This week in history begins Jesus’s journey to the cross, with a lot of twists and schemes. A lot of personalities played very active roles in planning His arrest and subsequent execution, some of whom include Caiaphas, Judas, and Pilate, among others. Aside from the messianic role He had been destined to play for humanity, His aversion to corruption, His constant affirmation of His supremacy and deity, and in particular, His condemnation of the highly lucrative money-changing business sent Him to the cross for you and I.
According to Jewish temple traditions, Jews were not allowed to give offerings in the temple in Jerusalem using their coins that had the image of Caesar stamped on them. This was deemed idolatrous. Thus, when they arrived at Jerusalem from neighbouring towns to celebrate the Jewish annual festivals, they were mandated by temple officials to change their coins through the money changers who hung around the temple’s premises. These money changers charged very exorbitant rates for their transactions.
Further, God specifically gave Moses the exact description of the types of animals that could be accepted for sacrifices in the temple for various annual festivals (Leviticus 22: 17-25). To be acceptable to God for sacrifice, these animals must be unblemished. Surprisingly, some Jews would still bring animals with various shades of defects and blemishes to the temple during the annual festivals for sacrifices, all of which would be flatly rejected by the temple officials. To be deemed acceptable, those who brought defective animals to the temple were also mandated to have their animals changed, a situation which also made the animal-changers to charge the people exorbitantly to have their animals switched.
It would interest you to know that Caiaphas, the High Priest, according to Jewish history, had a major stake in both the animal and the money-changing businesses, which explained why he and the rest of the aristocratic Sadducees hated Jesus so implacably. We would recall that Jesus once whipped the money changers out of the temple, scattering their money changing tables (John 2:14-15). We would now understand why Caiaphas, the High Priest, was ready to get rid of Jesus when the opportunity came his way. Jesus was denying them of a lot of free money.
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Famed Jewish historians, Flavius Josephus and Herodotus, in their numerous accounts of Jewish history, wrote that Caiaphas, the High Priest, was very corrupt. Aside from plying his trade in the money and animal-changing businesses, he actually became the High Priest under very controversial and dubious circumstances. He was alleged to have bribed his way through the rank and file of the Roman government to clinch the juicy position. In fact, he used more than the stipulated number of years as High Priest, having bought his way into the hearts of the Roman government.
Just like our Saviour, if you dare stand up against this money-changing business, you could be cancelled or may be as good as dead. The money-changing business is at the centre of the world’s system. It is a very lucrative business in the world, and now, sadly, in the church. You cannot be part of the real Jesus of the Bible and be a monetiser of His grace and gifts.
Aren’t we seeing a repeat of history in these historical accounts? The crucifixion of Jesus came with an array of “behind the doors” scheming of corrupt religious leaders, ably facilitated by Judas, whose story will be told in the second part of this writeup. But here is the main point of this story: Jesus was hated to the point of death, not just because of His ministry or His miracles, but because He was a major stumbling block to the money-changing empire of the corrupt Roman elites. History is still repeating itself — the church of Christ has been fully monetised by a daring money-changing syndicate that has had many so-called pastors and ministers of God, both in word and in music, openly and brazenly trade the gifts of God in their lives for monetary benefits.
Just like our Saviour, if you dare stand up against this money-changing business, you could be cancelled or may be as good as dead. The money-changing business is at the centre of the world’s system. It is a very lucrative business in the world, and now, sadly, in the church. You cannot be part of the real Jesus of the Bible and be a monetiser of His grace and gifts.
This week in history begins Jesus’s journey to the cross, with a lot of twists and schemes. A lot of personalities played very active roles in planning His arrest and subsequent execution, some of whom include Caiaphas, Judas, and Pilate, among others. Aside from the messianic role He had been destined to play for humanity, His aversion to corruption, His constant affirmation of His supremacy and deity, and in particular, His condemnation of the highly lucrative money-changing business sent Him to the cross for you and I.
To be continued in part 2 as we dive into the Judas’s ministry.
Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.
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