Weeping and Cleansing
TRANSLATION
(41) As Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it (42) saying, “If you, even you, had only known today what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. (43) For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you, surround you, hem you in on every side, (44) and throw you to the ground, you and your children inside your walls. And they will not leave one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
(45) And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, (46) saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into ‘a den of robbers.’” (47) Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the teachers of the Law, and the leaders among the people were seeking to destroy him, (48) but they could not find any way to do it, for the people were hanging on his every word.
OBSERVATIONS
Luke used several repetitions in this segment, “day(s)” coupled with another time reference, “the time of your visitation” (vss. 41, 43, & 44) and “temple” linked with “my house” (vss. 45, 46, & 47). In the first paragraph, Luke described Jesus weeping with grief over the city (vss. 41-44). In the second, Luke portrayed Jesus as indignant with anger over the disrespect shown the temple (vss. 45 & 46). Finally, the Jewish leaders were portrayed as powerless to oppose him (vss. 47 & 48).
We should note that in his rebuke, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers,” Jesus was quoting from two Old Testament prophets. The first was Isaiah who wrote, “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Is. 56:7). The second referenced Jeremiah’s words, “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD” (Jer. 7:11).
OUTLINE
I. The time – Judgment is coming because Israel did not recognize Messiah’s arrival. (41-44)
II. The place – Israel’s leaders turned God’s house of prayer into a den of robbers. (45 & 46)
III. The response – Though they tried to silence Jesus, his popularity thwarted their efforts. (47 & 48)
IDEA STATEMENT
The refusal of the Jewish leaders to accept the Messiah in his first coming meant that the nation would soon experience God’s severe judgment.
APPLICATION
Many have asked, “Why did the Jewish nation reject the ministry and message of their Messiah when he came offering them salvation from sin?” We find two answers in this brief segment, both indicating why unbelievers at present still reject the message of the Gospel. First, Jesus did not meet their expectations when he came. The Jews were looking for a triumphant conqueror who would defeat their enemies and establish them as a world power. Instead, he came as a suffering servant who would humbly die on a cross to bear the sins of the whole world. God’s great purpose for Messiah’s first coming was “hidden from their eyes.” Then he was rejected by the Jewish establishment because receiving him meant that they would have to repent and change their self-centered ways. The selling of animals and changing money in the temple precincts represented a system that had an outward appearance of devotion to God but was rotten to the core with corruption, power politics, and personal gain. When it became clear to the authorities that accepting Jesus would require them to give up their sources of income and comfortable lifestyles, they refused his offer of life.
People reject Jesus today for similar reasons. He either fails to meet their expectations of what they think a Savior should be or the cost of following him is deemed too steep, requiring that they give up too much. John’s Gospel phrased it in these terms: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:11-13).