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 

 

Yesterday we read that, after giving a parable to the disciples to prepare them for what will happen in Jerusalem, and their lives as apostles after His Passion, 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 says that Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  Only faith in Christ, it says, brings true peace, which is a truth hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  Peace here should not be confused with "false peace," which my study Bible calls a shallow harmony resulting from ignoring issues of truth.  Genuine peace, it says, is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and surrender to truth.  Genuine peace has division as a byproduct, because not everyone wants truth.  Moreover, in the fallen world, divisions become 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."  Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem which would occur in AD 70.  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.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.   My study Bible says that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), it's also a sign for us to cleanse our hearts and minds of earthly matters.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11.  Note how despite Christ's open conflict with the religious leaders, the people were very attentive to hear Him.

 

 The cleansing of the temple is an important lesson to us all, my study Bible says, because we are each a temple ourselves.  This places an emphasis on our knowing choices; that is, on our own initiative to guard ourselves and our hearts for what is good, and to cast away what is not good.  See, for example, Matthew 5:29, Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount:  "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."  Of course the "right eye" in this statement is a metaphor for something precious yet causing ailment -- perhaps a way we look or see, a covetousness that causes sin.  But Christ's cleansing of the temple, in today's reading, is also coupled with His warnings about what is to come in Jerusalem, and imply the consequences of "not knowing what makes for your peace."  That is, the rejection of Christ Himself by the people and the city.  There's an implied connection that the destruction of the city that was to come at the hands of the Romans is linked both to the cleansing of the temple and to the rejection of Jesus as Messiah by the nation.  The devastation to Jerusalem, and indeed, to all the Jewish people, which was to come in the Siege of Jerusalem, encompassed the most extreme levels of catastrophe and destruction.  The temple itself was destroyed to a remarkable extent, so that Christ's description here was absolutely true:  "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."  So much so, that literally not one stone was left upon another, the Roman soldiers having believed rumors that there was gold between the stones, with a fire so intense it no doubt destroyed whatever gold there was.  Only one retaining wall remains of that splendid second temple as it was left by the building and refurbishing of Herod the Great, considered in its time one of the architectural marvels of the world.  (That wall for many centuries was known as the Wailing Wall, today called the Western Wall, remaining a site of prayer.)  This complete destruction and devastation in mayhem and fire is surely an image of hell -- in that sense reflecting Christ's words teaching us to cast off harmful habits (even those precious to us) so that our "whole body" is not cast into hell (again, see Matthew 5:29, quoted above).  For a devastation like this it must surely have been required that much was rejected, just as much corruption was practiced for a very long time.  In effect, it teaches us about rejecting what grace is on offer, especially when we know better.  It is evidence of the harmful effects of treating a priceless treasure, such as our faith, as if it were worthless.  One wonders if so much of what passes for popular culture might fall into this category today, where human beings considered to be precious and loved creations of God and meant for adoption as God's heirs -- are instead paraded as so much flesh for consumption, exploitation, and self-harm.  One doesn't have to look far from headlines, media, popular apps and websites, or the devastation of homelessness and destruction rooted in drug culture and the slavery of addiction.  Do we know better?  Like the people of Jerusalem, we may be very attentive to hear Christ.  But how do we follow Him in faith?  Let's note again the context of our reading today, coming after yesterday's statement by Christ that if His disciples were not witnessing their faith He is their Messiah, then the very stones would cry out (see yesterday's reading and commentary).  Today He speaks to Jerusalem, lamenting the ferocious fighting that will "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."  We should all take it as a warning for our own lives, and the world we create with our choices, lest we lose even that which we have.  For the things that make for our peace are found in Him.

 

 

 

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

 

Yesterday we read that, after Jesus told the parable of the Minas to His disciples, he 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 the name Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  It's only faith in Christ that brings true peace.  This is a truth hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  My study Bible further explains that there are two kinds of peace.  One is a false or shallow peace; harmony that results from ignoring issues of truth or from a repressive coercion.  Genuine peace is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and surrender to truth.  

