Jesus In The Temple
JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
LUKE 19:41-48
The crowd largely saw Jesus as a political messiah, so it’s not surprising that we see Jesus bursting into tears over Jerusalem.
Verses 41-44. From the high swell of the Mount of Olives Jerusalem may be seen entire. Over the valley of the Kedron the ancient walls top the stony ridge on whose slopes Stephen was to die. The packed roofs of the old city fill the view. Hence the Lord’s distress. The veil of the years grew thin before him and he saw what the Roman ballista teams saw from the same spot almost forty years later. In the stark vision of forty years on there were no grey-green olives on the slope, only blackened stumps, there was no going and coming on the road below. The gates were closed. The walls were marred and scarred by the catapult stones … And not long afterwards the city was a ruined heap of ash and blackened stone covering a multitude of dead. It was a day of visitation indeed.
When the Lord spoke there was still a choice between the terror which was seeping through Palestine, the growing power of hate, the rising tide of violence, and the acceptance of Christ, with a rôle in the world which might have changed all history in some unimagined way. But “they would not.”
19:45-48. From Mark 11:11 and 15 it appears that Jesus crossed the Kedron, entered the city and went straight to the temple. It was only a few hundred yards to the left of his place of entry. He observed the situation there. The old abuses had crept back to the holy place since the earlier occasion, described by John, when he had driven out the traders and money-changers (John 2:13-17). He then retired to Bethany for the night, came back to the city the next morning, and cleansed the temple afresh. This seems the best reconstruction of events. The Sadducean priesthood, who authorized this vulgar but lucrative bazaar in the Court of the Gentiles, were hesitant to act because of the popular support for the Lord among the multitude. It required a few days for them to develop a plan of campaign. They waited cunningly for the onset of disillusionment in those who had expected a spectacular demonstration of messiahship; they cornered Pilate, and circumvented the rest. But what of the temple of our lives (2 Corinthians 6:16-17)? Note also Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11; Zechariah 14:21; Malachi 3:1-2.
Notes Compare Christ’s lament with 13:34-35. 19:41: “wept” aloud; contrast the silent tears over Lazarus (John 11:35). 19:46: “cave of brigands” (Gk.)—cf. Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11. Birds and animals for sacrifice were sold at exorbitant prices; Greek, Roman and Tyrian coins had to be changed into Jewish money—at a premium, of course.