against the holiness of the Place of God. Then we have the moral
obligation to point out the mistakes, if anyone else happens to commit.
Satish