Conforming (phase 2), - Jesus enters Jerusalem and the Temple- Concluding the Second Phase (step 21) - session 2a

It's too late and too much, given my two immediately preceding sessions, to try to tackle all of this one (Mt 21:12-46) in a single take. These next few sessions are going to deal with teachings of Jesus between his entry into Jerusalem and his sorrowful passion. This passage seems to start immediately following Jesus' arrival in the city:

And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers." 

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant;  and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, `Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise'?"

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. - Mt 21:12-17

One of the deacons in our men's group shared about how common corrupt practices in the temple had become. Over what may have been the course of centuries, what had begun as a service for the people outside the temple had become a means of taking advantage of them within the temple itself. Jesus had no patience with those who preyed upon others, and was driven by a heart of compassion toward those who were oppressed. This is the context of both the driving out of the money-changers and the healing of the blind and the lame in the temple.

Again, it has been too long since I spent enough time in the gospels. I had forgotten that the children's hosannas rang out in the temple as well as along the way. No wonder the chief priests were so filled with fear. This was happening right in the middle of the most powerful place in their nation. No wonder they thought the people were going to try to make him king! Not understanding (at all) who Jesus is, they are hoping that a sense of humility and propriety will cause him to shut them down, but Jesus is more than they know and will use their fear - and their willingness to do wrong in response to it - to carry out the mission for which he was born.

I suspect that verse 17 refers to Jesus taking refuge in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Rest, my Lord, for the task ahead will drain the last drop of your strength.