The importance of "and"

Last week, we had our first Lenten Scripture Circle for Midrash & Holy Week. We talked about Luke 19:41-48, in which Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and casts the money lenders out from the Temple Mount. All of us agreed that it was not a passage we had spent much time in. Sure, we had heard of them, but that’s not the same as studying them.

It was such a rich time of communal insight that expanded how each of us saw.

One theme that arose was how words like “and” and “but”- words we sometimes gloss over- were asking us to see more.

When someone pointed out that in 19:45, Jesus cast out both sellers and buyers, it completely shifted how we saw the event. It wasn’t just Jesus driving out the people who we being openly oppressive- it was Jesus casting out the entire unjust system, and everyone who was participating in it.

In verse 46 Jesus says,
“My house shall be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers.”

He was quoting from two different passages, Isiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Our conversation exploded. Especially when we dug into the context of each. Jesus was masterfully weaving deep prophetic concepts about blessing, inclusion, and justice into two sentences.

As one person reacted on their zoom window: 🔥.

The insight that affected me most deeply was when someone in the group noticed the final “and” in verse 47 “and he taught daily in the temple.” After driving out the unjust system, Jesus didn’t leave; he stayed and taught. He filled in the gap of what was left behind by talking about a new and different way. We wondered…

If we were one of the people driven out, would we have come back to hear Jesus teach? Would we have been open to the turning he was offering?

Am I willing to make people angry, by bolding facing the unjust systems of our religious institutions?
And, am I willing to stay after doing that, to talk about what I see to be true instead?

It was one of those studies that made me fall in love with this way of study all over again. It’s about the fresh perspective of the Gospels and it’s about the way those texts are rooted in the narratives that have come before. It’s about the prep we do as teachers and it’s about the wisdom the community brings in response to those questions. It’s about the beauty of the sacred text and it’s about the life experience we each bring to the room.

I can’t wait for the next one.

In wrestling and hope,

Steph

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As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Or if you want to talk to someone about Lent, life, faith deconstruction, or anything else. We want to be a safe space for the curious, the doubters, and the hope seekers to wrestle through biblical texts and- together - expand each other’s experience of what is sacred, whole, and good.

Stephanie Spencer