April 11, 2022 ( Monday of Holy Week ) Good afternoon,
” Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of the loan sharks and the stalls of the dove merchants… “Matthew 21:12-14 ( from The Message.)On the day of the Parade into Jerusalem, Jesus goes to centers of power and kicks up a ruckus. Jesus did not intend to start a new faith, but the temple system was broken, and he was angry. According to Matthew, Jesus had never been in Jerusalem, and as soon as he got there with his disciples, he did something spectacular .
The Temple was a religious tax system. If you were Jewish, you had to pay the temple tax. There were civic taxes as well. To be on good terms with the leaders, you had to pay. The people who were buying and selling stuff in front of the temple would give part of their income to the Temple. One story of the dove sellers, if true, speaks of the corruption of the whole system. The doves were in cages. As one of the faithful coming to Jerusalem for the holy festival of Passover, you would buy one dove, and let it go free as a sacrifice. But, the doves were trained to fly up and away, and then fly back to the sellers. The doves would be re-sold, to another one of the faithful.
As Jesus moves through the week, I invite you to think why he was killed on a cross. The Empire, including Pilate, saw him as a threat to their power. The religious authorities knew he was pointing to their power and corruption. He called himself the “Son of God”, heresy. Sometimes, we think Jesus was always destined to be the Saviour. But, he was killed for specific and human reasons. And Jesus was human as well. The cross was not straightforward, but it was a brutal torture of Jesus. He was killed for political and religious reasons. What do you think ? PRAYER God, It is Monday of the long week, to your son’s death Call us to remember. Call us to tears. Call us to a renewed salvation. Call us to be faithful. AMEN.
Fred Chaos in the winds Scattering my troubled thoughts to land on soft clouds Monica Pieper Landoni 2022 a
