Sermon: Action Figure Jesus

Sermon: Action Figure Jesus
Southside Christian Church, Jacksonville, Florida
March 3, 2023
Scripture: John 2:13-22

Let me tell you about my childhood action figures. One of my earliest faint memories is of taking my Superman action figure to childcare for show and tell. He had no arms, so not quite as Super. Another memory from a little later – my Captain America action figure, which was chewed up by our dog Pepper. Apologies to our dear dog friends here today – I am still sorting out my feelings about dogs all these years later. Then there were the crown jewels – the Star Wars action figures my cousins passed on to me. Yoda, Boba Fett, a cast of motley characters. And all of these got tossed into my “Box of Guys”. When I was in fourth grade, the longest lasting friendship of my life with my friend Scott began when, after being introduced to him, I promptly asked, “Do you want to play with guys?” 

Now, what makes an action figure? Of course, G.I. Joe is sort of the original model, and what’s important is that they are not statues. They aren’t frozen in place. They have joints and can move and assume many postures. Some, like the Batman 1989 action figures I procured as a 6 year old fan of The Dark Knight, even had springs so they literally take action themselves. A kick or a backflip – or perhaps like our scripture reading today – flipping tables. 

In our Gospel today, Jesus enters Jerusalem on Passover. It is a story which the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke place at the end of Jesus’ life, an exclamation point, or an acceleration which leads the authorities, the Roman Empire and their collaborators among the religious leaders, to arrest and crucify Jesus. Jesus was threatening the unjust peace that was the best Jews could hope for from the occupying Roman Empire, and he was threatening the religious power system of his own leaders, who would have preferred business as usual. 

In the Gospel of John, we find this similar story, with a similar theme, at the start of Jesus’ ministry, as a sort of thesis statement. Jesus also enters at Passover or Pesach as it is known in Hebrew, a spring holiday, 7 or 8 days long, remembering the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt, and involving sacrifice. What Jesus found in the trade of cattle, sheep, and doves, would have been quite normal. In fact, if he had come to Jerusalem before for Passover, which is quite likely given that pilgrimage to Jerusalem for these holy days was, he would have seen and been familiar with the money changers and animal market. Why is it now, after 30 years of life, that Jesus takes this action? Why does he become an action figure in this moment? 

Action figure Jesus caused quite a stir that day, as he still does among us. The Jesus we have become accustomed to, especially in the fairly comfortable churches in the United States, where we have freedom of religion and Christians dominate the landscape, is a statuesque Jesus. A Jesus painted in happy scenes, gentle and loving, holding children, shepherding sheep, laughing, the Jesus of love. Or painted in heavenly scenes, ethereal, stoic and soulful, surrounded by light, arms raised, eyes to heaven, angels hovering. There was a painting like this in the prayer chapel in the church where I was first a youth pastor, a Warner Sallman, no less, who was the most popular illustrator of Jesus for American Christians in the middle of the 20th century. Sallman painted this Jesus, with loving attention to facial expression if not to historical facts – his Jesus looks far more like a Scandinavian than a Middle Eastern Jew – a Jesus still and non-threatening. There is truth to this Jesus, of course – Jesus did hold the children in his arms and offer his gentle touch of healing love to many who were sick. 

Another version of this statuesque Jesus, perhaps the most famous, darker and more tragic, is Christ on the cross. We protestants tend to take Jesus off the cross in our sanctuaries, while you are more likely to find Jesus still on the cross in a Catholic church. There is nothing passive about Jesus, or any who bear the wounds of suffering. Any who suffer illness and chronic pain can tell you – though they may look still, the effort can be constant. Yet, it is also too easy to romanticize suffering, to see it in still life, to imagine it as one isolated moment, to not see what comes before or after. It is too easy to romanticize Jesus’ ministry as gentle love and relatively passive suffering. But there is another Jesus too. 

Action Figure Jesus is one way to put it. Look at what he does in our reading today. He makes a whip. Starting right off with a weapon. Then he drives the people’s sheep and cattle out of the temple, which means he is cracking that whip. And surely not just the animals but the people too are being driven, and would understandably feel threatened by this violent man. Then he grabs bags of money from the tables and pours them out, and does not stop there but physically flips the tables.

Jesus has range – gentle, intellectual, and yes, angry too. He is consistent – his anger rises at times throughout his ministry. He becomes confrontational and is not afraid to act on it. And while in this passage we get a theological connection to Jesus’s coming sacrifice and resurrection, this clearing the temple as a sign that Jesus would become in the Christian imagination the only sacrifice needed, there is also the unmistakable human element of anger at exploitation and empty ritual which we see in the other stories of Jesus flipping tables, and in the Hebrew prophets who inspired him. 

