48 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
+++
|
||
title = "Luke 19:41–48"
|
||
date = "2023-01-21"
|
||
+++
|
||
|
||
### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk19.41-48)
|
||
|
||
Amidst all of the excitement of the Messiah coming to Jerusalem, with all the
|
||
people praising God for fulfilling His promises, when Jesus sees the city He
|
||
starts crying. And these aren't tears of joy, but of sadness. He explains why
|
||
in His lament that Jerusalem doesn't know what's actually happening in it, in
|
||
spite of all the hubbub and uproar that is presently happening around Him.
|
||
Furthermore, it will not know because the city will be besieged and destroyed,
|
||
and it cannot know because they have been hidden.
|
||
|
||
This is a hard thing to come to grips with. God prevented the people from
|
||
knowing what Jesus was really about, and thus the city was judged with
|
||
destruction in A.D. 70. One might question how that is fair and just. I'm not
|
||
sure I can fully answer that, but I can assert that it must be, because God is
|
||
entirely just. I can also point out that if He hadn't, then Jesus might not
|
||
have been crucified which would leave all of us in our sins forever, prove God
|
||
a liar, and make all of reality a contradiction. But we have seen things like
|
||
this througout the Luke's account, where plain truth is hidden from people
|
||
until the proper time. The only proper response is to trust in God's
|
||
unchangeable character and goodness.
|
||
|
||
Luke spends less time on the cleansing of the temple, but all four Gospel
|
||
writers include the event. The merchants who had set up shop in the temple were
|
||
providing legitimate services; travelers would not necessarily bring their own
|
||
sacrificial animals with them on a journey, and only a certain kind of coin was
|
||
accepted as offerings. Having a place near the temple to get these things was
|
||
convenient. However, it seems clear that the priests didn't care about the
|
||
worship any Gentiles would offer because these merchants were set up in the
|
||
only place the Gentiles were allowed in the temple. They had forgotten that
|
||
Israel was supposed to be a blessing to all nations by being a visible sign of
|
||
the Lord's goodness to the whole world.
|
||
|
||
After cleansing the temple, Jesus begins teaching there every day. We are also
|
||
told that "principal men of the people" are now trying to find a way to kill
|
||
him along with the chief priests and scribes. I would not be surprised to learn
|
||
that these men are the owners of the businesses Jesus disrupted. But Jesus is
|
||
still extremely popular, so they aren't able to move against Him publicly or
|
||
they would cause a riot.
|
||
|
||
* * *
|
||
|
||
Your goodness and Your power are the only hope we have for this life or the one
|
||
to come.
|