Holy Week: It was on a Monday

It was on the Monday
that religion got in the way.

An outsider would have thought
that it was a pet store’s fire sale.
And the outsider, in some ways,
wouldn’t have been far wrong.

Only, it wasn’t household pets,
it was pigeons that were being purchased.
And it wasn’t a fire sale;
it was a rip-off stall in a holy temple,
bartering birds for sacrifice.
And the price was something only the rich could afford.
No discounts to students, retirees,
the disabled, the mentally ill or the unemployed.

Then He…
the holiest man on earth,
went through the bizarre bazaar
like a bull in a china shop.
So the doves got liberated
and the pigeon sellers got angry.
And the police went crazy
and the poor people clapped like mad,
because he was making a sign
that God was for everybody,
not just for those who could afford him.

He turned the tables on Monday…
The day that religion got in the way.

Excerpted from Stages on the Way, Worship Resources for Lent, Holy Week & Easter by the Wild Goose Worship Group.