"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, here predicted by Jesus, would occur in AD 70.  My study Bible says 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.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which were to be used for sacrifices.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.  My study Bible comments that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered to be 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. 

 

It's important to observe that the text presents us with the various layers of social conflict around Jesus.  While Jesus is teaching daily in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him.  The elites at the top, those who administer and regulate the faith and hold positions of high authority, are seeking to destroy Him at the time of the Passover, in this final week of Christ's earthly life.  At the same time, this coalition of the powerful were unable to do anything, because all the people were very attentive to hear Him.  It's interesting to note the power of the people in this presentation.  It is "all the people" who wish to listen to Jesus and hear what He has to teach.  Presumably, we can read into this statement that the people seek to know truth, regardless of the concerted effort from the powerful entities above who wish to control how people worship and how they practice their faith.  Clearly, the cleansing of the temple by Jesus points to practices He finds to be objectionable and corrupt, especially the practices involved in the collection of money and the ways that the things necessary for sacrifice become used to gather wealth and profit.  In the other Gospels we read vivid descriptions of Christ driving out the money changers.  These are people who exchanged Roman coins for Jewish coins to be used in the temple, as Roman coins bore the image of Caesar and so were considered to be defiling in the temple. But no doubt this exchange opened the door for profiteering from pilgrims who come for the Passover.  The texts also speak specifically of Christ chastising and targeting those who sold doves in the temple (Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:14-16).  Doves were the least expensive and therefore affordable sacrifice for the poor; to profit off the poor is an insult to Christ and to traditional Jewish spiritual sensibility, in the understanding that God loves the poor.  As Messiah, Jesus' great act of cleansing the temple is the first He undertakes as He's made His Triumphal Entry into the city.  It's the first great act of authority He makes, and the one vivid action of force we see Him expressing in the Gospels.  He will certainly be immediately questioned regarding His authority to do so by the religious leaders.  But nonetheless, as the Gospels tell the story, none of their power can completely avail them of the ability to suppress the gospel message and the ministry of Christ.  There is expressed in the story of Christ the deep, almost organic tie between an unstoppable truth and the faith of the people that draws them to that truth in Christ.  They long to hear Him, and the religious authorities must fear that deep desire on the part of the people, for the Roman authorities will look askance at any instability among the people under their rule.   Christ speaks truth directly to the hearts of people who are receptive to it, who will respond with faith, with trust (the root meaning of the word for "faith" in the Gospels).  The rigid control of the authorities, and their corrupt practices, cannot long withstand that truth -- and this is the dynamic at work which will culminate in Christ's prophesied destruction of Jerusalem.  It is the unseen world of the Kingdom, of the holiness which Christ brings into the world, that challenges the structures of manipulation, the materialist power of "mammon," and the people whose hearts are open to it, and deeply desire it, will respond.  The religious leaders can already see that, but they cannot foresee its power and lasting impact remaining in the world to come.  Christ reveals to us the reality of the Kingdom, and may we continue to live and dwell within that reality, despite those who might wish to deny it today.   That is, those for whom these things remain hidden from their eyes.  For we still need to recognize the time of our visitation, and the things that make for our peace.

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.

 

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.

Have you never read, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise"?

 

 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.  

 

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?"  And Jesus said to them, "Yes.  Have you never read,

'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have perfected praise'?"  

Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again."  Immediately the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.  And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

 

- Matthew 21:12-22 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."  All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:  "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"  So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.  They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.  And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna to the Son of David!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Hosanna in the highest!"  And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?"  So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

 

