Sometimes we fall for a hero who makes us feel better about
ourselves when we are convinced we have been insulted or put upon. The men of Shechem initially rallied to their
kinsman, Abimelech, to rule over the nation for no reason other than he was
their own out of all the sons of Gideon.
They soon found out that he was exactly the sort of man his actions in
killing all his rivals pointed to him being.
They discovered he was a ruthless man who cared about nothing but
himself and power and even they regretted standing by him in his murderous
rampage. It seems fitting doesn't it
that ultimately he meets his demise because a woman threw a rock down on his
head. He may have believed she didn't
kill him, but we and all of history know the truth.
We have figured out more ways to make a buck out of
Christianity than the Jews of Jesus' day ever conceived. Here, there are two problems. One is that the moneychangers and sellers of
sacrificial animals were gouging the pilgrims who had come for the
festival. There was a temple tax that
had to be paid in a specific currency and the moneychangers were set up as a
Forex in the temple courts so that the foreign money could be exchanged at
rates that were to the benefit of the moneychangers. The pilgrims were at their mercy. The sellers of animals preyed on the need for
acceptable sacrificial animals and theirs were pre-approved so there was no
risk, only exorbitant prices. The other
problem was that these vendors were taking up the space where Gentiles could
normally listen to the teaching as they were prohibited from getting
closer. During this time, they were then
kept away from a place of prayer and for learning the ways of God. Jesus drove them out for both these
reasons. He is asked for a sign, an
interesting demand and he offers one but they couldn’t imagine the reference to
the temple of the body. As he leaves the
festival we are told that Jesus knew what was in the hearts of men so wouldn't
entrust Himself to them. His people, the
ones whose Messiah He had come to be, but they wanted a different kind of
Messiah, if they wanted one at all.
Ananais and Sapphira had seen others, including Barnabas,
sell property and give the entire amount of the proceeds to the apostles for
relief of any among the believers who had need and they wanted to be like those
people but their faith wasn't up to it. They
ultimately just wanted to be thought as well of as those others. They didn't have to give the full amount of
the sale to the apostles but they chose to pretend they had done so. They lied, as Peter said, not to the apostles
and the church, but to God. The ethics
of the kingdom are different from the world. The problem has always been false piety,
hypocrisy, and Peter knew what was in this couple's hearts. The cost of deception was great, death to
both. We always have choices to make
regarding our finances but the bigger issue lies in the heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment