KING jesus! KING jesus! KING jesus!
A.D. 30
Monday in Herod’s Temple
an account of a single fictional witness
SUNDAY had been a day with a festive parade into town by our savior KING.
HOSANNA! King Jesus! Thank God for our conquering KING!
In case you missed my account from SUNDAY:
WE joined the multitudes with palm branches and our coats spread on the ground before the KING’s colt upon which he rode triumphantly to the gate.
(I think two or three THOUSAND of US ready to breach the hopeless walls of our captive capital)
I wonder what our conquering KING will do today?
How WE hate the Roman rule over US. And Herod? Unlike the Great is an impotent king collecting favors and taxes for Pilate the Prefect.
WE can’t wait to get into the city with the early CROWDS.
Is this KING jesus like DAVID or SOLOMON?
Will he finally call on us to take up arms against our ROMAN rulers?
WILL his insurrection now unseat HEROD?
NOW I have to report that yesterday on MONDAY, this KING jesus did NOT do at all what WE had expected.
WE were all there.
(I arrived in the Temple courtyard early, before the Christ WE anticipated would once more return triumphantly as the day before.)
The crowds packing the TEMPLE and city today can hardly be numbered!
AND when Jesus arrived I could again hear a few men flattering him with the glory of a KING.
Gospel of Matthew 21:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Gospel of Matthew 21:9b – New King James Version
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying,
“Who is this?”
HOSANNA! save now, I pray
- Will this KING jesus now conquer our captors?
So the multitudes said,
“This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Gospel of Matthew 21:11 New King James Version
And now what?
Continuing from yesterday's account of a fictional witness, we look to MONDAY of Holy Week (as we have long designated this festival)..
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
Then Jesus went into the temple of God..
.. and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple,
.. and overturned the tables of the money changers
.. and the seats of those who sold doves.
Gospel of Matthew 21:12 New King James Version
for years Before Christ
Now I have to tell you, God’s Temple, with its several strict regulations of the Sanhedrin has always been a lucrative place for a Jew to do business.
The Pesach festival week this year had not seemed to be much different than any the last five decades since Herod the Great began construction of the still not-quite-finished Temple grounds for God’s ordinary people.
Trouble is that more and more Zealots have more openly attacked our occupiers’ Legions even though ROME has included Judea in its ‘peace‘ for a hundred years or so.
Every Jew coming to the festival knew all-to-well of their obligation to buy a kind of kosher indulgence.
This KING Jesus who called himself Son of Man (rather than son of David) would have none of it.
There were already dozens of these authorized vendors at work with hundreds of early bird customers like us.
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
Gospel of John 2:15-16 NKJV
Prophesy of Isaiah
As a good Jew I thought I knew these sayings this new Prophet Jesus quoted. One is about the gentiles — and believe me they were all there too.
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
Isaiah 56:7 NKJV
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
And He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Gospel of Matthew 21:13 NKJV
You know what else I remember from this Prophet from seven centuries ago concerning Israel’s leaders?
His watchmen are blind..
And they are shepherds
Isaiah 56:11b NKJV
Who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his own gain,
From his own territory.
Isaiah calls them ‘greedy dogs’ who are never satisfied.
It seems fit that this Man would clear the Temple of these dogs indulging our Council of leaders comfortably walled-up away from God’s place of worship.
THIS JESUS even knew that our captive weeping Prophet had called it “a den of thieves!”
We tried to follow this KING
This Jesus had our attention. He was right in everything he said and did.
But because of the crowds WE could only get glances of this King as He moved about the Temple courts.
WE kept hearing stories though — confirmation of things Jesus did that no other man or prophet could do.
Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple,
Gospel of Matthew 21:14 New King James Version – witness of Jesus in the Temple
and He healed them.
ALL of Jerusalem was abuzz with this Jesus, who had ridden into our captive city like a KING!
AND also this Jesus from Nazareth also showed many SIGNS of power by His own hand.
To be continued.. God-willing…
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