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 teaching the disciples 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 comments that the name Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  It notes that only faith in Christ brings a true peace.  This is a truth hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  There is an explanation about peace; my study Bible notes that there are two kinds of peace.  One is a false peace, which is a shallow harmony that results from ignoring issues of truth.  A genuine peace is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and surrender to truth, such as when sins are acknowledged and forgiven, a foundation upon which reconciliation can take place.  Genuine peace will have division as a byproduct because not everyone wants truth.  In the fallen world, my study Bible says, 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."  The destruction of Jerusalem foretold here by Jesus would take place in AD 70.  My study Bible says 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.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  Here Jesus quotes from prophecy in Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.  My study Bible comments that the cleansing of the temple by Jesus also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each one is considered a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), it's also a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  Note also Christ's popularity among all the people who want to hear Him, in contrast to the aims of the leaders.

 

 So what is peace?  How do we consider it?  Clearly what Jesus speaks about in today's passage is the failure of Jerusalem -- and all that represents -- to accept what God has given them.  This is an important consideration, for when we think of gifts of God, this might cover much more than we suppose.  As Jesus is a gift to humankind, and especially to Jerusalem as the One who is sent by God, it is important to note that this qualification as unimaginable gift and blessing stands without regard to whether or not people want it, accept it, object to it, are disturbed by it, or find their personal interests somehow interfered with through the gift of Christ.  Most notably we observe the cleansing of the temple.  This is not an act against the system of sacrifices as established in the Law, but rather an act decrying the profit motive -- the love of money -- that seems to be embedded within the leadership and their use of power and position, effectively harming the people and keeping them from God.  What this gift from God does is present us with the ways in which God would like us to be more in communion with God, especially and effectively asking us to discard that which gets in the way.  And that is the realm of sin, habits that break right relationship, in which communion becomes broken or difficult, plagued with problems that essentially harm community.  So peace becomes that place where harm is recognized and acknowledged, repented, and forgiven.  This is the key for reconciliation, just as it is for each of us in individual relationships on a smaller scale.  Peace is that place where we can forgive and be forgiven, but this is only possible where truth is not ignored at the expense of one person or favor of another, all to the detriment of community.  In yesterday's post, we commented on the many references to stones in the Gospels.  Here there is another, when Jesus correctly prophecies there will not be one stone left upon another -- something that would be true of the temple in the Siege of Jerusalem.  Perhaps we can take this as an image of what it is to have a broken community, in which true peace is not found. It would seem to be a spiritual reality that foreshadows the destruction to come.  In today's reading, Jesus cleanses the temple, and clearly uses language that suggests a practice that is abusing the community when He refers to the temple as a "den of thieves" which is supposed to be a "house of prayer."  In Matthew 23, we read Jesus most explicitly condemning the practices of the scribes and Pharisees.  Note that He does not condemn the establishment, the institution, saying "they sit in Moses' seat," and so commanding His disciples to do what they teach.  But His criticism of them is that they are hypocrites, so His disciples are not to "do as they do," for their works do not bear out what they say.  Here is where covetous behavior is hidden behind an outward show of piety, and hence His cleansing of the temple in today's reading.  In Matthew 23, He rails against their hypocritical practices, preying on "widows' houses" and lacking justice and mercy and faith.  One might only guess how the poor would be penalized as they could not afford the better sacrifice.  But let us now look at this properly, and in the context of our own times, because the lessons in the Gospels are certainly not simply for the people we read about.  We have the Gospels because they are lessons for ourselves, and this is the most important consideration we have.  How do we fail to know what makes for our peace?  Do we pray to know God's will for us?  Are we capable of acknowledging our sin or harm to community, or the ways in which we do damage within a community?  Are we capable of forgiveness?  Do we know what it is to draw our hearts closer to God, and to love Christ and seek to follow His teachings?   In Christ's cleansing of the temple, Jesus expresses what He has said elsewhere: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13).  The hypocrisy of the rulers He criticizes is to cover their covetousness, their priority of position and money first.  Such behavior can come in all kinds of forms, in ways that play out in our own time and place.  There are those who pose as moralists but whose motives prioritize currency:  wealth, power, influence.  Let us be aware of such choices in our own midst, our own times, our own world -- and remember that the solution to such corruption is found in our own faithful lives.  Do we know what makes for our peace?  From how many do such things seem hidden?  Let us remember the One whom we serve, first.  Let us remember the things that make for our true peace.