Luke 19:41-48 Jesus' last week

Luke 19:41-44 Jesus weeps over Jerusalem's coming destruction. This is recapitulated in Luke 23:28-31 and Luke 13:34-35 and Matthew 23:37-39. The point is much clearer there. God had chosen Jerusalem as the seat of His presence on earth. Yet the people of Jerusalem had rejected his presence. So Jesus is reflecting God the Father's feelings about this. Because the result of rejecting God's presence would be that Jerusalem would be vulnerable to the world, deprived of God's protection, and the outcome would be very bad.

Luke 19:45-46 Jesus drives the money-changers from the Temple. This is recorded in several places (Matt 21: 12-13, Mark 11:15-16, John 2:14-15) but curiously seems to have happened at least twice - once near the beginning of His ministry (as recorded by John) and once during the passion week as recorded by the others. This suggests that this practice really infuriated Jesus.

          Why was Jesus so incensed at this practice? His stated objection quoted from Isaiah 56:7 and 2 Chronicles 7:12. The reference to a den of thieves suggests that it wasn't just that the money changers were facilitating the offerings by enabling Jews from various locations to exchange their money for the correct specie to make the designated offering. It suggests that these money changers were in fact fleecing the flock, making usurious profits at the expense of believing and practicing pious common people. And in fact that the Temple leadership (the Pharisees, the priests, the Levites) were colluding in this practice. In other words, they were making money dishonestly, and using God's name as part of their scam.

          In modern times, the use of God's name for private gain takes slightly different forms. But Jesus' ire is likely the same. Whether it is televangelists soliciting donations on TV to live ostentatiously and build their own kingdom, or ministers that abuse positions of trust to exploit children entrusted to them by their parents, one suspects that if Jesus were present in the flesh, He would turn over their tables and use a scourge of cords to drive them out of their supposed ministry. But lest we judge others too harshly, we should look to ourselves, lest we have some of the same spirit in our own life.

Luke 19:47-48 Jesus teaches daily in the Temple. The scribes and Pharisees were looking for something He might say that they could use to discredit Him with the people, but they found nothing. This would be a bit like skeptics looking for something in the Bible to discredit the faith of believers. It's not going to happen.