Comment on Flippin'
Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month agoHe’s mad that people are selling stuff in the temple when it should be holy (and commercial activity is NOT holy)
Comment on Flippin'
Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month agoHe’s mad that people are selling stuff in the temple when it should be holy (and commercial activity is NOT holy)
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
It wasn’t just commercial activity. Money changers were charging a fee to buy shekels which people could use to buy an animal to sacrifice at the temple. Jesus was mad because the idea of inserting yourself as a middleman to extort money from people seeking salvation was basically blasphemy.
FrChazzz@lemmus.org 1 month ago
Also lots of “well, you’re animal isn’t really pure enough. But you’re in luck because we happen to have a few High Priest Certified^tm^ animals right over here. We’ll just take yours on trade and you can pay the difference!” (then resell the perfectly good sacrificial animal to the next poor pilgrim who comes along)
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah, that dog you came in with? It’s really only 75% dog. You need 100% dog grade dog, now with extra bark, or your sins, I know this dude and he’s going to make your sins not fall off the truck this year. I neeeeed that extra dog. Make with the extra twenty five percent dog please.
Sorry that’s what comes to mind when you say my animal needs to be more pure. I’m not claiming it’s clever, or funny, just that it’s blasphemous woo
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
And of course that’s WHY he got crucified. He interfered with the most profitable business of the times: religious extortion. He did it in a way that was tremendously popular. The combination of popular policy and action that undermines the rich for the benefit of regular people is always the greatest fear of the rich. They’re always willing to kill to protect their position.
It’s a universal lesson.
FrChazzz@lemmus.org 1 month ago
This. But also a degree of expedience played a role too. Rome had twisted Judea (and, eventually, Galilee) to such a degree that the temple leadership was willing to let Rome crucify a guy like Jesus because it kept Rome from taking more. People like Pilate were looking for excuses to bring the hammer down on the citizens of Judea. Passover was often a flashpoint for insurrection (a bunch of oppressed people huddled together, all brought together by the unifying story of that time their God raised up a dude to lead them against their first oppressor–the festival was primed for any number of would-be “messiahs” to rise up and eventually try something against Rome, which led to intense crack-downs and, at times, mass crucifixions). So Rome backed the cultural and religious authorities into a corner, turning them into the sort of people who’d gladly hold sham trials to get rid of a guy who might bring more trouble down on their heads.