Jesus believed that a new day was dawning. He recruited people to spread the message that God’s Heavenly kingdom would soon be present on earth as in heaven. What would it be like? It would start small, like a mustard seed, but then grow, and grow, and grow! Small acts of kindness-- a person healed here, a person forgiven of committing adultery there—compassion would grow. Then social justice would grow—the whole caste system of rich and poor, lower and higher class will end, the empires of this world will no longer burden the common people with oppressive taxes and violence meant frighten people into submission. Compassion, social justice then Jewish Law—a perfect love of God and neighbor becomes the beautiful new law in the new Eden, the new Kingdom of God!
Jesus started that movement. And the empire didn’t like it. As Jesus was teaching and healing in village after village, the Pharisees warned him that Herod, the ruler of the region, heard what he was up to and had set a bounty for Jesus, dead or alive. Jesus did not want the bounty hunters to kill him in a small village where no-one would know about it. And he didn’t want to be dragged into Jerusalem quietly, like a common thief. No. Jesus knew that Jewish people expected a Messiah to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. That would be a sign that God’s reign was beginning—that the Kingdom was beginning. They would sing “Hosanna” to welcome the new era! They would lay palm branches at the foot of the messiah!
Jesus would enter Jerusalem, knowing full well that Jerusalem was the place of the Temple—the seat of power. Like Martin Luther King Jr. marching into Birmingham Alabama, the very seat of racial bigotry. Like Mahatma Gandhi marching to Dandi to defy Salt Laws. Jesus would enter the place with a reputation for killing dissidents. He would march straight into the Temple and expose the corruption there. He told his disciples “Listen carefully. We’re on our way to Jerusalem. Everything written in the prophecies about the Messiah will take place. The Messiah will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, tortured and they will kill him. In three days, the great Temple of human hands will fall and a new temple—the Kingdom of God will rise up. That will be the beginning of a new era.”
It happened! Jesus entered Jerusalem during the time of Passover. The Temple was corrupt as ever with fat-cat priests taxing peasants and Roman flags and money changers making the once sacred site look like Las Vegas. Jesus marched right into the Temple and shouted:
OUT OF THIS TEMPLE, YOU BUNCH OF SNAKES! YOU HAVE TURNED GOD’S HOME INTO A JUNKYARD! GET OUT!
No, Jesus wouldn’t be killed quietly in some tiny village. They would have to take him down in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of people! But make no mistake about it…they would take him down.
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