Rabble Rousing | National Geographic

this is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem it’s believed to stand on
the site of the crucifixion the brutal
and agonizing ended Jesus’s life on
Earth but for some scholars the horror
of Jesus’s death is crucial to the birth
of Christianity if Jesus had not been
crucified there never would have been
Christianity jesus knows he has to die
on the cross in fact the Gospel of
Matthew tells us jesus knows exactly how
things are going to play out but he
still needs to make it happen the first
step is to go to the holiest city of
Israel Jerusalem he’s been going around
talking about the kingdom of God talking
about God establishing a new kingdom in
Israel and where else would God do it
except in Jerusalem so Jerusalem has to
be at the heart of this message
Jerusalem is the site of the Great
Temple it is dominated the city an
attractive worshippers from all over the
Middle East but it’s more than just a
monument the temple is the hearts of
Judaism they it’s as simple as that
Jesus’s miracles and teachings have
challenged the ideas of religious
authorities in Galilee at the risk of
his life if he had only just escaped
death in the provincial north he knows
death is certain if he dares to do the
same thing at the heart of the Jewish
nation Jesus probably had a pretty clear
idea that he was heading towards a
really nasty end by going to Jerusalem
he was going into the mouth of the lion
Jesus Tynes his journey to Jerusalem
well the great religious festival of
Passover is taking place
it can be a time of tension as Jews
celebrate escaping from Egypt centuries
before but Jesus makes no effort to
avoid causing trouble when he heads
straight to the temple money changers
are busy as Jews from all over the known
world exchanged their coins for local
money to pay the temple tax this is how
the temple is financed in one of the
most famous incidents in the Gospels
Jesus attacks the money changers and
animal sellers inside the temple
to the temple priests jesus’ attack on
their income and rituals looks like an
attempted takeover it is in its own way
a kind of royal messianic act claiming
ownership of the temple in some sense
and of course understandably the temple
administration who think of it as their
venue are basically thinking who the
devil do you think you are we’re the
ones that are in charge here how dare
you take this kind of action the priests
here that Jesus has been saying that
they will be destroyed with their temple
they cannot allow this to go unpunished
you