Now they are merely Romans with prayer shawls. Now they can no longer pretend to be pious. Jesus forces them to act like the ordinary thugs they are, using common weapons of intimidation and force. Now if we fully understand this passage, it becomes a very troubling text for us. The story in the text is the story of religious institutions throughout history.
Institutions become sclerotic and brittle.
They confuse their own power and privilege with the covenant and the Gospel they claim to serve. Sometimes religious leaders fall prey to power games and feuds, to ideologies and political allegiances. Religious institutions can even oppose God. The Reformers of the 16 th century faced a very similar situation to that of Jesus. The reformers later coined the phrase Ecclesia semper reformanda, the church always reforming.