The first of 3 new monologues written for our Holy Week Services on the New South and Central Belfast Circuit in a series entitled "In the Footsteps of the Fisherman" looking at the events of Jesus' last week through the eyes of Simon Peter. This one was based on the "mini apocalypse" of Mark 13, where Jesus says that before too long the Temple will be torn down (as it was 40 years later) before going on to refer to other unsettling events...
It’s time… surely it’s time… Time to throw off the yoke of our
oppressors. To take control of our own destiny again. One nation under God.
Time for us to be great again, as we were in the time of David and Solomon when
the temple was first built… Time for us to throw out the foreigners like they
did in the time of the Maccabees when the second temple was ruined. Time to
humble the ruling religious elite down here in Jerusalem… They don’t care one
jot or tittle for us up in the north… They’ve worked hand in glove with the Romans
to squeeze the working men of Galilee dry, while they sit in splendour down
here… The Temple may be magnificent but it was built with the blood, sweat and
tears of men like me over the past 40 years… The Temple Tax bears no relation
to anyone’s ability to pay… we’re just expected to cough up when they demand
payment… And then when you come down here it’s a racket. The temple traders
fleece the pilgrims. And the priests take their cut. Is it any wonder Jesus
overturned the traders’ tables and drove them out earlier in the week, much to
the annoyance of the priests? It’s time the whole thing was torn down and
started again…
So when Jesus said that soon not one
stone of these great buildings would be left standing, my ears pricked up…
Surely that’s what he has been leading us to over the past 3 years… It’s
time for change… OK, when I and my brother and cousins left behind our fishing
nets to follow him I wasn’t sure where he was leading… I wasn’t convinced like
my namesake, Simon the Zealot, or Judas that there had to be a revolution… But
I was looking for something more than just eking out a living from the fishing…
And yet, 3 years on, I’m still not sure… there are times when he warns
us of what is to come… but I’m not sure it’s what we expect…
When he came into the city earlier in the week, everyone could see it
was the fulfilment of the prophesies… they could see he was the promised
Messiah…
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord… Hosanna! We are saved…”
We tore the branches off the trees and the clothes off our backs to lay
down before him as a carpet of honour as he entered the city…
But even then, I wasn’t sure… Yes he rode a donkey colt as the prophet
Zechariah had foretold… but why a donkey? Why not a warhorse? OK… it might have
been slightly harder to get hold of a warhorse at short notice… But a donkey? Frankly,
it looked slightly ridiculous… I’m not sure that it would have left the Romans
quaking for fear… In fact I thought I saw a few of the guards at the gate of
the city laughing… Oh how I would love to see them laughing on the other sides
of their faces…
And even today when Andrew, James and John and I were sitting looking down over the city and asked him explain about the temple being torn
down, he didn’t paint a picture of victory, but of destruction and death… Yes, if
we are to throw out the Romans there will be tough times ahead… but it will be
worth it… Yet he was painting a picture of devastation… and encouraging us to
flee in the face of it… Not exactly a do-or-die, rallying the troops sort of
speech… but a doom, misery and disaster sort of speech!
“Brother will betray brother to death...” he said. “Children will
rebel against their parents and have them put to death… Everyone will hate
you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
My dear brother Andrew joked with us afterwards, he said “The one who stands firm to the end? Hey Simon! Surely that’s you! Didn’t Jesus say you’re the rock on which
he’s going to build his new temple after all these stones are torn down! Mr
Reliable! Simon the Rock!” I don’t know about betraying my brother, but there are times
when I’d also love to see him laughing on the other side of his face!
But surely this is it!? All we have been waiting for, hoping for,
praying for… Surely we are in the last days!?
Selah
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