MICAH 6.8

The Great Disruption He disrupted the secularization of Passover. People were being short changed. In order to have an offering for the holiday as was the tradition, money had to be exchanged. It was not the money itself. It was the system under Roman overlords. An exchange of their everyday money for that of Roman coin. The exchange however was not an equal dollar for dollar, it included a service fee along with an amount that the money changers would keep as their own profit. People came from near and far. The travel itself made the bringing of one's own sacrificial animal unlikely. Not only that. There was convenience in being able to substitute payment for their own offering which was the way the Passover was intended from the very beginning. So, for the sake of creature comfort, the offering of the people had been reduced to a broker who meddled in Roman currency and a broker whose task it was to sell sacrificial animals. Don't get me wrong. It was not so much the practice of those faithful ones who came with both good intent and a desire to celebrate what Passover meant for the people. Rather, it was a system that had been put into place wherein a buck could be made in the process. And not only that. The sacrificial practice had now become a quid pro quo that had the self-defined god of Rome—Caesar and his territorial governors—fingerprints all over it. Any sense of purity had been shortchanged into a mere reflection of what once was. A disproportionate reflect, but one deeply engrained within the "dos and don'ts" of Passover. One does not mess with tradition. The dos are the way we have always done it. The don'ts are the things filtered out through the years of deciding what did not serve the purpose that had evolved into an image in a mirror as opposed to the real thing. Enter Jesus—a homeless street preacher, a sojourner sharing a message about a God of forbearance and love. A nobody from the backwoods village of Nazareth. It was already fixed in their minds: "what good can came out of Nazareth." But here he is smack dab in the heart of Passover on the Temple grounds of Jerusalem. He and his small band of followers whom art first sight it was clear that none of them fit in. Jesus, upsetting the tables of money changers—coins air borne and rolling on the hard stone ground. Jesus, chasing with his cincture now turned whip the con artists who had set up their places of commerce and underhanded business. What a sight! You can almost image bystanders sharing with enthusiasm, "Wow! Now this is Passover!” —A work in progress. To be finshed as time and energy allow.—