It was Samuel’s twelfth birthday and for the first time in his life, he would accompany his Father Lemuel to the Passover in Jerusalem. Every Jewish male from twelve years on was to make the pilgrimage to the Holy City and to the temple to make their Passover sacrifice. It was a long journey so Lemuel traveled it without his family - until this year. Samuel was twelve and had to accompany his father. He and his father traveled with a caravan of pilgrims for safety. The roads were rough and dusty and the trip was long since most caravans traversed Samaria. Bad blood between the two peoples made Samaria dangerous due to thieves and attacks. Lemuel chose the safest path, mostly because of his son, Samuel.
Along the road, Samuel saw a road sign. It was something that was not needed in his rural area. It said Jerusalem with an arrow. “Are we there, Father?” he asked.
Lemuel laughed. “No, Samuel, that is only a road sign. It points in the direction of the temple. Signs are never the actual thing. Signs help people to find the temple. Signs point the way but they are only signs.” Lemuel thought for a moment. He smiled inwardly at the profundity of the thought before he spoke again. “Son, in many ways the temple is also a sign. It points to the day the Messiah will come.”
Samuel thought before asking, “When will the Messiah come? I’ve heard people on pilgrimage talk about a wild man that lives in the wilderness that is baptizing people and he says the kingdom of God is at hand. Some say he might be the Messiah. Do you think we might see him? Do you think he is the Messiah?”
“I’ve heard the same tales. Most likely they are just that—stories. I’ve heard that the baptizer does not claim to be the Messiah but a messenger. Some have said he is Elijah who is a forerunner to the Messiah. Scripture tells us that one like Elijah will return to announce the arrival of the Messiah.” Lemuel paused before adding, “Honestly, I have only heard tales and they could be nothing but that. Time will tell.” The two walked on with Samuel storing up all the comments and the conversation in his heart.
The day and time had come and Samuel’s eyes grew wide as he stared at the thousands and thousands of people crammed into the streets of Jerusalem. They were from all over. He heard different languages and saw different clothing. He also saw the Roman soldiers posted along the streets that moved the thick crowd toward the temple. He knew they were there to strike down any rebellion and to keep the faithful from growing unruly. He was afraid to stare at them but couldn’t keep from throwing quick, furtive glances in their direction.
Samuel’s group pressed on through the city until the temple loomed high before them. The entire area for the temple was about fourteen acres. It was massive therefore thousands could easily join the celebration of the Passover. Thousands were pushing their way into the temple that day.
Far above them, Samuel saw two men standing and talking on a balcony. He looked up. One was dressed in the robes of a priest but not just a simple priest. His adornments and rich fabric clothing made him one of the highest in the priestly line. The other wore the clothing of a Roman leader. The man walking next to Samuel noticed the boy staring at the two men. He nudged him and spoke.
“Boy, that is the high priest Caiaphas. The other is the Roman pig sent to rule over us. He is Pontius Pilate. They both are making money off us poor Jews. The two are thick as thieves.”
Samuel was surprised that someone would call a priest a thief. The high priest was the leading teacher, the highest religious figure in the city and at the temple. At the same time he wondered what his walking partner meant. He would soon discover why Caiaphas was believed to be corrupt. Samuel and his father walked on and the temple grew continuously larger in the boy’s eyes. The people around him grew thicker as they all approached the gates. The gates were wide to allow people to enter but the throng of pilgrims was greater. The bottleneck slowed each approaching person.
Later Samuel’s would know that his walking neighbor was right. When Pilate forced the Roman deity of Caesar upon the Jews, Caiaphas stood back and allowed it. It was Caiaphas who permitted the Court of the Gentiles in the temple to be used for the selling of sacrificial animals, the money changers, and the tax collectors to operate inside the gates. He took his cut from every coin changed and every sacrifice sold. He was defiling the temple to fill his pockets to the tune of millions each year and Pilate took his cut from Caiaphas. They were thick as thieves because they were thieves.
Samuel’s eyes grew wider as he strolled into the Court of the Gentiles where it was intended for non-Jews to come and worship. It would be impossible for anyone to worship in the din of noise and the bustling marketplace. His ears rang with the sound of clanking coins piling higher and higher on makeshift wooden tables, cooing doves, the bleating of lambs, and mooing of cattle. He tugged at his father’s robe and asked, “Father, why are there so many men sitting at tables changing coins?” They seemed to fill in every possible nook and cranny in what appeared to be the largest marketplace in the land.
Lemuel answered honestly but with a scowl, “Son, the temple tax has to be paid in shekels. Those men are changing our Roman coins into shekels so we can pay our tax. The Roman coins are covered in the images of Caesar that are seen as unclean. Romans consider Caesar a god and we, Jews, only worship one God. Our coins, shekels, carry only non-human images.”
“How do we know they are fair when they exchange the coins?”
“They aren’t. These are not honest men. They are men here to make money off of us poor pilgrims.” Lemuel paused and sighed, “But, son, we have no choice. This the way it is. We accept it so we can have our Passover in Jerusalem as God commanded,” Lemuel answered.
The boy stood staring at the pens of animals all around him. “Father, our lambs are more perfect than these. Why did we have to buy one here for the sacrifice? We could have brought one of our own.”
