Thursday 16 August 2012

Jesus gets angry

Christ gets upset to the point of anger just once in the Bible, and that's when he sees money trading going on inside the sacred precincts of the Temple. The story goes that he took up a whip and beat the money-changers from the site.
This is such an unusual action for a figure who acts so compassionately and forgivingly that Christian commentators often have a hard time explaining it.

It's such a problem indeed that one rarely sees the scene depicted in churches; and I was quite taken aback to see it done in stained-glass at St Mary's Stafford.
It seems to even be a surprise to the character in the adjoining window - who appears to be turning his head toward what is happening, as though he can't believe it...!

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