Thepfulhouvi Solo
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ethpage on the Mount of Olives, the village from where Jesus got a donkey and her colt for his journey to Jerusalem, is no longer in existence today. It has become part of Jerusalem city and the Mount Olive today is a succession of well maintained terraces with snarled ancient Olive Trees.
I stood deep in thought, near a big stone at the top of the Mount where Jesus might have prayed on the night of his arrest. The place today appears like any well maintained Municipal Park of a modern city than an ancient place and this appearance deflects some of your wonderment; yet the place still gives the feeling of a solemn deep sense of an amazing loss and one is left in wonderment like when one see the unimaginably huge and awfully tall Pyramids of Egypt with millions of upon millions of big stones.Away from the Mount of Olive in the distant is seen Mount Zion with its unmistakable golden Dome of Al Aqsa Mosque, where Abraham once horribly nearly killed his only son for sacrifice to his God, and as one descends from the Mount of Olive through ‘the graveyard of the field of blood’, bought with 30 pieces of Silver Judas Iscariot threw away at the feet of the chief priests stood in the days of Jesus, the ancient Temple of Jerusalem with spacious courtyard where Jesus had serious confrontations with the Religious Leaders of the day that led to his arrest and crucifixion.
I pointed at the shining golden Dome of the Mosque to the Israeli Tourist Guide from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Israel and jestingly told her:
“You will not feel sad if today a Thunderbolt from the Sky fell on that Dome?”
“No” She said, smiling understandingly!
It was at the end of a long foot Journey 2000 years ago from Galilee to Judea late one day at the Religious Pass-over Feast, that Jesus reached Jerusalem and found in the Temple Court people doing brisk business in the bazaars of the 5 sons of the chief priest Anna selling officially certified animals and Birds needed for the religious Sacrifices; there were the money changers too doing hugely profitable money exchange business.
No one dared question the quality of the officially certified less than prime animals and Pigeons sold for the sacrifices or the value of the exchanged currencies because they are all under the patronage of Anna, the all powerful wily chief priest and his cawed down, obedient Sanhedrin.
The Gospel Writers wrote that Jesus made a whip of rope and drove away the shop keepers and upturned the Tables of the Money Changers.
He said:
“It is written my house shall be called a house of prayers, and you have made it a den of robbers”.
Mat. 21:13.
All marveled at Jesus earnestness and his courage.
Today’s well breakfasted Dr. Reverends usually preach conveniently in the morning at 10 am or Late in the evening with steaming dinner waiting!
Jesus was in the temple court at dawn without Breakfast and feeling hungry: many came very early to listen to him.
The Gospel writers recorded:
“The blind and the lame were brought and he healed them all”
John. 7:26.
Just then (at Dawn?), the Teachers of Law and the Pharisees brought to him a woman “caught in the act of Adultery” and asked him what to do with her: the Law of Moses instructs “to stone such women”.
Jesus did not say anything; he only stooped down and wrote on the ground. When the people persisted, ‘he straightened up and said to them’;
“if anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”; again he stooped down and continued to write.
At this, the people left one by one, the older the first, and left the Woman and Jesus alone. Jesus stood up and asked her:
“Has no one condemned you?
The woman said: “No one Sir”.
Then Jesus said:
“Neither do I condemn you, go and leave your life of sin”.
Jn.8:1-11.
[This story is recorded in none of the Gospels of Mathew, Mark or Luke; in the Gospel of John also, it is said not found in the earliest copies of Manuscripts. John, is said to be the last of the Apostle to die A.D. 90 – 100 in the Island of Patmos and he might have recollected and added (personal view) at last so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” John 20:31]
The Gospel of Jesus is doing what the Law of Moses could not!
The Chief Priests and the Elders again came to Jesus while he was preaching in the Courtyard. They came and asked as to who gave him the permission to preach in the Temple Courtyard.
Jesus replied them:
“I will also ask you one question and if you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things: ‘John’s Baptism’ -where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men?-’”
The Chief Priests and the Elders knew there are only two options to answer: -one, ‘from Man’, in which case it will cause the ire of the Crowd surrounding them in the Temple Court and whose approval the Religious Leaders hanker after, for the People believe the Baptism of John came from God; -two, ‘from Heaven’, which will automatically attract further embarrassing questions from Jesus they try to avoid.
The Chief Priest and the Teachers of Law are intelligently wise hypocrites and so they said: “we do not know”.
Therefore to expose them, Jesus told a parable of Two Sons –one brashly honest, the other -intelligently suave prodigal.
The father asked his sons to go and work in their Vineyard: one said he will go and work but did not; the other said he will not but later went and worked.
Jesus asked the Chief Priest and the Elders in front of the Temple Court Crowd which of the two sons obeyed their Father. They replied it was: ‘the one who went and worked’: It is not Words but Deeds that that is the Gospel of Jesus.
Earlier in the Week on his way to Jerusalem of Judea from Capernaum of Galil; Jesus stopped at the world’s Oldest City of Jericho and stayed in the house of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector. Over the Dinner in the Host Zacchaeus said he would give half of his possessions to the poor and four times of anything if he had cheated anybody.
Jesus said,
“Today, Salvation has come to this house”.
This was a week ago and later In the morning of the day Jesus was in the Temple Court, and had healed the soul of a Woman caught in the act of Adultery; when the Priests and the Pharisees did not reply his question whether John’s Baptism is from Heaven or from Man and when they replied they did not know, Jesus openly called Spade a Spade in their face.
Jesus told them:
“Tax Collectors and Prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you”!
Jesus also taught the people in the face of the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees:
“The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat.
So you must obey them and do everything they tell you.
But do not what they do, for they do not what they preach. They tie heavy load on men’s shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them”.
Mt. 23: 2-4.
Some unlicensed Church Leaders in Nagaland today teach much Theology like Licensed Church Workers; but both do not what they preach. The Gospel of Jesus is doing it.
What harsh necessity and unpalatable confrontation it is! The Gospel of Jesus is not of knowing only or of giving sermon alone.
Jesus advised his followers to hear the Teachings of the Pharisees but not to adopt their life styles, for they preach but do not what they preach. The Gospel of Jesus is Love in action; not of preaching Grace and not doing it. Teaching the Gospel alone of Jesus without action is ‘empty Vessels sound much’ and is concrete example of intelligent Hypocrisy.
This is a very serious condemnation of the Invited but not of the Selected. The Union Public Service Commission invites many applications for attractive top-class jobs in the Country but only a small fraction of the Applied is selected for the jobs.
The land of the Nagas has much preaching and much Sermons.
The Identity of Jesus is known to whoever does what Jesus Preached; the rest is all sounding Cymbals!
