As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. 44 They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” 47 And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, 48 but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.'
Jesus was completing his journey from Galilee, where he was rejected, back to Jerusalem, where he will return to his Father after he is crucified. Just before he entered Jerusalem, he was hailed as a king by the crowd for all the mighty deeds he had done (Lk. 19:28-40). He wept as he saw Jerusalem, whose name means city of peace, and told the crowd that Jerusalem will not know peace because they do not know what leads to peace. The religious leaders and most of the Jews rejected Jesus, the mediator of peace, because they did not recognize him as the manifestation of the kingdom of God in their midst (v. 44; Lk. 7:16). Using OT language (Is. 29:3), Jesus told them that Jerusalem would be surrounded and destroyed primarily because they will nor listen to his message of nonviolent response towards their enemies. The religious leaders were repeating the mistakes of their forefathers.
Jesus entered the Temple, the place where God was present, and drove out those who were engaged in commerce. Jesus had previously told the Pharisees, “You cannot serve God and mammon (Lk. 16:13).” He quoted from Isaiah and Jerimiah as he drove them out (Is. 56:7; Jer. 7:11). This was a cleansing by Jesus to return his Father’s house (Lk. 2:46-49) to a house of prayer and he began to teach in the temple area. When Jesus was in the Temple, it was truly the Temple where he taught God’s will and true worship. While the people were captivated by Jesus’ words, their leaders were looking for ways to kill him.
Almighty God, let not your way of peace be hidden from our
eyes or your truth be hidden from our hearts as we seek to understand your Word
and live your will. This we pray through
Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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