THE STORY OF
MATTISON
Mattison’s dad was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin living in Jerusalem. He was best friends with the High Priest, Caiaphas. The Sanhedrin was the group that governed the Jewish people directly under Rome. They were the most elite and supposedly the most spiritual leaders of the Jews. They made all the rules (under Rome, of course).
“Mattison, come into my study; I need to ask you a question.”
“Coming, Dad.”
“Mattison, I am going to send your mother and the girls out of the city for a couple of weeks. I thought I would make sure what you wanted to do. I felt you would choose to stay in Jerusalem for Passover, but if you prefer to go to the shore with your mother and sisters, that can be arranged.”
“This will be my first official Passover as a man, and yes, I would prefer to stay in the city. But it is rather a hassle. The crowds get worse every year, and I know you’ll be busy with responsibilities. But, yes, I guess I would like to stay just because it’s my first Passover as a man. It would be a shame to miss the Seder meal.”
“I know you are out of school for the month. Do you have any plans or any projects due?” asked Dad.
“No, I’m pretty much free to study what I please, but I do have one report to complete on whatever I choose to study during the break. It won’t take long to throw something together. I don’t think the rabbis read them anyway. What have you got on your mind?”
“I just wanted you to know that if you want to stay here, I would enjoy your company. We haven’t had much time to talk recently.”
“I’ve been focusing on Roman law and it’s been keeping me pretty busy,” said Mattison.
“I guess that’s why we need to catch up — I thought you were studying Jewish Law.”
“It’s the future, Dad. I figure I know enough of the Jewish Law, and I need to understand the Roman law to be able to keep Rome happy.”
“Well, it’s going to be the end of Jewish rule if we don’t get this chaos under control. Rome is ready to crack down on us if we don’t get the people settled down. And everywhere I turn there’s a new uprising.”
“Is it really any worse than it’s always been? I mean, there have always been uprisings.”
“In the past, the revolts have been localized — usually in one city or one region. This man, Jesus, travels from the top of Galilee, all through Samaria and to the bottom edge of Judea. He’s got followers in the thousands at any location where he chooses to teach.
“If they plan to take over Jerusalem next week during Passover, we would be outnumbered. We would have to call in Roman troops, and once we do, then Rome will use it as an excuse to oust us. If we can’t control the people — they will.”
“I didn’t realize it was that serious, Dad.”
“Well, it is, and that’s one reason I want your mother and sisters out of here.”
“Wow. How can I help?”
“Son, it will be a big help just to have you around. It’s nice to have someone to talk with after a hard day. Now, I’ve got another meeting to go to tonight and I’ll probably be out late again. Your mother and sisters will be leaving in the morning. I’ll try to be here to see them off. But I’ll definitely plan to see you tomorrow night for Sabbath dinner.”
Mattison and his dad felt strange eating the Sabbath meal with just the two of them. He was glad he hadn’t left his dad alone. Usually they had friends over, or at least had Mother and the girls here. But this Friday night, they ate together and mostly in silence. When the meal was over, Dad lay back on his cushion and began to talk.
“At the meeting of the Sanhedrin last night, we decided to post spies throughout the city so that we could keep an eye on Jesus and know his every move.
“We also decided that it was too dangerous to try to arrest him during the Passover celebration. He has too many supporters. We need to catch him alone.”
“Are you sure he’s coming to Jerusalem for the Passover on Friday?” asked Mattison.
“Yes, and in fact there was one report that he and his group of disciples were sighted in Bethany yesterday, but it wasn’t verified. If he was there, he didn’t stay at the usual place.”
On Sunday morning, Mattison and his dad shared breakfast and then his dad headed to the temple while Mattison decided to walk toward Bethany and see if he could do some spying on his own.
Just as he got to the edge of Jerusalem, his jaw dropped as he realized that he was being engulfed in some humongous uprising. A man was riding on a donkey colt like the old kings of Jewish history, and hundreds of people were throwing palm branches and coats and making a carpet for him to enter the city of Jerusalem.
This was not what Mattison had expected. This was not a man and his 12 followers — this was the whole nation of Israel. The people were singing “Hosanna to the Highest.” They were proclaiming that Jesus was the rightful King of Israel and that he was coming to take over Jerusalem.
The people were shouting:
“Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom
of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”1
Mattison couldn’t move. He was frozen by the shock of it, but also by the beautiful sight of all the people gathered around their King. Is my mind playing tricks? Is this the Messiah? He probably stood there for only a few seconds, but it seemed like 30 minutes before he realized he had to get word to his dad.
He ran as fast as he could to the temple. He told them what he had seen, and all the Jewish leaders ran toward the crowd to try to break it up.
Mattison heard one of the Pharisees order Jesus to make his followers stop. But Jesus replied:
“I tell you, ... if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”2
Wow! thought Mattison. This guy really believes that he is the Messiah. He must be crazy! But he couldn’t stop the thought that also came: What if he is the Messiah?
