Clearing the Way
Their focus on survival opened the doors to all kinds of abuses and these men in their fear began to treat access to God as a commodity to be bought and sold pushing those with less ability to pay to the margins and eventually out the door. Survival of the institutional identity became the top priority of the temple leadership and the covenant of relationship slowly became a commercial contract of legal obligations. Into that situation Jesus came into Jerusalem in the manner prescribed for the prophesied Messiah: