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 Jesus went up toward Jerusalem.  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 they 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."  Jerusalem, as noted in yesterday's reading, means "foundation of peace."   My study Bible comments that only faith in Christ brings true peace, which is a truth hidden from a city which will soon rebel against its Savior.  There is a kind of peace which is shallow, which comes from ignoring issues of truth.  There is a genuine peace, my study Bible explains, which is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and surrender to truth.  Genuine peace has division as a byproduct because not everyone wants truth.  In the fallen world, it says, divisions are necessary for truth to be manifest (see Luke 12:51, 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 that Jesus foretells here would come in AD 70.  It is quite true that one stone would not be left upon another in the destruction of the temple.  My study Bible adds that this also describes the spiritual end of every person who lacks 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.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 in His scathing indictment of these practices in the temple.  Those who bought and sold in it were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  The money changers were trading Roman coins for Jewish coins, as Roman coins bore the image of Caesar (worshiped as a god) and were therefore considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible adds that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  Each person is considered to be a temple of God, St. Paul writes (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), and so it's a sign as well that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  

 

Let us note again the great divisions in Jerusalem made evident in the text.  It tells us that while the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people sought to destroy Jesus, all the people were very attentive to hear Him.  Jesus laments over Jerusalem itself, showing His love for the city and its people and its spiritual heritage.  He says, "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."   The text ties this statement to the destruction of Jerusalem that would come in AD 70, when the temple would be destroyed by Roman soldiers, and tremendous devastation would occur to the city and its people.  What are the things that make for Jerusalem's peace?  Clearly Christ Himself is central to that peace, as my study Bible indicates.  That is, the person of Christ Himself, His teachings, His fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets in Himself (Matthew 5:17-20).  Should He have been welcomed as Messiah, or the religious leaders accepting His teachings regarding the kingdom of God, we might well wonder what would have happened instead of the ultimate destruction of the city in the first century.  As noted in yesterday's reading, Jerusalem remains a city with its divisions and turmoils and even violence.  So we have to ask, where is our peace?  How do we find it?  The world is rife with divisions, and even the citations in my study Bible point us to St. Paul's addressing of the divisions within the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:17-19).  How do we address our own divisions, and our own need for peace?  We first of all must place our faith in Christ, for it is there that peace is to be found.  This is a peace that means a reconciliation with God, and not simply a healing of division for its own sake.  There are also times when truth -- and true peace -- is covered up because it is not what people truly want.  Every sort of selfish ambition seems to get in the way.  The leaders in the temple are zealously guarding their places, and do not want Christ recognized as an authority separately -- and in open opposition -- to themselves.  They do not want to recognize His authority or divinity.  They resent His disciples' heralding His entry into Jerusalem as Messiah.  As for the common people in the temple at this time of the Passover, they delight to hear Him.  But John's Gospel tells us that at an earlier festival, the people are also divided amongst themselves regarding Jesus (John 7:12), which we can presume remains true at this crucial point in the final Passover of Christ's life.  At that same festival, the people ask one another, "But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?" (John 7:26).  So the Gospels present to us a picture of the dissension and divisions surrounding Jesus, the people's suspicion of their own rulers, the power held onto so zealously by the leaders in the temple, and the use of state power to come in order to condemn Jesus and put Him to death.  But again, we have to ask ourselves, what are the things that make for our peace?  Can we center ourselves in Christ?  Clearly these divisions all betray selfish and even financial motivations.  Jesus' first action in the temple indicates an important message to us about our divisions and our conflicting motives in life.  Can we submit our desires to Christ?  Can we put His kingdom first and our communion in it with Him?  Is that where and how our peace is found?  Even within the church at Corinth, when St. Paul writes of their divisions, he seems to bring up the divisions that lead strife among them in sharing the supper meant to unite them:  "Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.  For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk" (1 Corinthians 11:20-21).  Selfish desire leads the way, even at a communal gathering.  The great divisions within Jerusalem are the stuff of the strife of nations, and will become a major turning point in the history of the world, its civilizations, and empires -- while the discussion of the supper at the Corinth church is a division among what is small and intimate.  But each tells us of the importance of our own peace and where we find it and how we find it.  Our lives need to be centered in Christ, and it is for this that He will make His sacrifice out of which we receive the true mystical supper, the spiritual reality of the Eucharist.  For on the Cross, He will make His voluntary plea for our peace, and He will give us the true food and drink of that peace and that life in abundance.  The solution remains the same, even among the divisions and strife, big and small, that mark our world.  Let us remember, for our own part, to go to the place where we find that peace, and in turn offer all things back to Christ -- even our strife and division.