JCS: The Temple
Listen along!
111 - The Temple
Okay, first off, I endured a bizarre string of events that kept me from writing yesterday, you can check it out (TWO devotional-esque writings in one day should make up for it) here.
Anyways, this is a bizarre song. It starts off with the merchants and moneylenders singing a cool song about hocking their wares in the Temple and then Jesus comes in and Hulks out and everyone freaks. Definitely happened, that's in the Bible and a cool story. Why did Jesus do it? Besides the overt reason there's another: this den of thieves was set up in the outer ring of the Temple, the area that the gentiles were allowed into (the entire Temple was divided up into sections where more privilege and power meant more access). By cluttering up the gentile area, gentiles were denied access to the Temple and therefore God, the prime resident of the Temple. Jesus clearing out the Temple was symbolic of creating access from gentiles to God, something unheard of until that time.
The actual event happens in Mark 11 and John 2 and it happens about the same in the Bible. Mark includes that this is the act that really turned the Pharisees against Jesus.
The next part of the song is a deviation from the Gospels. It's essentially the crowd singing to Jesus, "Heal this! Help me with this! Fix this!" They're acting in faith but it's all want want want. Jesus' reaction is interesting: "There's too many of you -- don't push me / There's to little of me -- don't crowd me / Heal yourselves!" I'm afraid that this is rather unbiblical as there is no time that I can think of where Jesus denied healing to anyone. And there is definitely a tale told of when Jesus healed a woman unintentionally when she just touched him.
But perhaps this is more symbolic. Jesus was constantly being asked to give give give (Was? Is. Listen to our prayers sometime.). When did anyone give to him in the opera? There's one instance: Mary with the perfume. Maybe this is just what Jesus might have felt? Indignation at an ungrateful people?
I suppose this half of the song is a bit suspect but it isn't implausible. Just like most of the opera. The addendums to the Gospels aren't half-baked, they could have happened, just fleshing things out a bit more. And I like that, it's ambitious. It's probably not perfect, but it is at least interesting!
posted by Matt Wiggins @ 3:29 PM
1 Comments:
I think that's all we can ever really do is bring our thoughts to the stories of Christ. We through reading and living (not to mention thinking and praying [not in that order]), interpret the story of Jesus through our own experiences and that is what the play has to do. As a portrayal of Scripture, it has to fill in places that are, not necessarily "empty", but don't account for our modern sense of progression.
I've been reading "Eat This Book" by Eugene Peterson (of The Message fame), and in it he poses the idea that Scripture wasn't originally written down. It was, similar to most stories and history of the day, originally a verbal account of the happenings throughout the history of the Bible. Peterson goes on to suggest that something is lost in the writing down of such history. If not just the mere sense of connection in hearing another's voice, then most definitely the ability to ask questions and get fresh answers. Peterson uses the example of asking a book a question and that you'll always get the same answer. Perhaps this is writing down of the Scripture is where we lost some of the personal connections that might fill the gaps in the story. As drama is a means of recounting history that is similar to the oral storytelling, these holes are re-filled (sometimes accurately, sometimes not).
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