Emphasis Preaching Journal

The world-famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, lasts all day. Scene after scene on the grand stage is enacted before thousands of people, day after day all summer long. Each scene is dramatic and memorable. Long after we had gone home, we pictured again and again the various episodes from that daylong performance.

One scene which is vivid in my memory now, years later, is the "chasing the moneychangers out of the temple" scene. Jesus has a whip in his hand and lashes out at these persons who are desecrating the temple of the Lord God.

In the center of the stage is a large slatted box with doves inside. In the rushing about, the box is upset and the door flies open, and six or eight doves come flying out. They ascend into the open sky above. These doves were being sold by the moneychangers who were taking advantage of he visitors in Jerusalem, charging a high price, gouging them. This infuriated the Master. He said, "My house shall be a house of prayer. You have made it a den of thieves."

(Those doves, by the way, were homing pigeons. They circle off into the distance, and then they returned to their home for the performance the following day.)