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.