Mattison wanted to be home for dinner to talk with his dad, but his dad never showed up and finally Mattison ate alone. The servants would fix his dad a late plate whenever he arrived.
For the first time in a long time, Mattison had a desire to look at the Jewish Scripture. He went into his dad’s study but couldn’t find any scrolls, and he certainly didn’t want to walk back to the temple. Maybe he would do his report on the various predictions about the Messiah. That could prove interesting.
After breakfast on Monday morning, Mattison decided to walk to the temple and check out what the Jewish Scripture says about the Messiah. As he got closer, he kept meeting people who were running from the temple. Mattison was terrified that something horrible was happening and he began to run toward the gates. But the people kept pushing him back.
He ran around to the gates on the other side of the temple and the crowd seemed to be less. He was finally able to push his way into the temple courtyard. His eyes could not believe what he saw. Instead of the booths where cows and sheep and doves were sold, he just saw chaos.
Tables were overturned and the courtyard looked like a tornado had just blown through. The animals were all gone, and debris was everywhere.
Mattison was trying to figure out what could have caused such a mess, and where were the animals?
As Mattison looked around, he noticed that Jesus was standing on the temple steps calmly teaching a small group of people. But that small group of people was growing larger as more and more people arrived in the courtyard. Mattison couldn’t decide whether to listen to Jesus teach, or to go inside and work on his school project. But while he was deciding, he saw Jesus heal a crippled woman, and then a leper.
Even though he was fascinated, he decided to go inside and look at the scrolls. When he got inside, he found that the room was packed full of scribes who were all seeking the same answers he was. There was no way he was going to be able to do any research on the Messiah today.
Mattison went back to the courtyard and stood to listen to Jesus teach. Jesus taught by telling simple stories called parables. He heard Jesus tell a story about women being prepared for a wedding, and he heard a story about a businessman returning and finding some of his servants prepared and one not prepared. Mattison couldn’t figure out what these stories had to do with whether Jesus was the Messiah or not. So, he decided to go and see if he could find some friends to hang out with.
That night his dad told him that Jesus had totally wrecked the courtyard of the temple and that he was behaving more and more like a madman.
Mattison asked what happened to the animals and his dad admitted that none of them were harmed. The animals just wandered around the city streets until the priests could round them all up again. Essentially, no harm had been done — it had just disrupted a whole day of business at the temple. They had made very little money that day and Caiaphas, the high priest, was not happy about that.
“Why don’t you arrest him?” Mattison asked.
“Because the people love him, and it would start a riot! We’ve got to find a way to arrest him when there’s not so many crowds.
“Did I ever tell you what happened last year when he was teaching in the temple and we sent the temple guard to arrest him?” asked his dad.
“No, I don’t think so. What happened?” asked Mattison.
“Well, we sent an entire temple guard to go arrest Jesus because he was teaching at the temple without our permission. We waited and waited and waited for them to return.
“Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why didn’t you bring him in?’
“‘No one ever spoke the way this man does,’ the guards replied.3
“So, he hypnotized even the soldiers!” Dad shook his head as he remembered that day.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t worse at the temple today. He’s got a lot of power and I don’t understand why he doesn’t use it. He seems to have some plan that we just can’t figure out.”
Mattison told his dad, “I stopped and listened to Jesus teach for a little while this morning. He seems to teach in very simple stories, but I didn’t understand the point. He was talking about being prepared. But I’m not sure what he wants us to be prepared for. Do you think it’s some kind of secret code?”
“I don’t know, Son, I just don’t know. I’m going to bed early and try to get some rest. These late-night meetings are killing me.”
“Sleep well, Dad. Hopefully, things will settle down soon.”
“We got him! Mattison, where are you? We got him!” Dad was yelling as he came in the front door.
“Dad, slow down. You got Jesus?” Mattison asked, “How?”
“Well, we don’t have him yet. But this afternoon one of his apostles came and made a deal with us. He will lead us to Jesus when there are no crowds around, and we paid him for his services.”
“Dad, are you sure this isn’t a trap? That sounds pretty suspicious to me!”
“He says he knows where Jesus spends the nights, and we’ll catch him totally unaware. He says he will let us know in a few days when the time will be perfect.
“Until then, we can just relax and let Jesus teach all he wants. Judas — that’s the man’s name — said that Jesus isn’t making any plans to overthrow the temple or Rome, so we can relax.”
“Sounds like a follower who isn’t happy with the plan,” said Mattison.
“Exactly. It seems to me he thought Jesus was planning a big revolt, and now he’s disappointed with the lack of action.”
Mattison hadn’t seen his dad this relaxed in months. He had intended to look up those Scriptures about the Messiah tomorrow. But obviously, that wasn’t important now. This man couldn’t be the Messiah. Maybe he and his dad could take the day off and go fishing tomorrow. It would do them both good to get out of the city and have some fun.
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