Well, semester one is nearly finished. Hard to believe. Exams are just around the corner and coming up in a few weeks, which I'm not exactly excited about..but then I do have 5 weeks of holidays to look forward to afterwards.
It's been a busy past month or two. I had two lovely visitors from Toronto here for a week, Easter, a mega squad (taking 30 kids swimming),a wedding, 3 essays due, leading a church service, a new babysitting job...and of course just the normal work load of school and stuff going on at Shop 16.
But, I'm definitely not complaining. Things are going well. I'm having fun and learning a lot, both at school and at the Shop.
One thing I'm finding with school, especially after researching essay topics, is how many more questions spring up in my mind. I guess it's just the way it tends to work when you study theology...the more you learn, the more questions you end up with.
I think I'll throw up a topic that I just talked about in my New Testament lecture this morning. We're working our way through Mark, and today looked at the final days of Jesus' ministry in chapters 11-14.
One specific passage we spent a great deal of time on, was the 'clearing of the temple' in Mark 11:15-19. This passage is right in the middle of the miracle and illustration of the fig tree that Jesus condemns, and its pretty much standard belief that Mark uses that to draw comparison between the fig tree with no fruit, and the temple lacking proper worship of God.
The part that was of debate is the actual purpose of the clearing of the temple. When you see a proper sized illustration of the temple, and realize the thousands and thousands of people it could hold in it's outer courts, you begin to wonder how much of an impact Jesus really made.
Was it a small protest in a corner in the outer courts where sacrificial animals were being sold? Or did Jesus actually halt the all temple function suggested by the language in Mark?
Was this act just in protest to the corrupt trade taking place? Or to all trade in general?
Was Jesus even angry, which is a common assumption? Even though there are no words used of that sort in any of the gospels...only that he had 'zeal' when he was clearing the temple, which is a different thing all together.
Was he actually "cleansing" the temple, as is widely accepted, because there was a need for God to purify His temple? Or was Jesus providing the means for all nations to be welcome to come to and worship at the temple? Or was it a hint at the final days, and that the time of judgement had come?
Or was this simply another act of Jesus to symbolically suggest that there is no longer the need for the temple, or for sacrifices, because the old ways are coming to an end, and a new age will begin in Jesus..the ultimate sacrifice?
It was definitely an interesting lecture despite all the questions given to think about, and the various opinions and ideas on the matter. But, I think I'll just leave it there for now.
Blessings!