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.   Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which would be used in the Passover sacrifices.  The money changers were trading Roman coins for Jewish coins.  It was considered that Roman coins, which bore the image of Caesar, were defiling in the temple.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11.   According to my study Bible, the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it is also a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?"  And Jesus said to them, "Yes.  Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?"  Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.  Psalm 8:3 of the Septuagint declares, "From the mouths of babies and nursing infants You prepared praise because of Your enemies, that You may destroy the enemy and avenger."  (When we read quotations in the New Testament, it is the Septuagint being quoted; in most versions of the New Testament this is from Psalm 8:2.)  In the Palm Sunday Vespers of the Orthodox Church, it is declared, "Keep the feast with the children, and holding branches in your hands, sing 'Hosanna'."  My study Bible comments that many liturgical hymns of this day emphasize the perfect praise of the children, which unlike that of the adults, was innocent, fitting, unashamed, and from hearts of pure love.  So we are called to glorify Christ in the same spirit (see Matthew 18:1-4).  In contrast, my study Bible notes, the adults' praise carried earthly expectations and agendas which, when left unfulfilled, led them to rebel against Jesus just five days later (Matthew 27:20-23). 

 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again."  Immediately the fig tree withered away.  My study Bible notes that the fig tree is a symbol of prosperity and peace.  In this case, it withers because it is fruitless.  This is a prophetic act by Jesus, directed toward those who reject Him, since after three years of Christ's preaching, teaching, and healing, both the leaders and the crowds were destitute of spiritual fruit.  He curses the tree also to warn those in every generation of what will befall anyone who fails to listen to His message. 

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.  And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."  My study Bible comments that while it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved a mountain, in Patristic tradition it is clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (there were certain saints who made crevices appear in mountains).  Moreover, not everything accomplished by the apostles has written down.  Beyond the literal meaning, however, this promise is also an illustration of the power of faith and prayer in all areas of our lives.  Theophan writes, "Whatever we ask, without hesitation and believing in God's power, we shall receive" when we ask for things which are spiritually profitable.

Today's reading, taken altogether, seems to emphasize the power of God as it works in our lives.  There are things God would teach us to do, and how to live, and we have the choice to seek out this will, the way of God, or to pay lip service to that will, and do otherwise.  There are varying degrees to which a person is aware of the things of God and rejects them outright.  There is also the soul within which we have the capacity to be receptive to these things.  So often, Jesus' repeated iteration is of the words of Isaiah:  "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  These words are directly connected to healing in the prophecy of Isaiah from which Jesus draws.   Isaiah is told, "Go, and tell this people, 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'   Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed" (Isaiah 6:9-10).  These words are also found echoed by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and in the Epistles of St. Paul (Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2, Acts 28:27, Romans 11:8).  In Christ's cleansing of the temple, He's taking decisive action against practices which seem to violate the commands and intent of God for this house of worship and prayer, which He says has been made into a "den of thieves."  Earlier Jesus has already quoted from Isaiah regarding the religious leadership:  "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men" (see Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 15:8).  The withering of the fig tree illustrates a principle regarding spiritual fruitlessness, the result of dullness of hearing and seeing in a spiritual sense, a lack of perception of spiritual matters, and specifically in the teachings that He has offered through the course of His mission and ministry.  It is an illustration of the power of God in the sense that to understand this importance and yet to continue to ignore and abuse such a gift through one's own life is to court the results of fruitlessness and whatever that means in our own lives.  Whether we realize it or not, the fruits of faith are borne out not simply in forms of piousness but also of creativity and ingenuity in many ways; to truly study history with a sense of insight into the origins of principles of law such as mercy and rehabilitation, or the development of forms of beauty in architecture and art which seek to elevate our sight to the origins of beauty, truth, and goodness, owe a great deal to Christ and His ministry.  People may decisively seek to scorn such ideas, but there can be no rational doubt of the impact on the world of the story of the Crucifixion of this most innocent Man and His goodness and love and giving of Himself.  Finally, we come to Christ's discussion of faith with the disciples, in which He chooses to emphasize what faith can do in a positive sense.  Surely we are meant to understand that the faith Jesus has preached all along isn't a kind of magic in which we are capable of selfishly manifesting anything we desire through prayer, but rather the result of the pursuit of the will of God, the process of repentance as growth which is always continuing in that life of discipleship, and the growing dependency upon and trust in God along the way of this process.  It is in this way that prayer becomes truly effective, because it is honed and aligned within the will of God for us, and the result of a prayerfully lived life in this pursuit of God's love and desire for God.  Surely what we are to take from today's reading in the contrast between the fruitless materialism couched in hypocrisy that Jesus criticizes, the symbolic withering of the promises in the fig tree, and Jesus' words about faith and prayer is simply the power of God and our own alignment with that power through a prayerful life of serious discipleship.  This power is always present and on offer to us:  we may ignore it all we wish, but we risk the consequences of spiritual fruitlessness, emptiness, and a materialist life devoid of the meaning that God would give to our lives lived in this world.  This touches ironically on the very meaning of sacrifice and sacrament:  that we live in a world given to us by God as are our very lives, but in the practice of faith we give that world back to God so that God may teach us how to live prayerfully in communion within our world as good stewards.  This is not about rationalizing what we do, but sincerely seeking God's will in developing a prayerful life where spiritual eyes and ears are opened -- or at the very least, we have that aim in our hearts and are willing to open ourselves to where it would guide us.  Without this, even the must beautiful services and practices, those enshrined in religious literature, will lose their meaning in hearts that have grown dull or calloused, where the truth of our inner being is hidden and does not wrestle with God (Genesis 32:22-32), or against the spiritual darkness we don't wish to perceive or acknowledge (Ephesians 6:12).  On this eve of Christ's final week of earthly life, He lays bare the questions that are posed to us all, which we will each answer in our way, and which will have a lasting effect according to the choices made in this week by the religious leadership.  There will be times in our lives when we are called to make such choices and decisions; let us pray that we are aware of the stakes, and that we prefer the fruits of the Spirit to all else.  Sometimes when we seek to gain, we lose what is most precious (Matthew 16:26), in the long game of history and of our lives.   The children shout "Hosannah" because their hearts are flooded with joy in the encounter with Jesus.  Let our hearts remain open to that joy and find it in our own prayerful encounters with Him, and endure in it, even in the midst of the world.

