WWJL: Whom Would Jesus Loot?

One of the ubiquitous standard talking points justifying rioting and the burning, looting, and pillaging of our cities, is that it has the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus “rioted” in the temple by overturning the tables of the money-changers. This line of thought has even made its way to some radicals in the LCMS - even posting this popular BLM talking point in the form of openly posting public comments to this effect on the social media accounts of prominent LCMS members.

Is this a valid interpretation?

The cleansing of the temple appears in all four gospels. In the synoptics, it is placed toward the end of His earthly ministry, as our Lord approaches His passion; in John, it is found toward the beginning of His ministry.

Here are the accounts.

Matthew 21:12-13:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Mark 11:15-17:

And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And He was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

Luke 19:45-46:

And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

John 2:13-16:

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make My Father's house a house of trade.”

The synoptics report our Lord Jesus Christ quoting Isaiah 56:7: “[F]or My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” John uses a paraphrase while clearly referring to this same passage.

Those who see this as a justification to destroy the property of others are not paying attention to our Lord’s preferred pronoun in this case: “My.” Jesus is not destroying the property of others. Rather others are defiling the holy place that is not theirs. Jesus is attending to his own property, the house of “The Lord” (YHWH) per Isaiah 56:1). “Jesus is Lord” (YHWH) per St. Paul in Romans 10:9.

Everything belongs to the Lord, to Jesus.

In fact, his use of the possessive pronoun teaches the exact opposite of what BLM teaches, namely that property is to be destroyed if someone has a grievance, real or imaginary. BLM makes no bones about its Marxist orientation, and Marxism confesses a belief in the collectivization of property - as we have seen not only in its credal formulas, but also as it has played out in the real world everywhere that it has been implemented.

Nowhere does our Lord overturn the tables of the Law - including the seventh commandment: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15) which sanctifies private property as an ordinance of God. Property is sacred, and of course, it is necessary for life itself. It is part of God’s created order. Destroying others’ property is to raise one’s fist in contempt against the Lord Himself. And as we confess in the catechism:

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.

Is this what we are seeing as flames consume our cities, as glass is shattered, as mobs descend upon people and their homes, as innocent people are beaten in the streets, as Molotov cocktails are hurled at police, civilians, and towards buildings? Is this what our Lord’s message was when He used the word “My” to describe the temple that is rightfully His? Is Jesus a Socialist revolutionary who believes in the State (or the Mob) seizing all property? Can one imagine our Lord running out of a looted Nike store with arms full of boxes of stolen shoes?

To argue that our Lord sanctions riots is to teach Luciferianism: a perversion and inversion of the Truth revealed to us in Christ and by Holy Scripture. Any Christian that teaches that rioting is justified by the Scriptures or taught by our Lord Jesus Christ is a false teacher. Pastors who teach this should be defrocked. Laymen who teach this should be denied the sacrament at our altars until they repent of this diabolical lie.