In fact, the book of Isaiah, often called the 5th gospel it is referenced so often in the New Testament, begins with this angry screed, from the lips of the prophet, but the mind of God:

¹¹ What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
  says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
  and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
  or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² When you come to appear before me,
  who asked this from your hand?
  Trample my courts no more;
¹³ bringing offerings is futile;
  incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
  I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed festivals
  my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
  I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you stretch out your hands,
  I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
  I will not listen;
  your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
  remove the evil of your doings
  from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
¹⁷   learn to do good;
seek justice,
  rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
  plead for the widow.

These last words are actually Jesus’s thesis statement for his ministry in the Gospel of Luke. And the words before it – dripping with scorn and sarcasm and confrontation. Let’s take a breath, because that is heavy. Being confronted by anger, whether we agree with it or see value in it, can take a lot out of us. It can trigger fear and other intense emotions in us. We can become flooded, and I think, sometimes this is why we deny the value of anger and confrontational action. Why can’t we focus on the positive? Why do we have to mention oppression? 

Now, it is true, of course, that some anger is harmful, to us and others. Sometimes our anger springs from our own unprocessed frustrations and disappointments. Anger can certainly spiral and curdle, and is not a healthy stasis for us to live constantly in.

So how do we know? When is anger out of control? Well, a good pastor, pastoral counselor, therapist, or just an insightful friend or family member may help us sort out the types of anger which hound and haunt us from the inside. 

And while I would not necessarily suggest literally flipping tables, it is crucial for us to understand that sometimes anger is completely justified, and is a response to harm which is being caused to us or others. And it actually does more harm to hold this anger in – either to our own psyche, but by the injustice of allowing harm to continue. This, I think, is what Jesus is up to in our Gospel reading today.

There is a time to harness this just anger and confrontational action, yes, as Christians, as followers of Christ, as those who regard the Hebrew prophets as holy scripture. 

But maybe there is a gentler way to become more comfortable with anger and confrontation. One of my most dear teachers and Christian examples, whom I have quoted here before, is Fred Rogers, famously of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, the old public television show. Fred was a seminary trained Presbyterian minister who was actually ordained to his career of making children’s television. He spent his career helping kids feel loved and secure and capable – and able to sort out their many mixed emotions without shame. They are lessons that we adults too still need to learn. And here is what he had to say about anger:

“The values we care about deepest, and the movements within society that support those values, command our love. When those things that we care about so deeply become endangered, we become enraged. And what a healthy thing that is! Without it, we would never stand up and speak out for what we believe.”

So let’s connect the dots. Mr. Rogers points toward the anger which arises when we see the world is not right. This can bring us back to the last words of the Isaiah passage I read to you, which Jesus quoted in his first sermon in the Gospel of Luke. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Jesus, like the prophet Isaiah, seemed angry about rituals when they happened while allowing for injustice. So he critiqued his own tradition, his own nation, his own people, as he did when he went into the temple on Passover in John Chapter 2.

And we might led to similarly look within: what about our own tradition, nation, city, people, ourselves even? Are we participating in injustice?

The connection between anger, action, and our deepest values are crucial. This might play out in how others are treated or in how we ourselves are treated. We should probably be cautious about imitating Jesus’ anger, but we must also follow our Lord – even if it means occasionally embracing just anger and becoming an action figure too.

I’ll end on a practical note – how could we actually apply all of this? Well, one way some local congregations do it is through an organization known as ICARE, the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation, and Empowerment. This is a group of churches who have felt some anger about injustice in our city. They know people in their own neighborhoods who have been victims. And so they have decided to speak out. What is wonderful is that they do not stay in their anger. They are not simply statues. They are action figures. They go out and have meetings in their communities to learn about people’s concerns, which recently have included violence, flooding, and health. Then they do research to learn about the bigger picture of the problem and ways it has successfully been addressed in other cities. Then they have meetings with local stakeholders and leaders, like the Mayor, Sheriff, and Superintendent. Finally, they gather hundreds of people from their congregations together on one day each year for the Nehemiah Assembly, where they make proposals to city leaders and ask for their commitment.

And this is where things can get a little uncomfortable. ICARE uses its people power to tell city leaders, this is what people need and this is what we think will work. Will you commit city resources to it? And sometimes the city leaders agree. And sometimes they do not. And that can feel like a confrontation. I know it makes some people uncomfortable.

But here’s what I think. I think faithful followers of Jesus, and their Interfaith allies, have taken just anger and turned it into a thoughtful and powerful confrontation, on behalf of humanity. These are the kind of action figures, following in Jesus’ footsteps, who can change the world.

You are doing that as action figures as well. I heard today of how you support local schools and teachers. So sometimes, we may need to lead with just anger, and sometimes not. But I’m grateful for all the ways you are being action figures like Jesus.