The sequence of events in the Gospel According to St.
Matthew may be instructive:
Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi
Transfiguration
Various healings & “Who is the greatest?”
Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
Departure from Galilee to Judea
Restoring of sight to the blind on the way to Judea
Pronouncements
on the Law in Judea, controversy with religious authorities
Triumphal
Entry into Jerusalem
Cleansing
of the Temple [overturning conventions of finance and economic norms]
More
controversy, no more healings.
Having revealed His divine Identity, Jesus makes fior Jerusalem, to
complete the Exodus that He
discussed with Moses and Elijah on Tabor.
The last parable describes the Kingdom (God’s will to be done by humans
on earth as in heaven) as distribution of the fruits of production on the basis
of need, not work: from each according to
ability; to each according to need.
The restoration of sight could indicate a raising of consciousness,
political as well as mystical.
The Cleansing of the Temple, under the authority of the Messiah, Who has just entered the City,
is the first act of realizing the Reign of God on earth in economic terms. The
healings and exorcisms “destroy the works of the devil” in disfiguring the
image of God physically and spiritually. The Cleansing of the Temple undoes
social and economic disfiguration.
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