At the end of the day, I paid the chief priests. Packed up my wares. Shuffled out of the temple. The moon hung low in the sky. A good day. A strange man had been there. Questioning our very existence. How else to provide for my family?
The next morning, I set up early. Before the sun rose above the temple. Nearest to the door to get the most traffic. The strange man was there again. He drew curious crowds with him. People who came not for buying but to listen. To pray. And they blocked the tables. I could hear him. His words filled my head and stilled my hands. More and more entered, themselves stilled. So many that the air inside became thick and quiet.
Another day. Another early morning. Fewer sellers set up stalls within the temple. Some stood on the empty tables to get better view of this strange new teacher. I saw one of the scribes’ spies on the outside of the crowd, but he could find no way in as the crowd was too tight. I could barely pay the chief priests their fee that night, so little had I made.
On the fourth day, only two sellers set up. An even larger crowd came to listen the whole day. Their faces became beatific. Calm. The crowd grew and grew. And I packed my table and listened. And my heart filled with such peace.
The fifth day, I did not even bring my wares. But there was no teacher. No sellers. Only those left behind.
Luke 19:41-48 Morning Prayer
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’ Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, ‘It is written, “My house shall be a house of prayer”; but you have made it a den of robbers. Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Image: “Christ Chasing the Moneylenders from the Temple” CASTIGLIONE, Giovanni via Web Gallery of Art, wga.hu
SpirARTuality 