Sacrifices

I carried the lamb several days journey for the Passover sacrifice[i]. It was the best lamb born to my flock this year. But when the priests evaluated it they said it was not good enough. It was not pure. So they sent me to this area of the temple. I had to exchange my Roman coins for temple shekels. The exchange rate was disappointing. Now I line up to use that temple money to buy a lamb that the priests had already approved. This will be a lamb of GREAT price, but it must be done.

How long must I wait? This line is moving so slowly.

Whether I want to or not this appears to be the place to catch up on the local news. People are talking about a great man who has been preaching and healing and doing other miracles in the area.

Another one of those! I wonder how much HE charges to be God’s instrument. Does he sell his prophecies to the highest bidder, as others have done before? Oh LORD, I so wish that we could have a real prophet visit us and see all that is going on around here.

What is that shouting over the city wall?

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord[ii]! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Would that it were true that one would come who really could rescue us!

The shouting is getting louder, perhaps even nearer. Here comes a great crowd! They seem to be gathered around one man.

“Who is this?” some are asking.

“This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” the crowd announces.

Oh! This is the man. He doesn’t look like anyone special[iii].

Though he was heading for the temple, he has changed course and is heading this way.

A local just said that Jochanan the Baptizer said of this man: Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”Now how could he do that?

What is this!? He is driving out the moneychangers and merchants, and all of us along with them! This would be a good time to get out of the way. While many are getting quite angry, I find this somehow amusing. Who is this man?

No one is trying to stop him! They are clearly incensed, but keeping their distance. If he upsets the merchants, how can we obtain a fitting sacrifice? How can we be made right with God?

He is overturning the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves.

“It is written,” he says to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer[iv],’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers[v].”

The fellow next to me says that this man has done this before, about three years ago. That time, he says, this man found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he quickly made a whip out of cords, and drove them all from the temple courts, practically causing a stampede of both sheep and cattle, those that the priests had said were acceptable. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.To those who sold doves he said:

“Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

Back then they asked him:

“What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

He reportedly responded:

“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

What an extraordinary thing to say.

They replied:

“It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 

I would like to see that! And I wish I could have heard the answer to that last question, though it sounds like no answer was provided.  Who could possibly raise a temple in just three days? But then, what prophet would say something like that unless he could do it? Could he be a real prophet?

It would appear that others here remember that incident too, and are staying well away from the hand that could wield a whip!

Things are settling down now, though the priests and merchants seem to be slipping away to get reinforcements to secure their place.

The blind and lame are moving as quickly as they can to gather around this man – the stricken seeking out the one who just struck out. Is he dangerous? Could he be both powerful and safe?

I cannot see what is happening now, but I hear shouts! Oh! They are cries of joy! And there is one of those lame, running around the court!  And a blind man racing through the crowd shouting that he can see!

Who is this man? I have never in my life seen such things. Could he be the one?

Now the children are shouting:

“Hosanna to the Son of David.”

The priests are growing indignant!  They are trying to silence the children… as if they could. There is such an air of exuberance here. I could almost believe that this very rock on which we stand is shouting out the same message.

If I had not been here, I don’t think I could believe all that is happening. Life is indeed more exciting in this city!

What now? A large group of priests and teachers are approaching this healer.

“Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes” he replies,“Have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’[vi]?”

With that he appears to be leaving, peacefully. No one lays a hand on him, and he shows no malice in his departure. Somehow I don’t get the sense that this is really over yet.

Well, it’s time to get back to preparations for Passover. Another year of remembering that amazing night of God’s deliverance: the lamb without blemish that must be killed, having no broken bones, the blood shed to protect us from the angel of death, the bread without yeast, the wine poured out, the bitter herbs.

Thank you, LORD, for saving your people from their Egyptian captivity that night so long ago.  Who could have known that one night could make so much difference? Now do you think you could come up with a way to save us from ourselves?

 

 

(c) 2017 Chuck Curtiss

To read other similar stories in this series see The Witness List.

Based on Matthew 21:10 -17, John 2:13-22

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. http://www.zondervan.com.

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[i]Exodus 12

[ii]Psalm 118:25,26

[iii]Isaiah 53:2

[iv]Isaiah 56:7

[v]Jeremiah 7:11

[vi]Psalm 8