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

 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

Yesterday we read that, after telling the parable of the Minas, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  But He answered and said to them, "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, 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."  My study bible explains that Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  The things that make for your peace are the things of God -- faith in Christ, the one who has come to them.  This is where true peace remains.  My study bible calls this a truth which is hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  A false peace is one that suppresses truth in order to achieve a shallow harmony.  But genuine peace is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and a surrender to spiritual truth. Referring to 12:51, my study bible says that genuine peace has division as a byproduct, because not everyone wants this spiritual truth.  In a fallen world, a spiritual battleground, divisions are necessary for truth to be manifest (see 1 Corinthians 11:18-19).

"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."  This destruction of Jerusalem, as foretold by Jesus here, would occur in AD 70.   My study bible says that this also describes the spiritual end of all who lack faith.

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.  My study bible explains that those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which were used for sacrifice.  Among these were also money changers, who would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins, since those coins bearing the image of Caesar were considered defiling in the temple. "My house is a house of prayer" echoes Isaiah 56:7.  Jesus' condemnation, "You have made it a 'den of thieves'" quotes from the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:11).

In today's reading, the division that is so much the focus of today's reading, and Christ's prophecy over Jerusalem, begin to manifest.  Jesus has just been welcomed into Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry, as Messiah (see yesterday's reading, above).  But right away, after Jesus' condemnation of what is going on in the temple as He characterizes it to be "a den of thieves" after Jeremiah's prophesy, we're told that while He was teaching daily in the temple . . . 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.  There is this immediate division, between those who rule the temple and the community with power -- the religious leadership -- and the people, who were very attentive to hear Him.  Although clearly there will be divisions stirred up among the people which are coming, at this point one thing is clear:  they universally wish to hear Him.  This happens repeatedly in the Gospels, where people from all walks of life among the Jews wish to hear Jesus speak.  When the tax collectors also gather to hear Him speak is one of the times that mark the turning point in His ministry, at which we have notable criticism from the Pharisees, those in leadership.  Jesus always defends those who come to hear Him, and at this point, after His entrance into Jerusalem, the pilgrims coming from everywhere among the Jews, even the diaspora, want to come to hear this famous Teacher speak.  Somehow this emphasis on the need for all the people hear, with Christ at the center in which there are those who wish to silence Him, tells us something about freedom in the truth.  It serves as underpinning for emphasis that true peace is found in Christ, not in a shallow suppression of division.  In a note on the passage above in which Jesus laments over Jerusalem, and her failure to know the things that make for her peace, my study bible returns us to 12:51, in which Jesus states, "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division."  It reminds us of the wisdom that, in this world and its condition, division is the response to truth.  What is important for us to note in these scenes given to us here is that for the common people, it is desirable at least to hear Christ, while for the leadership their desire is simply to be rid of Him.  In the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, found in Matthew 13, Jesus lays out the reality of such divisions in the world, where the good wheat is closely resembled by the tares, which are indigestible for human beings.  What looks good might not always be good, and requires a "higher power" to sort one thing from another.  The truth is not always obvious to us!  This underlines the importance of prayer, of discernment, of repentance, and humility.  In a time of division and conflict, we need to know what we are about.  The ideals of service and humility stand us in good stead, plus constant prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).   (Regarding "constant prayer" I have added to my Prayers page a text for Prayers of The Hours, modified for personal use.)  Let us remember the condition of our hearts, when the world shows us confusion.   At such times, it is all-important to seek the things that make for our true peace, to find ourselves in God's love.