Blessings Not Just For the Ones Who Kneel....

Well once again I haven't been very good at writing this blog for the last few weeks.... which obviously means I haven't had much to think about! ;-)

Actually, its more likely related to the fact that we've been busy with a 3rd Birthday party, plans for a loft conversion, finishing off next year's budget at work and generally just doing a lot of different things. Oh, and being ill, which hasn't helped!

And then all of a sudden its Holy Week, the lead up to Easter, and I find myself not really in an "Easter" kind of a place yet - which isn't necessarily a good thing. So, in an effort to change that, I'm going to try and write some blog entries this week to help me focus on Easter, which is, after all, probably the single most life-changing event in the history of the world... but more about that later in the week.

Holy week of course starts with Palm Sunday, a day of joy, of donkeys and palm branches, of triumphant processions and of the fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophecy. And then, just as things are starting to look up, it suddenly becomes a day where the status quo is challenged, where long held views and traditions are up-ended, a day where the guardians of those traditions, of that status quo, of all that is important in first century Jewish life are made to look decidedly foolish...

Because, having arrived in Jerusalem, having been hailed as the Messiah, the one who has come to free Israel from oppression, Jesus choses not to go and confront the Roman Authorities, but instead to head to the temple itself, and challenge the authority of the High Priests and Teachers of the Law, the religious leaders of the time...

The challenge is the cleansing of the temple, turning out the money changers, the sellers of sacrifices, those who have made the house of prayer into "a den of thieves". This part of the story is reasonably well known, and its not surprising that the temple authorities didn't like this much, especially as they probably took a cut of the profits from the tradesmen. But the bit I didn't realise until recently, the thing which makes this a really big challenge to the authorities is the location within the temple of the money changers - the Court of the Gentiles -  the only part of the temple open to those who were not Jews. 

The challenge to the authorities, and indeed to all Judaism becomes that much more severe when this is taken into account, because this action says that Jesus, who has just been declared as the Messiah, the saviour of the Jewish people, is not just interested in the Jews. This is a statement that he comes to bring life and hope and freedom to all - Jew or Gentile. This is a statement that the Jewish people, despite (or perhaps because of) all their laws about holiness, about remaining God's special, chosen people have failed in their calling - the calling to be a people who bless through whom all the peoples of the world are blessed. The Jews have remained "holy" (which basically means "seperate" or "different") by seperating themselves from the world, but in doing so, they have missed the very purpose for remaining holy - that is to point the rest of the world back to the One who made it... and Jesus, in his coming on Palm Sunday and his cleansing of the Temple points that out in a graphic and obvious manner....

That much is history... but what does it mean for me today....? I can't help but wonder, if Jesus made a triumphal entry today, where would he go first? Would it be to the Houses of Parliament, to Downing Street, to challenge the government on their political decisions, on their spending cuts, on their desire to bring in gay marriage, on their "cash for access" and expenses claims?

Or would he come to visit us, Christians in their cozy comfortable churches, and ask whether we have seperated ourselves from the world, remaining "pure and holy" by refusing to deal with the nasty, messy issues that exist in the world. Would he ask if we are truly open, welcoming and inclusive, offering the grace that he freely gives us to those in the world, or whether we limit our welcome to those who conform to our view of the way things should be?