ARRIVAL: Read Matt 21:1-18
Contemplation: We are all a bit worried as we walk into the city. Jesus is coming to the town where he has said he will die. What’s going to happen? Someone has found a donkey – just told them the Master wanted it, and they GAVE it to him, so maybe things won’t be that bad. Sun on our backs and what a noise! Cheering, clapping, people throwing clothes and branches for Jesus to travel on! Everyone calling him a king. He certainly seems that way: the crowd pressing in and trying to touch him, people laughing and welcoming him. We can’t see the streets for clothes and flowers and leaves and branches. People are hanging out of the buildings. As he rides up the hill to the Temple, we hear the whispers. People open mouthed asking who this is. “Jesus the prophet from Galilee”. The rulers of the city don’t seem happy. Soldiers hold their weapons nervously. This could turn ugly. Then it gets worse. Jesus storms into the Temple. Now he’s throwing down the tables of people buying and selling things, people changing the normal money they use for special Temple money. He’s driving out all the traders and people making money from God’s house – but helping and healing all the people coming to him. Now the important people are really angry. “Why are they calling you a king! You are destroying the place?” “You hear truth from the simplest people,” he answers. This doesn’t make them happier! Leaving chaos behind us, we go outside the city for the night.
Talk to Jesus, the people celebrating… and the people who aren’t.
What are my Temples? Have things grown up in them that shouldn’t have?
How do I react when people – especially those I don’t respect – say things I know I need to hear?