Lent with Bossuet – Meditations on the Gospel (33)

The Character of Authority in the Triumph of Jesus Christ 

Jesus “entered into Jerusalem, into the temple: and…viewed all things round about” (Mk. 11:11).

As it was late, Jesus retired for the day, but He returned the next day. Then He drove out the buyers and the sellers. He overturned their desks, their tables, their chairs, their merchandise, and their money. Sparing no one whom He chased from the holy place.

He spoke therefore, and acted again in one strike, like the son of the house, having full authority, without any one opposing Him. At the same time, to demonstrate this authority, Jesus performed His usual cures: “And there came to Him the blind and the lame in the Temple; and He healed them” (Mt. 21:14).

So it was that this oracle of David was accomplished: “But I am appointed king by Him over Sion His holy mountain, preaching His commandment” (Ps.2:6). There was seen in His temple, “the Lord Whom you seek, and the angel of the testament,” which Malachias had predicted (Mal.3:1).

Even if Jesus had merely commanded it verbally, it would have been an act of authority, but He acts; He overthrows; He strikes. This in itself is an act of zeal, and St. John and all the disciples applied to this action this word of David: “The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up,” (Ps. 68:10).

Zeal is fervor of the love of God, too ardent to wait for the help of others, nor does it constrain itself to ordinary forms. Acting rather by itself and beyond its strength, with a kind of excess, through absolute confidence in the power of God. This zeal is what appeared in the Saviour’s action.