Roman Coinage (bit of a tid)

While catching up on my TableTalk devotional reading I came across this in reference to Mark 12:13-17.  It's the famous tax paying confrontation.

"A second bit of irony is seen in the pharisees' and Herodians' giving Jesus a denarius when He asked for one.  First-century Jews, for the most part, did not embrace Roman rule enthusiastically.  In fact, many considered the payment of Roman taxes to be a form of idolatry, particularly since the Roman Coinage in which taxes were paid featured the image of the Emperor and his title, which gave him the status of deity.  The Pharisees and Herodians knew that if Jesus were to openly teach people to pay this tax, the Jewish citizens would be upset and would even stop listening to Him.  But note that Jesus did not have the detested Roman coin on His person; His opponents, Jewish leaders who were supposed to be adamantly against idolatry, did.  If paying the Roman taxes was inherently idolatrous, the Jewish authorities were complicit, not Jesus."

Court of the Gentiles

This morning I was doing my daily devotional reading which I supplement with a devotional magazine called "Tabletalk".  Today's reading was from Mark 11, the part where Jesus "cleanses the temple".  The article provided some historical context that wholly blew my mind.

"In the first century the Jerusalem temple did have a court of the Gentiles that measured some thirty-five acres where non-Jews could come and pray to Yaweh, the God of Israel.  However, the Gentiles were not really welcome there.  The popular Jewish mind-set hoped that the Messiah would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles.  Moreover, when the Gentiles came to the court of the Gentiles in first-century Jerusalem, there was no welcome awaiting them.  Instead, the court was filled with merchants who sold animals for worshipers to bring as sacrifices and money changers who exchanged Roman coins for Shekels that had no image of the emperor on them and thus were fit for payment of the temple tax.  That is the scene described in today's passage.  Josephus...reports that 255,600 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover, which gives us a good idea of the scale of the merchant's operation in the temple."

All of my life I've wondered about this passage of scripture.  I mean, there had to be somewhere for people to purchase sacrifices or change money.  So what was Jesus so pissed about?  Ok, sure they could take it outside the temple.  But, how practical is that?  With this historical context all of the sudden Jesus' actions make sense.  They are excluding people, preventing a whole group of people from worship and prayer.  You can see the mindset.

"Well...we have 35 acres of unused space, oh sure it's for the gentiles but we really don't want them there.  I mean we won't prevent them, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hospitable for them.  And we might get a little bit of a kick back from the business."

With prejudice clouding the eternal perspective people do all sorts of horribly misguided and terrible things.

Jesus was apparently full of righteous zeal not because business was being done, or profits being made.  A people God welcomed were reviled and prevented from worshiping Him so that business could be done and profits made.

I've been guilty of thinking of this verse every time I see a church with a coffeshop and bookstore in it where people can buy the pastor's latest book and a pumpkin spiced latte.  (oooh....it's almost PSL season, isn't it?)  It is a horrible misapplication of the scripture.  It isn't keeping people out...A coffeeshop actually is quite welcoming to those who don't do mornings and need that bagel and double shot in a cup of coffee (Aka a RedEye or Zombie).  Granted they'll throw me for a loop every time, but I won't be speaking out against them anymore.

Interesting that we call this passage "The Cleansing of the Temple" when the Jews would have thought a good cleansing would be whipping and throwing the Gentiles out; quite the opposite of what Jesus did.

Pax

W

A Bit of a Tid (On a Jealous God)

"A Bit of a Tid" = Just a tidbit on a given topic that I don't have too much to say on...yet.

This past Sunday our worship leader took a bit of time to talk about, of all things, Oprah.  I am not a huge fan of Oprah for many reasons, none of which I'll get into here.  Our worship leader brought up her remembrance of an episode of the show where Oprah revealed the moment she stopped believing in the Judeo-Christian God.  Apparently it happened when her pastor read the scripture to the congregation regarding God as a jealous God.  Right then and there Oprah stopped believing.  Why?  Because jealousy is such a petty human emotion and any god worth their salt can't have a petty human emotion.

First of all, I'm always bothered by this sort of behavior.  The Bible shows that God or his people don't meet the individuals expectations and they shut down...without ANY further inquiry.  I've seen it at least a hundred times.  "I like Jesus, but his fan club keep me away"...declares someone who self identifies as an atheist (In my personal dictionary Atheist is described as an agnostic with a grudge...but that's another topic for another day) or "Jesus didn't keep the sabbath so he can't be God let alone holy", or "How can a loving God allow..."  These "road blocks" are fairly foreign to me.  If something doesn't meet my expectations my first impulse is a minor "revulsion" followed by further inquiry to try and fully understand.  So when something minor causes someone to immediately eject the idea...it significantly perplexes me.

Secondly, as our worship leader went on to say, the kind of jealousy the Bible refers to is NOT a petty human emotion.  It's not the jealousy that I get when someone gets published before me, or when someone gets a PS4 that I've wanted forever.  That kind of jealousy is not warranted and meets no criteria for truly logical behavior.  I have no claim on that publishing agent.  I have no claim on that PS4, etc.  It is a purely emotional response.  Let's say that my wife who swore before both God and Men to be mine, to cling only to me through sickness, health, for richer or poorer, suddenly cheated on me and decided to leave me for another man.  Would anyone EVER say that my jealousy in that situation was petty or unwarranted?  Would anyone ever fault me for burning with jealousy?  No.  Everyone would say that it was completely understandable and expected.

This jealousy is the closest definition we can come to for Divine Jealousy.  If we have pledged our troth, our faith and loyalty, to Him then of course he would be jealous of that.  The relationship he calls us into is even deeper than a mortal marriage which only lasts until one partner dies.  If my wife flirts with another man I am within my right and compelled to jealousy.  How much more when we flirt with other far lesser idols that are daily in our lives.

This dovetailed quite nicely with our pastor's sermon on the supremacy of Jesus that tends to be missing in our lives...which pummeled me into the ground and I'm much the better for it.  That may be my next post soon.

Pax,

W