Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (G)

Luke 19:41-48

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

⁴⁵ And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷ And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, ⁴⁸ but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

It is good to think of all the people hanging on every word of Jesus. But since they are hanging on the words of Jesus, the scribes shut their mouths. Maybe you know someone in your community, in which everyone hangs on every word they speak, and therefore no one ever challenges them. I often fear this. I do not think people hang on every word that comes from my mouth, but the fear is related to proper correction and challenging.

We all need to be confronted for our actions or our words. Even if we are speaking the truth, to know someone is not kept quiet because of the mob. I know that in a group of people I have heard something said that I disagree with, but have not challenged the individual publicly, I like to think out of respect. But maybe it is my own weakness.

Jesus stands up to those who would turn his Father's house into a house of robbers. Jesus answers every challenge that is brought before him. He even stands up, or is hung up, for our salvation. He dies for your sins. He even rises up to the challenge of death, and the devil, in his resurrection. He now continues to stand as our advocate before our Heavenly Father.