 

It is written, "My house is a house of prayer," but you have made it a "den of thieves"

 

 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 Jesus taught to His disciples the parable of the Minas (in response to their expectation that the kingdom of God would manifest immediately), He 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 illumines this passage by telling us that Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  Only faith in Christ brings true peace.  But this is a truth that is hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  Another note explains that there are two types of peace.  There is a false peace which is a shallow harmony that results from ignoring and suppressing issues of truth.  A genuine peace is reconciliation to God -- the ultimate truth -- through faith in Christ and surrender to truth.  Genuine peace has division as a byproduct (see Luke 12:51) because not everyone wants truth.  In the fallen world, 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."  Here Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem which would occur in AD 70.  My study Bible tells us 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.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which would be used for sacrifices.  Let us keep in mind that a good sacrifice was meritorious; the poor could afford a smaller sacrifice only.  Moreover this was not a small operation, but all Judaism participated in sacrifice in the temple (see this article on an archeological perspective regarding the economy of the sacrifice, and the centrality of this temple operation to the wealth of Jerusalem).  The money changers traded Roman coins for Jewish coins -- as Roman coins bore the image of Caesar, who was worshiped as a god, and were therefore considered to be defiling in the temple.  We can simply imagine the powerful economic power that resulted from both the sale of animals for sacrifice and money exchange, as pilgrims from everywhere in the extended Jewish world, both in Israel and the Jewish diaspora, came to the temple to participate in the Passover feast.  My study Bible says the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is considered a temple of God, it notes (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it is also a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  With this in mind as part of the story of the Gospels, let us pay attention to sources of conflict between Jesus and the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people -- and all the people who were very attentive to hear Him.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.

