Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - the Status Quo

This is not an aspect of Jesus' ministry that I appreciated for many years. But seminary challenged me on this. I started doing some studies on the intertestamental period, and it opened my eyes to a lot of dynamics in the Judean culture.

I think the two best incidents in Scripture that illustrate Jesus' challenge to the establishment are: Jesus' response to the tax question AND his cleansing of the Temple. These are far from the only ones, but they are two of the best.

With the tax issue (see Matthew 22), you have two power groups approaching Jesus - the Pharisees and the Herodians. These two groups were normally antagonistic to each other, since Herod had no rightful claim to the throne. But they were united in their resistance to Jesus, because he challenged their influence with and power over the people. So, in order to protect their respective power bases, they came against Jesus trying to trap him (you know about traps ) with the tax question.

The Temple cleansing is the most blatant challenge to the religious establishment of that day, and the central charge that Jesus makes against it is that they have CORRUPTED the Temple. They turned the Temple sacrifice practice into a money-making enterprise. And the Temple had become something of a market, with money-changers and people selling different animals for sacrifice to patrons. It was akin to what the Catholic Church would do later in the selling of indulgences.
It was also blasphemous in that these money-changers and entrepreneurs (and the Jewish authorities of that day) had CHEAPENED and DISRESPECTED what the Temple was supposed to stand for.

There are all kinds of modern-day applications to these examples. I've talked about TV evangelists and some megachurches trying to PROFIT off the Gospel, for instance. But there are others.

Time will not permit me to continue. Well, actually, it's my stomach. It's lunchtime and I'm hungry. I'll be back later.