Tuesday of Holy Week 2015 - Debates in the Temple

Bible Passage: Mark 12:13-17

It was infuriating! Every time we thought we had him, he'd slip through the net and leave us empty-handed and foolish. How could he do this to us?

We'd all had a go, but they way he spoke was something else. After a while, you couldn't help having a grudging admiration for the man - even though he's dangerous.

When he arrived in Jerusalem we knew what he was up to. You can't expect Religious Scholars to miss it; that entry, riding on a colt? It was a message, a statement of intent - he was coming to take over, to rule. And much as we Pharisees dislike Herod, we can't allow this Jesus to rule in his place; for we dare not offend the Romans, and Herod's their man. They could destroy our whole way of life- what would become of our learning and our traditions? How could people worship God without the Temple? And then, the way he acted - disrupting the traders! What they provide is a very necessary service, allowing people to keep to the Law; so what if a few of those non-Jews couldn't hear? Aren't God's chosen more important? Isn't following the Law more important?

And where did he learn this anyway? None of us knew who he had studied with. So how could he be even suitable to be a Rabbi? Where had he learned our traditions? For we are the keepers of what is right - the Law and the traditions that make us God's chosen. Not like him.

But that also offered us a way in. Debate and disputation - that's our way. And you can't deny, we're pretty good at it; skills honed through years of debate, looking at the traditions handed down, interpreting them. Maybe he had some learning - but he'd surely never pitted his wits against skilled disputants such as we had.

We started with the simplest question of all - but also the one that he couldn't avoid answering: "Where does your authority come from?" Either he'd have to admit that it was some obscure teacher, or even - horror of horrors - that he was self-taught, or he'd have to claim that it was from God - and we'd have him. There's words for the sort of person that claims authority from God - and I don't mean "Prophet".... He showed that he knew something though - because he answered our question with one of his own. It's the sort of thing we do, when we're engaged in disputation - you use the question you ask to give the answer to the original one, because the answer to your question gives the answer to theirs. But what he asked us! John, that wild man, who'd raged at us when we went out to see what he was doing - was he from God? Of course we were never going to say so. But if we didn't - well, there were plenty around who did think he was from God, and we could make ourselves unpopular very quickly. And that was the clever bit, you see; we couldn't answer, but we all knew what he was saying - that he was from the same place as John, claiming the same sort of authority. And then he told one of those stories, saying through it that we - WE, were setting ourselves against God's chosen! But that's what we are, how can we be against God when we're the ones who know the traditions, know the Law?

We were going to have to try something different, undermine him in the eyes of the crowd.

It was one of the Herodians that had the idea. Now, we don't really get on with them; Herod is a puppet for the Romans, and we'd much rather they weren't here. But needs must - and it looked like a cracker. After all, who likes paying their taxes? Especially to our hated Roman overlords? We all do, of course. The alternative is to be accused of being a revolutionary, a zealot, and that's a sure way to get the Romans interested in you - at least, for as long a time as it takes them to get rid of you. But it wouldn't go down well with the crowd.

And so we asked him. If he was so hot on what God wanted, then he knew the answer; how could God want these outsiders to be in charge? Hadn't he just ridden into the city, like a King about to take the throne?

And he slipped out of it. Worse, he made us look stupid. He asked for the coin to pay the tax with; a Silver Denarius. "Whose name, whose Picture?" Well, the Emperor's of course. "So give him what's his, and give to God what it God's" he said. Effectively, he agreed with us - keep the Romans happy - but he did it in such a way that it made him sound like the one who knew God's ways, rather than us with all our scholarship and learning.

That's why he's got to go. He's dangerous - you really get the feeling he could lead a revolution, and we can't have that - the Romans would destroy us. What would happen to our way of life then? What would happen to the Temple? He can't be allowed to put that at risk. He's avoided our traps, but there has to be a way. They can't all believe him, those followers - all we have to do is find the one whose prepared to break ranks.

Monday of Holy Week 2015 - The clearing of the Temple

Bible Passage: Mark 11:15-19

The temple was busy that day. It often was, in the lead-up to Passover; people had to pay their temple tax, and the sacrifices had to be made. That always made it worse for me, because I was in the thick of it - doing my best to worship God.

Yes, me. I know I'm not a Jew, and in a lot of ways that was the problem; but having lived there, and seen the way they lived their lives, I'd come to admire them and their way of life - and so I became a convert - what they call a Gentile. Though there were times when I wondered why; I was always second class as far as most Jews were concerned, treated with some suspicion, and then of course there were the restrictions when it came to the Temple.

You've never been? Well, like me, you won't be able to visit much of it. Only the priests are allowed in the central part, the Holy of Holies, and even then only on special days; there's more parts where the Priests are, then, a bit further out is where the men of Israel are allowed. Then there's the Court of Women. Finally, there's the Court of the Gentiles, where people like me are allowed to gather; and woe betide if you try and go further in - they're allowed to put you to death.

