We diverge today from our usual fare, issues of the day, because it was Easter yesterday.
Everything, politics, wars, social/cultural issues and just about everything that is, or ever was, topic du jour, gets discussed, as if money has nothing to do with it. Everything is all ideology or belief systems or some story someone has to tell you for your own good. But by the way do you mind giving the ubiquitous do-gooder a few bucks? For the greater good of course, and yours too.
So where are we going with this you ask? What does money have to do with the Jesus? Well it's not money but the love of money to the exclusion to all else, that is one of the roots of evil. And so it seems that back in the day, you had to belong to the temple. And of course the temple has expenses and The Pharisees have to be paid. They need the shekels, the moola, the bread. So you had to pay taxes to the temple, not just Caesar. What if you didn't have the half a shekel (two drachmas)? Maybe you only had one drachma. People were not just poor but specie or money was not something everyone dealt in, every day. Well that's what the money lenders were doing in the temple. There were there to help you. Of course there was the Vig*. Maybe you paid off the half a shekel and the Vig. Maybe all you could ever come up with was the Vig. And maybe that's why Jesus drove the Shylocks from the temple.
Then there is the Sermon on the Mount. Probably the greatest lecture on humanity ever spoken. It's teachings echo through every day of our lives, even for for followers of other religions, even for atheists.
And Jesus fed the 5,000. Did he actual create enough fish and bread? Did everyone just start to share what they had? Was it a metaphor; If you listen and follow the teachings of Jesus, you are fed spiritually? Take your pick, but at the end of the day, it did not cost anything to listen to Jesus. When the basket was passed, it was to feed people, not to collect shekels and drachmas.
Maybe if you start to follow Jesus, you don't need to go to a temple. Maybe the shekels started to dry up for the Pharisees and their Shylocks too. No more easy moola, no more bread, or fish either. Maybe that's what pissed them off. Maybe it wasn't that Jesus had so many followers. Maybe it wasn't anything he said. Maybe, maybe, he was costing them money. People have been known to kill over that.
Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is his. God wasn't interested in your money. He didn't care how much you had and He didn't need it either.
This has just been one of those idle thought that rattles around in our brains here. We don't aim to preach or ever tell anyone what to think. We just have these thoughts. Maybe we're wrong. Happy Easter to all, even followers of other religions and even you atheists out there.
Dicens simile factum est
Pro Bono Publico
*Vig (short for vigorish), the interest paid to a Shylock on the loan.
