It often saddens me that we seem to live in such an angry world today, I find myself being ticked off by other road users, when I have done nothing wrong, and it is I that should be complaining. I watch the BBC’s Question Time and find myself getting quite upset by the appalling behaviour of some people and the older I get, the more this seems to happen.
I can remember way back in the 1960’s visiting some friends in Ilkley and us learning that somebody had slammed into the back of my Dad’s car which was parked on the roadside. We all paraded outside to see the debris from the two vehicles and our red Reliant Regal was in the middle of the road with a Ford Escort embedded in the back of it. My mum was having a meltdown, but my Dad calmly said to the lady driver “how did you manage to do that?” which seemed to upset my mum even more.
My Dad was one of those blokes who simply took everything that life threw at him in his stride, which I know my Mum found irritating, she could never have been described as being volatile or even nasty, but she was altogether a more emotional kind of person while my Dad was so laid back that he was almost horizontal for most of the time. We were never threatened with the “wait until your father gets home” line from my Mum, because she knew all too well that my Dad’s response would be “well, boys will be boys” and that would be an end to it.
When I was younger, we used to sing the song “Gentle Jesus meek and mild” and it creates the image of this gentle caring man who healed the sick and blessed the little children, and even as our thoughts turn to the events of Holy Week, we see a Christ who appears to remain detached as he is tortured and nailed to the cross, while most would fight back, he appears resigned to accept whatever the worst of humankind does to him.
Is Jesus really meek and mild? We see a very different side to Jesus in the set Gospel reading for this Sunday (John 2: 13-22) he certainly doesn’t appear to be the gentle Jesus the song suggests. I find it interesting that the other Gospel writers put this story at the beginning of Holy Week, John puts it right at the beginning of the Gospel story.
- I wonder if it is alright to get angry when we see injustice and suffering?
- Can we call out the actions of others while still being true to God’s calling?