God’s House: A House Of Prayer
St. Luke 19:41-48
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 19: 45-46 45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In the Church year there is only one Gospel reading that is used twice: the triumphal entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. We hear that historical narrative both on the first Sunday in Advent and on Palm Sunday. So then, we have that Gospel in both the Christmas cycle and in the Easter cycle.
Today we hear the events of that day from a different perspective from the pen of the Evangelist St. Luke. St. Matthew records for us the reaction of the people of Jerusalem. They were singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!” and they were spreading palm branches before our Lord as well as spreading their cloaks before the colt on which our Lord Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem. It was a happy and joyous scene. The Lord Jesus, the Messiah for whom everyone had been waiting, had finally come to Jerusalem.
He rode into town in triumph, much as a conquering king would have rode back into the city after defeating all of his enemies. Matthew records our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem as a victory march to the sound of singing and rejoicing. But Luke records a different perspective; He records the events of the day from the view point of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So, how does Luke write about our Lord’s reactions to the cheering crowds? Is Jesus smiling and soaking up the adulation, doing the “Parade wave?” Not even close; He is weeping. And this is one of those cases where the English does an inferior job of portraying the meaning of the Greek word that we translate as “wept.” It is like the word “love.” In English we have one word for love, but Greek has several words, all meaning different types of love. The same is true of the word “wept.”
The New Testament records our Lord’s weeping twice. John records that our Lord wept when Mary told Him to come and see the place where they laid her brother, Lazarus. The second time is here in today’s Gospel reading. In John’s Gospel the word has the meaning of tears streaming down one’s face. The word used here in Luke’s Gospel has the meaning of openly sobbing. Our Lord was not just shedding a tear over Jerusalem as He approached and reflected upon her coming doom. He was openly sobbing. This is quite the contrast to Matthew’s Gospel account of these events.
But what does this show us? It shows us the compassion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is not rooting for the destruction of Israel. He is not sitting on the sidelines rubbing His hands together in gleefully ghoulish anticipation of the city’s demise. No, He is intensely sorry for it to happen. It so affects Him that He openly weeps over this lost city. Luke even records the words of our Lord that reveal why He is weeping: because they refused to know the things that would bring them peace with God. The city of Jerusalem and the Israelite nation refused to hear the Word of God. They refused their Messiah. They refused the Lord Jesus.
The crowds were shouting songs of victory in jubilation, but their victory cries were misplaced, for they thought Jesus was coming to be an earthly king that would save them from the Romans. There were still others, specifically the ones listed at the end of today’s reading – the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people – who flat-out rejected Him out of jealousy and hatred. So, they sought to destroy Him. And they would find a way a few days later when Judas Iscariot agreed for thirty pieces of silver to betray Him to them.
We even see an example of how they not only rejected their Messiah, but rejected the Lord God and His worship when Jesus entered into the temple and saw them buying and selling, in effect turning the house of prayer into a den of thieves. They made the house of God – the house which was to be for prayer to God that He might forgive people their sins and show mercy – into a marketplace; a place for buying and selling. They turned the place of God’s free grace and mercy into a place where grace and mercy were bought and sold. If you paid the right price, you would get the forgiveness that you desired.
This was not what God had intended when He gave them the animal sacrifices. Those sacrifices were meant to provide a means of atonement for those who had sinned against God, and functioned as a foreshadowing of the once and for all time sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It was things like this that demonstrated how the people had rejected the Word of God.
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We see this in our society as well. Something terrible happens that drives men to repentance and brings them into the Church, only for them to return to their evil ways shortly after, as soon as the sting of the event has faded away. It happened right after 911; churches were packed…for a few weeks…then all went back to normal. In fact, people have become even more brazenly evil and unrepentant since then. For now, in the face of evil and viruses, we’re told NOT to go to church!
The Israelites had the Messiah. They had the Christ of God. They had His holy Word. They had all of these good gifts given to them for their benefit and good…and they wasted them.
In many ways today’s Gospel reading is a reflection of last Sunday’s Gospel reading where the unjust steward wasted the possessions of his master. In that parable we see an individual’s wasteful stewardship. In today’s Gospel we see an entire nation’s wasted stewardship. This should stand as a sharp warning to us, the Church. The people of Israel were the people of God, they were supposed to be the Church on Earth. But they squandered and wasted the Word of God for fame, glory and self-righteousness.
The Church was supposed to be a place of mercy and forgiveness, not a place of buying and selling, or making money off of people’s sinfulness. The Church is a house of prayer; it is an absolutely essential place where absolutely essential things happen. It is a place where we come in person to receive healing balm for our many transgressions as we hear again and again of our Lord’s sacrifice for us on the tree of the holy cross. It is a place where we come in person to enjoy the close-knit personal fellowship of fellow believers. It is a place where we receive in person the real, true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine; not virtually, but really and truly; and that is something we will not give up.
We place our God-given faith in Christ’s sacrifice, and on account of our faith we are credited with forgiveness, life and salvation. These gifts are given to us in such simple means. Just by hearing the preaching of the Gospel and believing what is preached brings us forgiveness. And this is so not because our believing is some work of ours, but because our believing places its trust in what our Lord Jesus has done for us. Our faith looks not inside of ourselves, but always looks outward to the promises of our Lord found in His once and for all sacrifice on the tree of the holy cross.
This is why the Holy Spirit uses Preaching, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Confession and Absolution, and the Conversation and Consolation of the Brethren. He uses these good gifts to create and sustain such a faith in us so that we do not look at our sins and our promised destruction because of them. Rather we look to the cross where our deserved destruction was poured out upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We come to this house of prayer to receive these gifts so that the burdens of our sins may be lifted off of our shoulders and placed upon our Lord. The Holy Spirit uses the whip of the Law to drive out of us any thoughts of saving ourselves from our sinfulness. The Holy Spirit uses the whip of the Law to drive us to the cross – to the means of grace wherein we meet and participate in the cross of our Lord Jesus. It is here in this house of prayer that our Lord meets us in person with His Word and Sacraments
This Gospel reading really has three parts to it. The first was our Lord’s weeping over the state of the Church of His day. There is much in today’s Church that drives us to weeping, as well. Sin and evil are just as rampant today as they were in our Lord’s day. The second part of today’s Gospel is when our Lord drove out those buying and selling, an example of corruption in the Church, and how the Church squanders the good gifts that our Lord God has given her.
But, the third part of today’s Gospel reading is that even amidst the hatred and desire of the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people to destroy our Lord Jesus, there are still many who cling to every Word that Jesus preaches. V. 48 says “They were very attentive to hear Him.”
Dear fellow redeemed, Jesus loves you and desires to show you mercy. We see today how much He weeps over the condition of His people, over His Church. He desires that we hear Him. He desires that we repent from our sins and turn to Him and the grace and mercy found only in Him. He desires that we gather here in person each and every Lord’s Day, not staying away in fear but attending in joy and peace. Fear has no place in God’s house.
He has given us a house of prayer; a place where we can come and find refreshment for our souls. Here, in this place, we are given the means of grace each and every Lord’s Day. The Holy Spirit is here in this place to cleanse you and make your soul a place of prayer; a place where you daily turn to the Lord God and cling to Him and receive mercy from Him, so that you may be saved from the promised destruction that you inherited on account of your manifold transgressions.
Cling diligently by faith to the Word of God and the promises that are found in it, for there you have the reward that our Lord Jesus died for on the tree of the holy cross: the forgiveness of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