“The priests reject animals brought from our villages. The only ones accepted, imperfect or not, are bought here. Again, that is just the way it is. We have no choice.” The father turned his son’s face toward himself and said, “We didn’t come here to change things. We came here to celebrate the Passover. We keep ourselves out of the priest’s business and out of Rome’s business,” his father explained as he approached a money changer. He attempted to negotiate the exchange but he knew it would be fruitless but Lemuel had to try. He and his son walked towards a pen of lambs. It was a makeshift combination of sticks and twine. They looked over the animals. Although, Lemuel knew that two turtle doves would cost him roughly 800% of their real value, he chose to sacrifice a lamb this year since it was the first time Samuel had made the trip.
As he looked over the animals, he shook his head. Samuel was right, any one of their own lambs were better than these. But as he explained to his son, they had no choice. This was how it was to be and he accepted it. He turned to his son and said, “Come, we must finish our ritual cleansing in the mikveh pools then we will buy our sacrifice and prepare for our Passover feast.”
Before the Passover, a pilgrim must go through a ritual cleansing to bring themselves into a spiritual state. Pools of water were dug in the rock then lined with plaster. Those who were to take part in the feast needed to clean themselves first. The cleansing would usually take seven days and often began on the pilgrimage.
For each of us, in the service today, our Lenten season is meant to be a time when we take forty days to spiritually prepare ourselves for Easter much like Jesus took forty days in the wilderness to prepare himself for his ministry. Spiritual preparation before a religious day is a centuries old tradition. Jesus followed those same traditions. The pilgrims followed those same traditions and at this present time, you, too, are following the tradition of spiritual preparation. We are preparing by cleansing our own temples, our bodies, our lives and our minds. We are preparing to meet the living Christ on Easter day. Samuel’s story will be clearer to us if we keep this age old tradition of cleansing in our minds.
Samuel and Lemuel prepared themselves in the mikveh (mick-va) pool. Once they were cleansed, the two walked back toward the fenced-in lambs but Samuel was distracted. People were running from the temple porches into the dirty courtyard. Behind them were lambs racing to freedom, their bleating was loud. He saw doves rising into the air. The sound of wooden tables crashing to the ground followed by the clanging of coins being strewn across the stone porches reached his ear only a moment before he saw the figure of a man ripping open the pens, releasing more animals then tossing a table filled with coins to the earth. The strong figure carried a whip made from cords that he cracked in the air above the cattle. The man’s eyes were bright but had a sadness to them.
If John the Baptist was the forerunner to the Messiah, then is this the one prophesied about in the scripture? He watched closely.
Jesus broke open a cage of doves and scattered them while pointing his finger at the sellers. He commanded them, “Get these out of here! You are turning my Father’s house into a market!” Jesus pushed over another table of coins before taking another step. He was now directly in front of Samuel. The boy stared at his face.
Before Jesus could take another step, the Jews and the merchants inside the Court of the Gentiles shouted angrily toward him, “What sign or miracles can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Samuel stared at this man others called Jesus. If he was the Messiah would he do a miracle in front of them? Was he there to free the nation of Israel? Samuel waited for the reply.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
The Jews were taken back. Some laughed. Some grew angry that this mad man would interrupt their money making and then say something as preposterous at that. They replied, “It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
Jesus pushed his way past the Jews and toward the gate.
Samuel didn’t understand what he had meant by the temple. He looked around him at the great structure and he could not understand how one man could build it again in three days. He thought long and hard over the next few days as they finished the Passover Celebration and began their journey back home. He listened to learned men discuss what they had seen and heard. They discussed the scripture and the words sunk deep into his mind.
Over the next two years, the father and son traveled to the Passover in Jerusalem. Samuel caught glimpses of Jesus as he strode through the Court of the Gentiles. He had heard stories of great miracles conducted by this young rabbi. He had seen nothing himself but Samuel had heard of the miracles and he heard people talk. Some believed. Others said they had been there when he fed five thousand people from a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. Others were frightened that Jesus would bring the Roman occupiers down on their heads by rhetoric.
Three years after Samuel and his father had gone to their first Passover together, Lemuel fell sick. He was unable to make the journey and Samuel was needed to tend to family business and watch over his mother and three sisters. The week was moving slowly in his small village. He was helping his sisters bring water from the well, when a traveler came through telling the news that Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas had condemned Jesus and He was crucified on a cross. Samuel’s heart sank but he noticed a glint of joy in the traveler’s eyes. The man went on to say, “But three days later Jesus rose from the dead.” The traveler said that he saw the empty tomb himself. It was a miracle.
Three days, Samuel thought, “In three days Jesus would raise the temple. Samuel thought hard about his encounter with Jesus. Then it struck him that Jesus said that he was the temple that would be raised again in three days. He could see plainly that the temple Samuel had stood in was like a road sign pointing to the Messiah. He understood then that this Jesus that had stood so close to him in the temple three years before was actually the Messiah. At that moment he believed that Jesus was the Son of God, who like the lamb Samuel and his father had sacrificed, was sacrificed for the sins of the world.
As we reflect during our Lenten journey, we need to store up the things we will hear and have heard about Jesus. We need to continue to make of journey of spiritual cleansing as we approach Good Friday and then the Lord’s marvelous resurrection on Easter Sunday. May Samuel’s story help us to prepare for that wonderful day.
Amen.