Rev. Dr. W. Benjamin Boswell  |   Mark 11:1-25 “Jesus was not a reformer. You don’t get crucified for being a reformer. Jesus knew some systems and institutions cannot be reformed; they must be abolished. Slavery could not be reformed; it had to be abolished. The death penalty in Virginia could not be reformed, it had to be abolished. Some things simply cannot be reformed. Instead they must die so something new can grow in its place.” “Jesus gave the people the opportunity to live into God’s abundance where they were no longer enslaved to the scarcity of the Temple, where rich and poor share what they have in common so no one goes hungry, where sins and debts are forgiven in a beloved community. Jesus invited people to abolish Herod’s Temple to establish God’s dream, and they choose to abolish him instead.”