I am very struck by the centrality and enormity of the economy of Jerusalem around the sacrifices in the temple.  Clearly, the temple was meant to be the center of Jewish life, and the center of Jerusalem, and for reasons of faith.  But for Christ, the conflicting interests of the powerful wealth driven by the practices of the temple clearly form a problematic division in the priorities of the religious authorities and their attachment to this economic interest.  Indeed, this shows through the Gospel in His encounters with the varied groups of religious leaders.  For example, Luke's chapter 16 centers around Jesus' teachings regarding money and the deriding response of the Pharisees whom we're told were "lovers of money" (Luke 16:14).  In Matthew 23:14, Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites who "devour widows' houses" and "for a pretense make long prayers."  Lest we fool ourselves into thinking such problems disappeared with the destruction of the temple in AD 70, we have only to look around at the history of the Church in its varied forms and denominations throughout the past two millennia, and indeed, in the headlines concerning scandals about money in our own lifetimes.  The problems to which Jesus responds are temptations that remain with us, and hence this episode should not be forgotten as a lesson for us as we continue to read the Gospel today.  We remain human beings who must learn that we cannot serve both God and mammon, as Jesus taught as part of the discourse in chapter 16 (see Luke 16:13).  It teaches us that this conflict remains with us, and the need for our own discernment regarding who and what we serve remain compelling and necessary, always with us.  Today in a media-saturated world in which we are increasingly focused on online activity, it is really important to be aware of all the ways in which we're encouraged to base our concept of ourselves on the image we project to others.  So often success is dependent upon a purely materialist perspective regarding appearance and the acquisition of the things that seem to make us admirable or attractive.  This is a related temptation we shouldn't ignore, as even for Christ these elements composed His criticism of the religious establishment.  In our next chapter in Luke, Jesus will warn the disciples -- in the hearing of all the people:  "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation" (see Luke 20:45-47).  Jesus' actions proclaim to us a need for our own awareness to our tendencies to confuse outward appearance with a heart drawn toward God, and this is where our focus -- as always emphasized in Christ's teachings -- must remain.  The depth of our prayer, an attitude of humility before God, a willingness to choose between what seems to gain us attention or approval and the things given to us through our faith -- these are still the things for which we give our time and effort in order to remain true to God and therefore the truth of Christ's teaching.  We seek first His kingdom, and all else follows (Luke 12:31).  Let us also understand that it is in such endeavor where we find the things that make for our peace.

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

 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 giving to His followers 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."  Bu 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.  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 points out to us that Jerusalem means "foundation of peace."  It notes that only faith in Christ brings true peace.  In Him are all things reconciled at all depths.  This truth, however, is hidden from a city that will soon reject this Savior.  The destruction of Jerusalem prophesied by Jesus took place in AD 70.   But Christ's description can also be a spiritual one, describing the fate of the soul which suffers from a lack of faith, and rejection of spiritual truth.

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 does not dwell much on the cleansing of the temple.  Those who bought and sold in it are the ones who trade in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  Once again, there is a spiritual parallel to the individual soul and what it cherishes in its aims and goals and loves.  As Jesus made clear elsewhere, we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)  We must choose what we put first, what we worship -- and the alternatives here image the soul that is either a house of prayer or a den of thieves.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.

