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!

 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 the parable of the minas, 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.  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."  Jerusalem means "foundation of peace," my study bible tells us.  It notes that only faith in Christ brings true peace -- a truth hidden from a city that will soon rebel against its Savior.  Furthermore, it says that there are two kinds of peace.  There is a type of shallow harmony that results from ignoring issues of truth.  Genuine peace is reconciliation to God through faith in Christ and acceptance of truth.  But genuine peace may have division as a byproduct because not everyone wants truth.  In the fallen world, divisions are necessary for truth to be manifest (12:51-52, see also 1 Corinthians 11:18-19).   Jesus' prediction here will literally manifest at the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, as it was rumored that there was gold between the stones of the temple.  Only a portion of one retaining wall of the magnificent temple would remain.

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.'"   Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals to be used for sacrifices.  Jesus' action speaks to corruption and the temptations from greed.  My study bible says that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  It notes also that 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; that is, an outlook based purely on a materialist perspective.

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.  Here is the repeated tension noted in the Gospels for the leadership:  they wish to be rid of Jesus, but His popularity among the people makes this not possible -- as the people wish to hear Him teach.

The powers at work are juxtaposed here.  In a worldly sense, there is Jesus the preacher, the One who has been received into Jerusalem by those who follow Him as Messiah.  On the other hand, there is the establishment, the religious rulers of Israel, who represent the people to the Roman Empire of which Israel is now a colony.  Those religious leaders find Jesus to be a problem.  He's an outsider.  Moreover, He tells the truth.  He finds their practices covering selfish motives, even corruption, and criticizes that they don't truly uphold the Law and the aims of the Law.  He rails at their hypocrisy, and how they fail to help the poor, the widows, the dependent.  He chastises them for their lack of care, and their cherishing of their own power and authority.   The cleansing of the temple is the most openly hostile act toward their kind of leadership that Jesus will do.  It is a statement of His authority as Messiah, and it is also a condemnation of the practices they allow, the greed covered up under official practice.  One thing we can say for certain here is that Jesus' words teach us about the necessity of the sacred in our lives, and the difficulties we may be called upon to endure in order to protect that sacredness.  "It is written," He says, "'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"   Jesus quotes from two prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah.  In that chapter of Isaiah from which Jesus quotes, the prophecy is striking, and we may read more fully the verse and the one following it:  "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.  The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, 'Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him'"  (Isaiah 56:7-8).   It speaks clearly of the actions of this Messiah and what is to come.  The chapter in Jeremiah speaks of the injustice and infidelity of the people to God's commands, and their failure to heed the prophets sent to them with God's word.  Jeremiah 7:25-26 clearly prefigures Jesus' parable of the Wicked Vinedressers, which He will tell in the temple in the next chapter in Luke:  "Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.   Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers."  The warning to Jerusalem becomes far deeper, and tied to eschatological prophecy, when we understand the force of what Jesus is saying.  The rejection of God's word will go too far, the failure to heed Christ's word means Jerusalem truly fails to understand the things that make for her peace.  This isn't about a failure to uphold certain practices, and it's not about a fallen world that is full of selfishness.  It is about the failure to cherish what is most dear, to truly uphold the things that make a difference between whether we create a heaven or a hell on earth -- and the profundity of this truth belongs to absolute levels we can't even grasp.  These leaders of Jerusalem fail to "know the time of her visitation."  When we reject what is sacred, we may scarcely comprehend what it is we accept and how extraordinarily we lose.  Jesus calls us to pay attention, as have done the prophets before Him.  The peace of Jerusalem isn't something that was simply lost at this time 2,000 years ago:  it's something we must all sincerely understand for ourselves as those who would be part of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, the Church even here in this world as in heaven.   What do we cherish?  How do we act as if we see His face everywhere?  Can we, too, identify "a den of thieves" that would rob us of such a gift?  Jesus' words hold true for the world as well as individuals, for we are each temples to God, as my study bible says.  Let us echo His call to discernment and to truth.

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

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

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

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

- Luke 19:41-48

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

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

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

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

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

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