Monday All three men are in the city – Caiaphas, Pilate, Jesus. Jesus goes to the temple. It was a great, sprawling compound that was the political heart of the city and the most sacred place in the Jewish world. It was bustling with people. They were getting ready for Passover. They were purchasing lambs. They were on holiday. They were excited. They were tense, too. Passover was a liberation feast. They got out from Egypt in the old days through a ‘passover’: when would they get out from Rome through another one? Almost anything could cause a stampede, and it would be dangerous. A Passover riot in Jerusalem thirty years earlier had left 3,000 Jews slaughtered by the Romans. It was zero toleration time for any disturbance of the peace. The Roman soldiers, and the temple police controlled by Caiaphas, are on guard.  Jesus moves in and out of the temple precincts – with some of his following. His claims were that ruling priests were insensitive to the needs of the poor and were getting money out of them unjustly in the name of religion. They were living like aristocrats on those benefits. Jesus is not on the side of the elite. He is seen to be on the side of those who were oppressed by the elite.Jesus was in the outer court of the temple. The stalls were bustling with merchants. They were changing the pilgrims’ money into the required temple coins. They were selling pigeons and lambs for Passover. Jesus stormed into the area, overturned the tables, and cast the vendors out. It was an act of protest. It was a symbolic gesture (something like pouring blood on draft cards). It would not change much publicly. But it would make a religious statement: that this is not justice as God practises it. . . . |
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