The Journey:  is Not from Men 8-25-2020

By Dean Foster

The Journey:  is Not from Men

            Jerusalem takes on a different personality as the city prepares for the Passover festival.  In truth it becomes a more exciting place for those of us who live here.  I remember how the joyous outdoor market, bazaar like atmosphere we were accustomed to was missing or strained that week though.  As the city and Temple made ready for the great mass of pilgrims that were already beginning to arrive, there was an anxious feeling in the air.  Word had spread among the people that the religious leaders and Temple authorities were determined to find, arrest and kill Jesus.  Everyone knew it was more than a rumor so wherever he went many gathered around him.  Not only to hear his words but to protect him. 

The chief priests and the Pharisees were looking for some way to kill him, yet they could not find a way to do it because the people hung on his words.  

Luke 19: 48 

Welcome to the Journey:

            Some of us go up to the Temple early in the week to see the many pilgrims as they arrive from lands far away.  We go to see that number of the faithful who have never seen the Temple before as well as some who have.  Many of them just stop to stand perfectly still for a time in the wide outer space called the Court of the Gentiles.  That large, open court that was once as sacred as any other part of the Temple and should still be a quiet place of prayer and preparation.  A place for Jew, Gentile or any of these Pilgrims to enter in, be still, pray, and prepare to meet with God. 

            Their gaze is taken up by the glory of the Temple before they even notice that little by little this outermost court has been given and taken over for secular use.  Taken over like that while men like me allowed it to happen.  They shade their eyes against the brilliant white polished limestone of the towering Temple.   We love to be there when they first look up in wonder at the magnificence of God’s dwelling place on earth.  Then watch their mouths drop open in that same expression of awe. 

            But then, after being held speechless for a time they look down at the energy and all that is happening in the open court around them.  The spiritual wonder slips away.  It is hard and I honestly try not to see their faces when they suddenly see that men are in control.  Or it seems that way.    

            Something spiritual slips away from the pilgrim's faces when they look down and see the Passover festival coming together in this outside court; too much is happening in this Holy place.  I feel that way too sometimes, but then I remember I am not a visitor to Jerusalem.  Every man in Jerusalem knows what to expect at Passover time.  We know how things get done.  How else could the city and the Temple even begin to deal with the throng of people that pour into and around the city from all over the world for Passover?  We know what is needed.  More of everything!  More food, more water, more sheep, more cattle, more time, and more space to keep it all close by. 

            We don’t need to know about the lucrative business deals Temple authorities have made with sellers and the money changers.  How else could it all work out.  The people in the city just want the celebration of God delivering His chosen people from slavery to go well for the pilgrims who have travelled from afar.  We want them to experience the Passover.  It is best if the Passover Celebration goes as smoothly as possible.  The way it did last year and the year before.  The city, the Temple and the Pilgrims will all be blessed that way. 

            And apart from the anxiety people were feeling about the trouble authorities had with Jesus, things were going well.  Aside from those following Jesus around to protect him, everything else seemed to be happening as usual that day.  The work was getting done.  The herds of cattle and sheep were settling into the rigged-up pens in the Gentiles courtyard.  It was beginning to look like Passover time.  The Sellers and Money Changers tables were set up and already doing some business.  Other stalls and tables were being set up.  The outside court felt more like a place to stop before entering the Temple courts, if that makes sense.     

            Hence, it is fair to say Jesus entered into more of a stockyard than a courtyard (and his group of disciples and followers around him).  I saw him from where we were sitting over near the tables.  You could tell he was disgusted by more than the foul odor of fresh manure.  First, he moved out in front of his group the way an angry parent would for a closer look at badly misbehaving children.   Then Jesus picked up a thick piece of rope from the ground and tied a knot in one end as he walked in long deliberate strides toward the penned-up animals.  The people were about to see this radical Rabbi from Nazareth vent his righteous anger over what men had done to the House of God.  All were astonished when he came to the shabby fences that held the animals back and used the rope he'd made into a whip.  Fences fell as he drove the sheep and cattle out of the temple courts.  The noise and pandemonium of leaping, scattering animals shocked and frightened everyone.  Even the sellers took time to realize what was happening to their stock.    Then Jesus moved to the money changing tables and saying something I couldn't make out, completely turned them over.  The coins went everywhere and the bankers scrambled on their hands and knees to keep what they had from mixing with the others or rolling off to who knows where.

            To those selling doves he said, “Get these out of here!  Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”   

                                                            John 2:16   

            Later, things had quieted down in the court.  The sacrificial animals were gone except for a few still wondering around in the thirty-five open acres of the court.  The bankers were gone, counting their losses somewhere, but they would be back.  A few people remained setting things back up for the next day.  The Temple felt better though, cleaner, quieter, a more Holy place.

            My friends and I were still there watching Jesus interact with a group of the poor.  Teaching and healing them.  Some Jewish brothers went to him and asked, "What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"

¹⁹Jesus answered, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."

John 2:19

            Of course, that made no sense to us at all because it has taken forty-six years to build the temple.  Yet he claims he is going to raise it in three days.  His answer caused me to give this itinerant preacher/ healer and all he has done some thought though.  I thought about how angry he had become at  the dishonesty of the priests and the bankers.  Or how they perpetrated their fraud here in the Temple.  How they had desecrated the court of the Gentiles.  A "den of thieves" he called it. 

            Then I realized this holy man's anger hadn't been simply about the greed and thievery of the bankers and priests.  Every man in Jerusalem knows they plan and play that out on the faithful.  More than that his fury came from the hypocrisy that had belittled God's House and stolen so much more from the people. 

            More than any amount of silver or gold the hypocrisy of the spiritual leaders was stealing away the most precious of all things.  The pilgrims and all who came to the Passover brought their spiritual lives to the Temple for nourishment.  The priests and Temple leaders had the great privilege to help each of them grow and know God, to nourish their spirit.   Instead Jesus saw them filling their coffers as the faces of the faithful looked down from the magnificence of God.   

            Our spiritual lives will become by far the strongest or the most fragile, part of our lives.  Which way that goes is completely between you and God.  He has given us all of the tools.  His Word, prayer, faith and friends.  There are many believers who will help you in many ways but it still comes back to you and God.

            This is the Journey.