I wonder when was the last time you had a good cry? Were they tears of joy? Tears of sadness? Tears of pain? What makes the tears flow for you? Is it a love story, a miracle, a bereavement, or images of starving children.
1. The Compassion.
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem as he foresees its destruction. (V. 41-44) Jesus could have been angry, critical, resentful, or full of self-pity. But he wasn't. He was weeping for Jerusalem, a city he loved and respected. He is not weeping for himself. He is weeping for the pain of the City and its people; and for the failure of the City and of the People who make the City what it is.
He wishes they knew the things that "make for your peace"(v. 42) that is to say for salvation. He wishes they could recognise the “day of visitation”. Salvation – the present life-changing action of the Kingdom of God – has been knocking at their door. They have had a day or time (the Greek word is Kairos – which means the right time, a moment of unique opportunity) of visitation. The Greek word is Episcope. It literally means oversight. It's the word from which we get our English words “Bishop” and Episcopal”. It speaks of the visit that someone responsible makes – as a Bishop visits the parishes in his area, to bring encouragement and challenge. "Visitation" is a coming of God whether for good or for judgement. Jesus is the bishop (visitor, overseer, guardian, Episcopos of our souls, 1 Peter 2. 25). His presence among the people has been a “visitation” intended to encourage them to know God's salvation, the arrival of his Kingdom. That's what God wanted. Jesus says says “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him”. (John 3. 17)
But peace isn't what is happening. Jesus sees the future – seventy years later, and his words came true. Building a wooden palisade and then a stone siege wall were tactics the Romans used. The city would be besieged, and its walls and its people including the children, flattened. That was what happened in ancient warfare is it still happens today. It was common (as it is today) to make a point of mentioning atrocities against children.
Why the judgement? “Because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Visitation is intended to be the occasion of salvation, but as the people failed to recognize it as such the same visitation becomes the basis of a judgement yet to follow. The "last days" have come through Jesus. Those who don't recognise the salvation, put themselves in the place of judgement.
And Jesus is crying. We need to learn from the emotion of Jesus here. The word speaks of “a loud expression of pain or sorrow” – “howling.” Like the woman who washed his feet, this is no wiping away of the tears from the corner of the eye. Jesus is howling with grief. He is overcome with emotion. Let's be clear: the ability to be blasé about suffering and about judgement, is not part of the work of the Spirit. That is not what Paul means when he talks about the fruit of the spirit being “self-control.” We have filtered and diluted the emotion out of following Jesus, and as a result, we've lost sight of the real Jesus. We have turned Christianity into a cerebral, systematic, institutional way of being, a matter of “knowledge”, or of “techniques” for dealing with our inner darkness. Jesus is calling us to a holistic, dynamic, relational way of being, a journey of discovery, and romance, where truth involves walking with this Jesus. and being changed. We need to be transformed by the fact that “when human hearts are breaking under sorrow's iron rod, all the sorrow all the aching, wrings with pain the heart of God.” Whether we see ourselves as having grasped our salvation and received our day of visitation or not, let's learn from the tears of Jesus.
2. The Cleansing
Then Jesus goes into the temple. And in there, merchants were selling the requisites for sacrifice – animals, wine, oil, salt and so on, as well as changing money. This trade was justified by the need, according to the OT law, for unblemished sacrifices including money untainted by gentile images. He's seen all this before. But on this day, Jesus decides to drive these things out. He knows he is heading towards the Cross. The outcome of the cleansing will be to further set the seal upon Jesus' commitment to sacrifice his life upon the Cross. It will alienate and provoke his opponents to orchestrate his arrest and eventual death.
Luke doesn't make very much of this story: he shortens Marks version of it, clipping out pretty much all the derails. He simply tells us that Jesus. quotes from two Old Testament prophets:
1. Isaiah 56.7 – Luke doesn't include the words “for all nations. ” If he had wanted he could have included the words to make the point that the Gospel is for everyone, but he doesn't. He knew what happened when people thought Paul had taken Gentiles into the temple! (Acts 21. 27ff). He's aware of the fact the temple did not become a place for the Gentiles, and maybe for a Gentile reader he doesn’t' want to introduce confusion. Of course Luke believed the gentiles should be fully included in God's people. It goes without saying.
2. Jeremiah 7. 11. The temple had become a “den of robbers”. For Luke – consistent with hid concern for the poor not just the poor in spirit – the main thing wrong with the trading in the temple, is the dishonesty, greed, economic violence and oppression and legalism.
Luke wants us to appreciate that the cleansing is a challenge, not only to exclusivism, but also to dishonesty, economic oppression, legalism. So, the action that led Jesus to the Cross was political as well as personal and religious. The Cross deals not only with “religious” sin, personal sin, but with structural sin, economic sin. It exposes all that is wrong with the world; and all that is wrong in our hearts. Paul puts it like this in Romans 8
The Cross condemns sin in the flesh. (Rom 8. 3) The perfect Son of God, obeying the father's will all the way to the Cross, exposes every sort of sin, personal selfishness, rebellion, greed and lust, religious contempt and intolerance, economic injustice and political oppression, for what it is: sin.
The Cross atones for all that sin. Through it God has set us free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8. 2; Col 2. 14-15)
And through the Cross, all believers are set free from all sorts of sin, to “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8. 4).
3. The Claim
Having “cleansed” the temple, Jesus then teaches in the temple. He does so repeatedly, over a number of days. He's not being fazed by the fact that some disapprove. He knows he has the right. This temple is “his Father's house” (John 2. 16).
But this is hard, challenging teaching. He's not preaching the Gospel – which is why he is not healing the sick. He's simply dialoguing with those who are set to oppose him; he is challenging the wrong attitudes of those who don’t' want to give God his rightful place in their lives (Lk 20. 9-23) but simply want an intellectual debate instead of putting their faith in to practise (Lk 20. 24-47). And he warns of judgement to come. As Jesus claims the temple, he claims our lives. As he claims the right to stand in the temple and teach the truth there, so he claims the right to stand in our lives with authority: hand over to God the things that are God's (Lk 20. 25)
So now, as two thousand years ago, Jesus comes to us with compassion; he comes to cleanse and to claim our lives. And today some try to destroy him. Some hang on his every word, hang onto him as they listen to him. They depend on him and are prepared to pin their lives on him. His tears challenge us, his grace cleanses us and his authority claims us. In response, only you can speak for you: only I can speak for me. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. (Josh 24. 15)
© Gilmour Lilly March 2015
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