53.1
I see Jesus entering the enclosure of the Temple with Peter, Andrew, John, James, Philip and Bartholomew. There is a very large crowd both inside and outside the enclosure. Pilgrims are arriving in flocks from every part of the town.
From the top of the hill on which the Temple is built, one can see the narrow twisted streets of the town, swarming with people. It seems as though a mobile, multi-coloured ribbon has been laid between the white houses. The town looks like a rare toy indeed, a toy made of gaily-coloured ribbons between two white threads, all converging onto the point where the domes of the House of the Lord are shining.
Inside it is… a real market. The concentration of a holy place has been destroyed. Some run, some call, some bargain for lambs, shouting and cursing because of the extortionate prices, some drive the poor bleating animals into their enclosures (rough partitions made of ropes and pegs, at the entrance of which stand the merchants or owners, awaiting buyers). Blows with cudgels, bleatings, curses, shouts, insults to the boys who are not quick in gathering together or selecting the animals, abuses to the purchasers who haggle over prices or who go away, more serious insults to those who wisely brought their own lambs.
Near the benches of the money-changers there is more bawling. It is obvious that either always, or at Passover time, the Temple operated as a… stock exchange or black market. There was no fixed rate of exchange. There must have been a legal rate, but the money-changers imposed a different one, making whatever profit they fancied for exchanging the money. And I can assure you they were not joking in their usury transactions!… The poorer the people were and the farther they came from, the more they were fleeced: old people more than young people, those coming from beyond Palestine more than the old folk.
Some poor old men looked over and over again at the money they had saved in a whole year, I wonder with how much hard work, they took it out and put it back into their purses dozens and dozens of times, going from one money-changer to another and at times ending up by going back to the first one, who took avenge for their original desertion by increasing the premium for the exchange. And the big coins passed from the hands of the sighing owners into the clutches of the usurers and were changed into smaller coins. Then a further tragedy would take place with vendors over the choice and payment of their lambs, and the poor old men, particularly if they were half blind, were fobbed off with the most wretched little lambs.
53.2
I see an old couple, man and wife, come back pushing a poor little lamb which must have been found faulty by the sacrificers. They cried and begged the vendor, who, far from being moved, replied with nasty words and rude manners.
«Considering what you want to spend, Galileans, the lamb I gave you is even too good. Go away! Or if you want a better one, you must pay five more coins.»
«In the name of God! We are poor and old! Are you going to prevent us from celebrating this Passover which may be our last one? Are you not satisfied with what you wanted for a poor little lamb?»
«Go away, you filthy lot. Joseph the Elder is now coming here. I enjoy his favour. God be with you, Joseph! Come and make your choice!»
The man whose name is Joseph the Elder, that is Joseph of Arimathea, enters the enclosure and picks a magnificent lamb. He passes by, stately and proud, magnificently dressed, without even looking at the poor old people weeping at the gate, that is the enclosure entrance. He almost bumps into them when he goes out with the fat, bleating lamb.
53.3
But Jesus also is now nearby. He also has made His purchase, and Peter, who probably bargained for Him, is pulling a fairly good lamb.
Peter would like to go at once where they offer the sacrifices. But Jesus turns to the right, towards the dismayed, weeping, undecided old couple, who are knocked about by the crowds and insulted by the vendor.
Jesus, Who is so tall that the heads of the poor old souls reach only up to His heart, lays one hand on the shoulder of the woman and asks her: «Why are you crying, woman?»
The little old woman turns round and she sees the young, tall, stately man, wearing a beautiful new white tunic and a snow-white mantle. She must think He is a doctor because of His garments and His appearance and is greatly surprised, because doctors and priests pay no attention to the poor, neither do they protect them from the stinginess of merchants. She explains to Jesus the reason for their tears.
Jesus addresses the lamb vendor: «Change this lamb for these believers. It is not worthy of the altar, neither is it fair that you should take advantage of two poor old people, only because they are weak and unprotected.»
«And who are You?»
«A just man.»
«By Your way of speaking and Your companions’, I know You are a Galilean. Can there be a just man in Galilee?»
«Do what I told you, and be a just man yourself.»
«Listen! Listen to the Galilean Who is defending His equals! And He wants to teach us of the Temple!» The man laughs and jeers, imitating the Galilean accent, which is more musical and softer than the Judaean, at least I think so.
Many people go near them and other merchants and money-changers take their companion’s side against Jesus.
Amongst the people present there are two or three ironical rabbis. One of them asks: «Are You a doctor?», in such a way that even Job would lose his temper.
«Yes, I am.»
«What do You teach?»
«This I teach: to make the House of God a house of prayer and not a usury or a market place. That is what I teach.»