By Rev Mcdonald Pyngrope
The entire world celebrates Good Friday as the day when Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of humanity. Though, the simple lenses tell a rather ordinary Jewish legal process to prosecute Jesus’ deeds but what lies behind the seemingly normal legal prosecution elucidates a somewhat disturbing political plot against Jesus. People of those days were following the instructions of the priesthood in day-to-day activities. However, Jesus’ preaching the Kingdom of God and miracles liberated the people from few unnecessary religious rituals, thereby, inviting enmity from the religious establishment who made multiple attempts on his life but failed. But his ultimate action of cleansing the Temple according to the synoptic gospels, zealously angered the priesthood who plotted his murder. This Temple corruption is briefly highlighted by Josephus, Philo, and extensively by Targumic traditions, Tannaitic traditions and early Amoraic traditions.
The High Priesthood was controlled by four prominent families: the Boethus, Annas, Phabi, and Kamith. From these four families, Caiaphas, the High Priest, was a son-in-law of Annas and appointed by the Roman governor Valerius Gratus in either 18 C.E. or 19 C.E.. Simultaneously, Josephus describes the opulence of the Temple and the incredible wealth of its treasury. He tells us that the building and its gates were overlaid with gold, and that over the entrance hung an enormous grape cluster (“as tall as a man”) made of gold. From Josephus we also learn of the great political power of the Temple establishment. The power of the ruling priests was by Roman design, for it was the best way to guarantee tranquillity and taxation. Again, such a political arrangement certainly establishes a context in which political and economic abuses flourished. Thus, the Temple establishment and the Jewish ruling aristocracy were virtually one and the same. The Temple wealth comes from the annual taxes, profits from sacrificial items and other tithes and offerings which is the religious customs of the day but the majority of the profits comes firstly, by overcharging prices of sacrificial items and secondly, the exorbitant rate of exchange of Roman currency into the Tyrian coin as only Tyrian coin was accepted at Temple purchases. The currency exchanges were contracted to the money changers, who were evidently relatives of the chief priests. According to a Tannaitic tradition, a Rabbi Simeon Ben Gamaliel (ca. 10-80 C.E.) vigorously protested, because the exorbitant price of a pair of doves had been raised to one gold dinar, a price some twenty-five times the proper charge. It should be remembered that the dove was the poor man’s sacrifice (Lev 5:7; 12:8). In this instance, Simeon’s protest apparently brought about an immediate reduction in the charge to 12 times the original price. Still this was much resented by the poorest among the poor.
Sacrifices played a crucial part in the Jewish faith for right relationship with God, atonement of sins, thanksgiving and other religious reasons. When sacrificial items were highly priced the poor could not afford and failed to perform the necessary religious rites, hence, they believed that their sins were not forgiven and thy were not on the right track with God while the rich went home satisfied and confirmed of God’s answer to their sacrifices. This economic disparity created an apparent spiritual gap between the poor and God. Jesus was angered at the abuses committed by the priesthood at the expenses of the faith of the poor. It is for this reason that Jesus thundered that they have made the Temple a den of robbers. Another firm stance of Jesus is that at the Temple he had many followers but he never instigated them to join him in cleansing the Temple. Rather he did it on his own. A clear reminder to readers to stand alone when there is a firm ground or belief – something which is extraordinarily rare these days.
Therefore, Jesus forgave the sins outside the Temple and without any form of sacrifices needed. This was termed a sacrilegious act according to religious laws. This simple deed eventually threatened the Temple economy and the position of the High Priest Caiaphas. The High Priest was concerned that Jesus’s conduct could jeopardize the tranquility and taxation of the Temple and put his position at risk under Pilate. What is seen is a desperation from the priesthood to eliminate Jesus from their greedy path because they firmly believed Jesus was a threat to their power; their control over the masses; their wealth and position.
Additionally, Pilate was not innocent. As recorded by Tacitus, Pilate became the Governor of Judea at 26 CE, a prefect, a proponent of the empire-religion relationship, a stern believer of the imperial cult (emperor worship), a brutal and a strong Governor. He entered Caesarea with his soldiers carrying the shields bearing the Roman Imperial Cult of Emperor Tiberius, which is against the Jewish First and Second Commandments of the Ten Commandments. The Jews marched to Caesarea to protest for 6 days but Pilate confronted the crowd and the leaders by surrounding them with soldiers. The Jews were ready to die. Thus, Pilate held back and turned to diplomacy to ensure law and order. A brilliant strategist as he was, he turned to the local aristocracy and the temple priests forging treaties with them to control any uprising against Roman rule. Hence, accordingly, the High Priest owed his position to Pilate who can appoint and fire him at will and in turn the priest acts as the mediator between the Governor and the people. Furthermore, a part of the temple tax goes to the Romans which were used to build aqueducts by Pilate thereby angering the people.
Extra biblical sources portray, to a certain degree, a Pilate apprehensive about Jesus. Perhaps because Jesus was from Galilee, a region considered so seditious, akin to troublemakers and a fanatical sect (zealots). Again, Pilate would visit Jerusalem five times during the Passover feast knowing well that Galileans are numerously present on national and religious identity festivals. Further visits to Jerusalem were made three times a year to boost security during the hostility he faced from the Galileans according to Josephus. These above may have triggered Pilate’s dislike for Jesus as he had gained massive numbers of followers from Galilee itself and the second reason being the talk of Jesus being the King of the Jews. As King of the Jews he might replace Herod Antipas, a tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, or even challenge Caesar, as Pilate thought but he had no clue how Jesus was going to do it.
Coming back to Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple – an action that indirectly affected the treasury of the Romans, it led Pilate to grow weary of Jesus. He had to do something but the Roman laws did not present an an opportunity as mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 23:18-25. Finally, the opportunity came when the priesthood complained about Jesus and under his orders the soldiers along with Jewish officials arrested Jesus. Mark 15:6-15, presents a reverse psychology tactic from Pilate, when he asked the crowd whether he should release the King of the Jews? But the crowd shouted, ‘crucify him,’ and the chief priest answered that they had no king but Caesar. A deliberate ploy was made to turn the crowd into a judge for Pilate knew they could not bear to have a king who is shamefully crucified for they expected a Messiah to liberate the Jews from Roman rule.
The whole political scene was well planned and executed to perfection to protect the interests of power, wealth and position of the chief priests. Their shared agenda to control the masses from realizing the illusions they were made to follow was fulfilled. And as for Jesus? He died. But His actions have a message for several of today’s churches entrenched in corruption and abuses. Tithes, offerings and donations collected for different projects in the name of GOD seem to accumulate in the pockets of a few leaders. People who speak against unfair administrative systems, corruption, abuses and who stand for truth and justice are either expelled or suspended through extensive high-level planning.
I wonder what would have happened if Jesus was alive today? What would he do to vestries and projects? I bet he would do the same as he did at the Temple and we will be the one who will crucify Him again to protect our shared interests. However, no matter how dark the day and days, He died because he had hope in humanity’s potential to realize the goodness it has and to turn away from selfish motivated actions. His person and work still echo in millions of lives who try to imitate His teachings – The politics of Truth, Justice and Love.