The last lines of today's reading tell us that Jesus was teaching daily in the temple, that the religious leaders want to destroy Him, but cannot -- for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.  This phrase, very attentive, is a rather mild translation into modern English.  The words in Greek indicate more that they were hanging onto Christ's every word, captivated, spellbound, suspended in rapt attention.  This is a picture of a people who usually can't get what He's offering, a people who hunger and thirst for every single word.  It reminds us of Jesus' words to the people on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, as reported by John: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37).  These words are possibly inspired by the promise of Isaiah, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1), but they are a clear invitation, in Christ's words, to the feast of the Holy Spirit which He will give (see John 7:37-39).  Those who are in the temple for the Passover Feast, Jews from everywhere in Israel and those from throughout the Diaspora, including proselytes from other nations, hunger and thirst for Christ's words.  His words are the living words of spirit (John 6:63), and they are the words of eternal life (John  6:68).   His are the liberating words of salvation, and as the people sense in their deep passion to hear Him, they are words for each human being, for everyone, to which all are invited.  The words of Christ are not to be shut up and put away, couched only behind a curtain for the privileged few.  They are meant for each one of us, and the Gospel teaches us that the people all respond in their eagerness to hear -- for each one is a creature of God, and thereby the God-man has come into the world for each of us, all of us, for the life of the world (John 6:51).  This is the liberating, freeing truth of the God who loves us so much that He came into this world and will die on the Cross for us.  He will go even into hell for His word to reach us before His Ascension.  This is the power of His word:  it is not a commodity to be stored up and hidden away, to be kept as a treasure locked up somewhere without its light shining for us.  The early fourth century Fathers of the Church were among the most gifted and brilliant scholars the world has known, but their understanding of His word is for all of us, for each of us -- and here in Luke's Gospel, Christ Himself rejoiced that things that were hidden from the wise and prudent were revealed to babes (10:21).  Turning to His disciples on that occasion, He told them, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it" (see 10:21-24).  This is the liberating reality of the words of salvation.  His house is not a den of thieves, who store away and steal treasure in the sense of purely material good without the benefit of spirit, but it is a house of prayer -- a treasure that reaches to all and is for all, that has no limits in its applications and its capacity to be shared and expanded, and to go anywhere and everywhere.  What He offers can heal the hurts of the past and set us on a course for the future; it simply has no barriers to it because He made sure there are no barriers to where His salvation would go.  Even death cannot form a boundary on these potentials -- as even His death on the Cross will not stop His word but merely serve to expand it and to break down the barrier of death for everyone.  This is the impulse we see in the people who hunger and thirst for and hang onto each of His words.  Don't let the power and message of the Gospel be taken away from you, for He is here for you, He suffered and died for you and for each one of us.  Peace is in our grasp if we but seize and use it and find it for ourselves, for it is in Him.   But can we follow Him where He will lead us?  We are reminded again that His word is for deliverance, salvation, true freedom; He does not compel us as slaves but calls us as friend.  Don't let anything or anyone keep you from this beautiful gift He offers.

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.   Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to the, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

- Mark 11:12-26

Yesterday we read that when Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, "God into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat.  Loose it and bring it.  And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it.' and immediately he will send it here."  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.  But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded.  So they let them go.  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.  And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"  And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple.  So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.   This is an example, or illustration, or Christ in His role as Judge.   That it was not the season for figs means that this fig tree had sprouted an unseasonably early full foliage, which would indicate a first crop.  But it didn't bear any fruit.  Jesus, finding that there isn't even one fig, condemns it.  In Scripture, my study bible says, a fig tree is often a symbol of Israel (Hosea 9:10).  This fig tree is like the people who reject His ministry or perhaps particularly the religious leadership who plot against Him rather than recognize Him; their fruitfulness has ceased, and so the Kingdom will be taken away and given to another people, called to bear spiritual fruit (see Matthew 21:43, Galatians 5:22-23).

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.   Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.   Those who bought and sold traded in live animals which would be used for sacrifices.  At Passover (which season this is now at this point in the Gospel), pilgrims would come to purchase animals so they could make the proper sacrifices for themselves and their families.  The money changers traded Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar, in whose name the coins were minted, and therefore were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study bible comments that the cleansing of the temple points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  It notes that as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it is also as sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  Jesus quotes from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, who repeatedly called the people back to God in preparation for Christ's Incarnation (Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11).

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to the, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  My study bible explains that the cursing and withering of the fig tree is a prophetic act, which signifies the judgment of Israel.  It adds that the disciples need to learn that the old covenant with Israel is becoming "obsolete" and will "vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).  They will go on to establish His Church, which will ultimately be filled with both Gentiles and Jews, and they need assurance that they will be following His will.  The fig tree will remain indelibly as an image in their minds.  Jesus relates the withering of the fig tree to the power of prayer and the authority of God which is linked to individuals through the communion of faith.  This is not a magical practice and not about the power of positive thinking or affirmations!  This is a call to the depth of faith, and the deep desire and willingness in us to follow God's will.  It is also an exposition on spiritual fruitfulness, and a prayerfully lived life, even in the midst of seeming loss and rejection, which these men will also suffer through persecution.

