It wasn't like every other day or so we saw things none of us had ever seen. That was indeed true. But it was more than that. Every other day we thought we had an idea what would come next, we were surprised, sometimes shocked.
After the incredible entry into Jerusalem where the people decided, by the use of their palms and their clothing and their words, that Jesus was the Messiah or at worst should be our earthly king, then came Monday.
Monday. Oh, Monday.
On Monday, Jesus went to Temple.
Outside the Temple, in the temple courts, there were people selling cattle, sheep, doves. This was done so that the people could purchase animals for sacrifice. The people who did this has quite a racket going, selling the animals, exchanging money for the purchases. Every Passover we had participated in together, these people were there. So, I'm not sure what drove Jesus that day. But it was one of the few times I saw him what I would describe as angry. Honest. He was for lack of a better word, angry.
He made a whip out of cords and, well, he drove the animals, the sheep and the cattle and such, out of the court area. Then he turned over tables that were filled with coins. He screamed at those guys who were selling the doves. "Get out of here. Stop turning my Father's house into a market."
We were flabbergasted. We hadn't seen this side of Jesus. This is how we truly felt about the Roman occupation, and in our fireside talks at night, we, those he called disciples, said this is what we should do with the Romans. Jesus simply listened to those moments of opinion. But here he was, driving people like driving cattle.
That was Monday. It was almost like a prophecy of what was to come, something new, something different, something inexplicable. Going to Temple, Jesus had cursed a fig tree because it had failed to bear fruit. Monday evening, we went back to Bethany for the night, staying with Martha, Mary and Lazarus for the last time. Tuesday morning, as we went back to Temple, we passed back by that fig tree. It was withered. Jesus used that time to teach us. He even called the Pharisees "blind guides, for like whitewashed tombs -- beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity."
To me, that's how Jesus saw things. He never -- I mean never -- looked at the outside, what a person looked like, or what a person did for a living or what a person's background was. But he always looked inward. What was the heart like? That's what interested the Master."
Tuesday evening, Jesus had some terrifically terrifying things to say about the end times. I guess Judas was concerned about that teaching, because for some reason he took time off to be away. We went back to Bethany to stay the night.
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