Lesson 27 - 'Looking for Jesus, His Day and Times'

    The Passover Powder Keg Turn on the T.V. or internet today and catch a glimpse of a large Middle Eastern city, its central square teeming with young men, yelling and gesturing against the powers that be. Surrounding the angry thousands are soldiers in riot gear, guns and clubs. The slightest provocation leads to violence and bloodshed. Hold that image and come with me to Jerusalem in the first century. Grab your cameras and stay close together, the journey will be tumultuous. We enter history during the week of Passover, the highest holiday in Judaism. Thousands are pouring into Jerusalem and squeezing into the thirty-five acre Temple complex to purchase their lambs for the family Passover dinner. 

    As we stand to the side of the entrance gate we can’t help but notice the Roman soldiers – they surround the entrance, they patrol all the streets and alleys, they are rude and menacing. As we look up, the walls of the Temple are HUGE as they rise above us. But wait, looming over the walls of the Temple is another structure! This stone walled watch tower extends along the side of this sacred Temple, glaring down with hostility and superiority. 

    Here the Roman army stands guard commanding an unobstructed view into the most holy of ground for the Jews, the place they believe God Himself touches the Earth. As we surreptitiously snap our cameras, notice the faces in the crowds jostling to enter the Temple grounds. They quickly glance at the soldiers and move on, then, they glance up at the abomination of the Roman tower that watches and waits. 

    You can feel the Jewish anger and growing seeds of rebellion that will eventually explode a short twenty-five years in the future when violence results in the burning and destruction of the whole Temple. But, for now, our cameras pick up the glowing embers of revolt in the hearts of the thousands who must practice their faith and live in their own country under the grinding hob nailed boots of the Roman soldiers. Stay together now, as we are pushed into the Temple courtyards. 

    We catch a glimpse of the High Priest, Ciaphas. We can almost smell the overwhelming stress he feels. The Sanhedrin, seventy priests and Jewish elders, must keep the crowds orderly and respectful of the religious Law using their own police force. The Sanhedrin must also act as go-betweens with the Roman authorities and the Jewish nation and is the only barrier between the Jews and the weight of Roman law and its repercussions.

     These overworked priests and elders are seen as money grabbing collaborators. Yet without their delicate political dance, chaos and bloodshed, destruction and annihilation would follow. As we shuffle back to the streets, and move toward the entrance gate to the city, we notice a small crowd dancing and waving their arms as they follow a figure. 

    Take some quick snapshots of that simply robed figure riding into town on a donkey for the high holiday. . . he is soon to enter the roiling masses of the sacred, and the sacrilegious mayhem . . . . . . Be patient. 

    We will be back to follow this quiet and dignified figure from the Temple to beyond. 

                           Questions to Contemplate and Discuss 

 1. Think about the similarities of violence between the Middle East today and the Middle East of the first century. What has changed and not changed? 

 2. The High Priests and Ciaphas have always been portrayed as the bad guys in the story of Jesus. Does this section’s look at history change your viewpoint at all and why? 

 3. What would feel if you were actually in the courtyard of the Temple surrounded by Roman soldiers?