If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"

And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

- Luke 19:41-48

In yesterday's passage, we read of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. He rode in on a colt, the foal of a donkey, signifying what kind of King He is, and "the multitude of His disciples" welcomed Him with the words, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!" The Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke His disciples, but He said, ""I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it . . . My study bible has a note which reads, "Jesus wept over the Holy City because, in spite of its beauty and spiritual significance, it lay in unbelief and impending judgment." Earlier in Luke's Gospel, Jesus has mourned for Jerusalem already, also citing this day. He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." My study bible says, "Luke recounts two occasions of Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem [as cited above]. The second half of the name Jerusalem means, 'peace,' but the things that make for . . . peace are hidden from its eyes because of unbelief. The predicted destruction occurred in A.D. 70 at the hands of the Romans, who recaptured Jerusalem by storm and burned the temple. The time of your visitation is Christ's ministry as a visitation from God, either for salvation or judgment." The elements Jesus names here, that Jerusalem will be surrounded and destroyed by its enemies, and that "they will not leave in you one stone upon another" are quite literal representations of what was to occur. It was believed that there was gold between the stones of the temple (some of which were immense in size), and so they were truly leveled. Only a partial wall outside its former courtyard remained, to become known as the Wailing Wall. Jesus has used the same imagery of stones in yesterday's reading, which St. Peter wrote of in one of His Epistles, saying that each of us are "living stones" that build the Church around its cornerstone, Christ. Here the image of the destruction of the temple stones is in contrast to the stones with which the Church will be built. It is a spiritual temple, and we are living stones. Jerusalem, Jesus says, fails to see: "The things that make for peace" "are hidden from your eyes." It is spiritual sight that has failed. Jesus has again and again preached the necessity of spiritual sight and hearing, the perception of the heart. As the "mother hen" (cited in the earlier reading in Luke), Jesus is lamenting the city, in mourning; they are His children who will perish due to what is "hidden from their eyes," what they fail to perceive, and to receive.

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'" My study bible has a note here: "Into the temple refers to the temple area, where a precinct was used for the selling and buying of animals offered in sacrifices. This was regulated by the Law, but to Jesus the atmosphere reeks of commercialism." Again, as in yesterday's reading, there is an echo of the prophets. The first part He quotes is from Isaiah 56: "...these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." It is about the sacrifices acceptable to the Lord - and those who sold animals profit from and exploit the people's desire to make a good sacrifice. The second quotation is from Jeremiah 7: "Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD." Tied in with yesterday's reading (the Triumphal Entry) and all the elements of prophesy and visitation, we have a depth of meaning about this time, and what is found in Jerusalem at this time, this day.

And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him. And finally, we're given the great contrast between the people - who will come to suffer at Jerusalem's destruction - and the leadership who reject Jesus and plot to destroy Him. It seems to me that the Gospels seek always to put responsibility upon the leadership for this failure, and not on the people, who rejoice to see His day. This is something we must always remember, as we go forward in faith. It is the leadership that has failed in its spiritual sight, and it has failed the people too.

I'd like to discuss this concept of spiritual leadership, because I'm afraid it's a topic that is too little addressed. The Gospels make it very clear, over and over again, that it is not the people who have failed, but the leadership that has failed the people, misled it. In an earlier reading, as he chastises the leadership, Jesus says, "Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered." See Woe to you! Jesus' greatest criticism is for those who choose the praise of men over the praise of God. Where reputation and self-exaltation in the eyes of others becomes one's greatest pride, there can be no room for the humility that is necessary for true spiritual sight. This becomes hypocrisy - and "hypocrite" is Jesus' most scathing word of criticism. "Hypocrite" originally means "actor" - it is someone who shows the outward motion, and act, and appearance, but whose heart - the true sense of the self - is something else altogether, somewhere else outside of the picture of devotion and true love of God. The first greatest commandment, Jesus has taught, is that we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength; and the second, to love our neighbor as ourselves. The leadership fails on the first: a hypocrite cannot do this. And by failing on the first, we also fail on the second, for it is God who teaches us to truly love, because God is love. And, I would like to stress, the Gospels also name those among the leadership who are open to hearing Jesus and who become His followers, so that we cannot stereotype any group of people in these texts. But we must turn, instead, to Jesus' own words to His disciples, His followers who will in turn be leaders of His Church: that the most will be expected of those who hold positions of greatest authority - they must be servants of all. He has also taught us that we are to be aware of wolves in sheeps' clothing, those who would profess to lead the flock but are false - a dramatic picture of hypocrisy indeed. So, the lesson here is about our own leadership, the leadership of His Church. Where is their spiritual sight and hearing? Do we, the people, take care of our own responsibility in this sense, to be aware always, to be vigilant and not to sleep? Jesus has left us with parable after parable preparing us for the day of His Passion, and the days that follow, when it is we who are stewards of that Church, or who call ourselves His disciples, and how we are to keep awake, to pray always, and to make certain our own spiritual eyes and ears are open and growing in awareness for the day of His return. This is the lesson we take, and the question we need to ask of ourselves. How are we doing in our own vigilance and awareness? Are we ready for such a visitation? Could we see what is in our midst? Do we know the things that make for our peace?