They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. (11:27)
According to Mark’s report, Jesus is now entering into Jerusalem third times. Riding on a donkey was the first (Mark 11:1), the time to clean the temple was the second (Mark 11:15) and the incident happened in the above verse was the third. The atmosphere was getting worse. Finally an incident happened at the third entry.
The content says when Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the teachers of the law and the elders came to Jesus. They belonged to the three parties to represent Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Israel in those days. There were the temple guard and officers in the temple. Their coming to Jesus signifies they seriously accepted the matter related to Jesus. The matter might be the temple clearing incident of the previous day.
For them the temple was an absolute object. Not only they but all the people in Israel thought like that. Even Roman Empire which colonized Israel allowed autonomy for such religious sacred place. Jesus also didn’t intention to devalue the temple clearly. The problem was that Jesus wasn’t able to neglect those merchandising activities which were happening in the temple. Jesus put the authority of the temple not in outward but inward. Jesus should put it right when such inner authority lost its prestige.
Now the highest power group of those days appeared before Jesus thinking that he didn’t recognize the authority of the temple. If we see the weight of authority that expressed in the surface it couldn’t be comparable. Jesus was a mere simple wandering preacher while others were a kernel power group of Sanhedrin centering in Jerusalem temple. They now began to dispute. The theme of disputing was what was a real authority?
According to Mark’s report, Jesus is now entering into Jerusalem third times. Riding on a donkey was the first (Mark 11:1), the time to clean the temple was the second (Mark 11:15) and the incident happened in the above verse was the third. The atmosphere was getting worse. Finally an incident happened at the third entry.
The content says when Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the teachers of the law and the elders came to Jesus. They belonged to the three parties to represent Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Israel in those days. There were the temple guard and officers in the temple. Their coming to Jesus signifies they seriously accepted the matter related to Jesus. The matter might be the temple clearing incident of the previous day.
For them the temple was an absolute object. Not only they but all the people in Israel thought like that. Even Roman Empire which colonized Israel allowed autonomy for such religious sacred place. Jesus also didn’t intention to devalue the temple clearly. The problem was that Jesus wasn’t able to neglect those merchandising activities which were happening in the temple. Jesus put the authority of the temple not in outward but inward. Jesus should put it right when such inner authority lost its prestige.
Now the highest power group of those days appeared before Jesus thinking that he didn’t recognize the authority of the temple. If we see the weight of authority that expressed in the surface it couldn’t be comparable. Jesus was a mere simple wandering preacher while others were a kernel power group of Sanhedrin centering in Jerusalem temple. They now began to dispute. The theme of disputing was what was a real authority?
No comments:
Post a Comment