Controversy

Tradition declares Palm Sunday as a day of triumphal entry and Monday as the day for the cleansing of the Temple.  As Holy Week goes on, Tuesday is noted as a day of controversy.   After the act of turning over the table of the money changers and merchants selling sacrificial animals, those in charge quickly came to the conclusion that enough was enough.  With this act on Monday Jesus did more than stir orthadox theology with His radical teachings, He touched an economic nerve.  It always seems to be that way. The church will put up with a lot of stuff, but not any stuff which threatens the income to the treasury.   

It is not surprising that when Jesus re-entered the city the next day and went to the Temple and began teaching that He was attacked.  Those ecclesiastical pillars of Judaism were waiting for Him.  "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?"  the chief priests and elders asked Him.  (Matthew 21:23)  It was a question which cut right to the core of the issues before them.  If He was of God, then everything they held dear was in jeopardy and if not, then He was some religious lunatic who could be disregarded or discredited into oblivion.  Of course, Jesus turned the question on them in such a way that they were left holding nothing but air.     

It was not a one question day, however.  As we read the narrative we see Jesus being attacked and challenged in all sorts of different ways.  When it was all said and done, those who opposed Him had their solution to the Jesus problem, "...they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him."  (Matthew 26:4  The presence of Jesus still remains a threat to many within the bastions of organized religion.  He is the radical, the revolutionary, who will not go away.  He continues to be a presence which calls into questions practices which speak more of power than service, self-exaltation more than self-sacrifice, and  loyalty to culture more than the Kingdom of God.  When He comes into those arenas with His radical words, He is usually ignored as the irrelevant one in the crowd, but every now and again someone hears and goes after Him and the holy revolution lives again.