So no further than that did I dare to go. Normally it wasn't too bad, but with Passover so close it was a real problem - because the Court of the Gentiles was also where the traders and moneychangers were allowed to set up. It wasn't straightforward you see - the Temple Tax had to be paid in the right money, and normal Roman currency wouldn't do - you had to go and buy the special coin from them. And Animals for the Sacrifices had to be without blemish - for those in the cities especially, it was a lot easier to just buy the animal there, knowing that it would be acceptable and that you would be fulfilling the law and not offering less than the best to God.

Can you imagine how difficult it is to worship, when around you is a market with live animals in it? Forget hearing the priests, far away in their own courts; you could hardly hear yourself speak as you attempted to recite the prayers.

Suddenly, there was even more commotion than usual. There was a man there, anger in his eye, and he was shouting, raging, turning over tables, driving them out, and stopping the people who just used the court of the gentiles as a shortcut. "This is a house of prayer for all the nations" he was shouting, "Not a Den of Robbers!" I was amazed, and then delighted - because this was a Jew, someone who could have just strolled through the gate, and what he was saying, to my ears, was that he wanted people like me to be able to worship God as much as anyone else! And then it struck me - this must be this Rabbi they had been talking about, the one who had apparently arrived yesterday with a big crowd behind him. I could see why they'd follow him - what he was saying held me captivated, and not only because he seemed to be saying that I, and people like me, were important to God too; there was that something there, whether force of personality or something deeper than that, that just made you want to find out more about him.

Afterwards, they came back of course - the moneychangers, the men selling their birds in baskets ready for the sacrifice. They seemed more subdued somehow, as if they knew that this wasn't going to be the end of the matter - in fact, one or two of them actually moved further out, towards Solomon's Porch, rather than come back into the Court of the Gentiles. What was strange though was that even though there was an awful lot of muttering about what had happened, he was allowed to walk free - it was like they didn't dare lay their hands on him. A few would have liked to I'm sure - some of the Chief Priests looked pretty angry, and unlike this man - whose anger seemed a sort of holy thing - theirs seemed much more ominous. They didn't dare do anything to him, because there was a big crowd around and it was obvious that there were plenty that thought that what he was saying was worth listening to. This Rabbi, Jesus his name was, had better watch out though - you can tell that the Temple Authorities don't like him one little bit, and they'll be out to get him. Me though - I want to find out more about him. I wonder what he'll do next?

Palm Sunday 2015

(Scripture: Mark 11:1-11)

I don't know why I was there, really. I just got caught up in it. It was pretty amazing though.

I'd been to Bethphage, and was walking back towards the city when I saw them. Most of them weren't anything to look at, but there was one of them who had something about him; I don't know if it was the way he stood, or something in his face, but there was that sort of intensity to him - do you know what I mean? Anyway, a couple of them came up to them, leading a colt. It was a bit skittish, nervous; you could tell it had never been ridden before. Maybe they'd just bought it, but I don't know why - none of them looked like they'd much experience of animals. Then they put some of their cloaks on it, and the man sat on the colt; immediately it seemed to settle down, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for this man to sit on it. And then the shouts starting going up: "Hosanna! Save us!"

Suddenly it was like I was in the middle of a procession. There were quite a few people there, and they started putting cloaks down in front of the colt, and cutting branches in the fields to put on the road, and all the while were all of the shouts: "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" I just got swept along. You couldn't help joining in - it was so joyful, so special. And then I realised something else: what this man was doing, he was saying that he was royalty! There he was, riding on something no-one else had ever ridden - well, that's a royal prerogative; there he was, being acclaimed by the crowd - some of them were even shouting something about restoring the Kingdom of David. And there he was, riding up to the gate of Jerusalem, a King come to take his throne.

Afterwards I got speaking to one of the crowd that'd come with him - a guy named Bartimaeus. He said he'd been with them since Jericho, and he had this amazing story - he was pretty much in rags, and said he had been blind and a beggar when this man, Jesus had passed by and healed him - and he was going to keep following him wherever he went. I have to say I was shocked; you don't get many miracles like that, and I'm not certain I believed him. But there must be something about Jesus, if people are prepared to follow him like that.

But now, it's almost like the whole thing was a dream. I suppose I'll hear more about him soon enough - you cant make an entrance like that and just fade into the background.....

Hello World!

If you're wondering what this is all about..... this blog isn't going to be about what's going on in my life, it's going to be reflections and meditations. One of the things I'm quite good at is words; and so I'm going to share some of the meditations and so on that I write here. The current idea is to go through Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday, and then see how things go!

Rob