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  Let us note that as Jesus is talking about the power of prayer, this admonition is added in.  It goes back to relatedness, and in particular the communion we have in faith with God and through extension to others.  My study bible comments that Jesus insists on mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God's forgiveness.  It says that those who do not forgive are not forgiven -- period (see also Matthew 6:14-15, and also the parable of the unforgiving servant at Matthew 18:21-35).   It adds that to not forgive others is to willfully flee from the forgiveness of God for ourselves.

Since Jesus ends today's reading with a teaching on forgiveness, it is very important to understand exactly what forgiveness is.  Forgiveness is not making everything better nor necessary "fixing" broken relationships in the sense that a relationship reverts to an earlier stage.  If necessary, one must remain apart from those who will continually seek to harm us, or in cases where trust remains a difficult issue.  Forgiveness is really, like everything else, first and foremost, about our relationship with God.  It is a way in which we choose to exercise and practice fully our faith by surrendering all things -- including justice -- to the sovereignty of God.  The Lord's Prayer uses the language of debts (Matthew 6:12), and in teaching that prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus added the statement noted above using the concept of trespass (Matthew 6:14-15).  Both of these are legal concepts, and the language reflects the regulation in the Law and therefore the system of justice.  Forgiveness is the act of surrendering our debts and also the times others have trespassed (literally violated our appropriate boundaries) to God.  It puts justice in the hands of God, and takes it out of our hands.  We surrender a claim to personal vengeance in response, and instead we put it in God's hands and ask for guidance for how to handle it God's way.  Through forgiveness, we recall what we read in Scripture.  St. Paul writes (in Romans 12:19), "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord."  He is quoting from Deuteronomy 32:35.   Forgiveness, in this understanding, is a choice that is always possible.  Reconciliation -- that is, a return to full relationship with someone -- is another matter altogether.  This confusion frequently leads to a fear of forgiveness, and that is an error.  Jesus repeatedly prohibits the practice of vengeance, and this is important in the context of justice systems of the time; frequently, in the ancient world, justice was only possible for those who could rely on extended clan and kinships to help settle a matter.  Christ's teachings on justice and judgment, illustrated in the image of the withered fig tree, and linked by Christ to the power of prayer, cement this need in us to forgive.  We can always pray for others, we can always tell God that we give up a situation, a hurt, a terrible wrong, to God -- and ask God to help us with it, God's way.  We hand it over to God in prayer so that we will be shown the best way to handle a bad situation.  The world of popular psychology is filled with advice and teaching regarding the effective and necessary power of the practice of forgiveness for our psychological and spiritual health.  What remains within us colors who we are; giving all things up to God cleans our own internal slate for a better outlook and our time and energy better spent, our capacity to love the ones with whom we do have contact, communion, and relationship more full as a result.  Everything that we read in today's reading is linked, because forgiveness teaches us that we are capable of practicing compassion and not merely responding to a perceived loss.  God and our relationship with God makes us much bigger than that.  Greed and selfishness, the idea that what we are is simply the product of all that we can grab in life, or get back from what we lost as if everything is merely quantity added or subtracted, is what goes into making the temple a "den of thieves."  If we simply look at our lives as merely steps to gain or loss, then we fail to understand quality, true treasure, that which makes our lives truly good and better.  Predators think in terms of adding and subtracting, what we gain or what we lose.  But Christ calls us to compassion, to a better, sounder, deeper way of life; we are meant to be His sheep.  And He is, ultimately, the only Judge.  Let us keep in mind that these teachings come in the midst of rejection; the religious leaders will have Him going to His Crucifixion before the week is over, and let that fact sink into us to render these teachings all the more important in light of it.  If it was what was crucial to Christ, then let it be that crucial to us as well for our own lives.