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?
No comments:
Post a Comment