Hi everyone. Welcome back to the podcast,
we're all about helping. You understand the gospel
readings, helping you really get it?
The text, what does it mean in its original context?
So that when you hear this Gospel reading at Mass, you'll
be better prepared to engage with the readings and hear what
the priest has to say about the reading in the sermon.
Today, we're looking at a fairly famous, passage wearing Luke
chapter, 19, verses 45 to 48. This is what you would hear in
today's mass, Jesus went into the temple and began driving out
those who are selling according to scripture.
He said, my house will be a House of Prayer but you have
turned it into a robbers Den. He taught in the temple
everyday, the chief priests, and the scribes with the support of
the leading citizens. Tried to do away with him, but
they did not see how they could carry this out because the
people as a whole hung on his words, So what's the context of
this passage? What has happened?
Just prior to today's saying here, so Jesus has just arrived
in Jerusalem for the last week of his life.
So we're here at the beginning of the last week of Jesus life
and verse 45 says, Jesus went into the temple.
So the Temple of course, was the center of Jewish life.
It was always very busy and it was considered to be the place
where God dwelt among his people.
In a special manner, it was the whole Center of Jewish Society
economy and religious life. The temple itself was divided
into different compartments and you've probably seen these maps
of the temple. There's sort of inner courts and
outer courts, and it appears that the same we're looking at
today, happens in the outer Court, which is open to the
Gentiles. So it's sort of like an open
outdoor Courtyard. It's called the outer court.
Now, it's pretty close to Passover when the scene happens.
So, the whole area would be flooded with.
People would be very, very busy, and history tells us that in
passover's, it was so busy at the That I had to allow
pilgrims. In In Waves, they couldn't all
come in at once. So Jesus goes into the temple
and Luke just go straight into it.
Luke says he began driving out those who we're selling now.
The other gospel writers, tell us what they were selling.
There's people there who were selling animals particularly now
the fact that they're selling animals is not a bad thing in
itself. That's actually a needed Market.
You did need people near the temple who could sell animals
because in order to go into the temple as That you there are
certain sacrifices, you have to do, and to do those sacrifices,
you need animals. So, the fact that people are
selling animals to the Jews, it's not actually a bad thing.
It's a needed Market. Some people can't get their own
animals before they get to the temple.
Particularly if they're traveling, from somewhere else.
In Israel, they might not have time to get an animal.
So many people when they get to the temple, can buy their
animals. And particularly a lot of those
animals would be sacrificed as part of the Passover offerings
particular, Lambs would be the main thing that is sacrificed in
the Passover week now. Interestingly historical records
tell us that the market for selling sacrifice animals.
It used to be located on the Mount of Olives.
So outside the city nowhere near the temple.
So it used to be, that is pilgrims came into the city.
They pass the Mount of Olives, and on the mountain there, they
could buy animals if they needed you on.
Actual Mountain, but some historical sources.
It's not entirely clear. But some sources do seem to say
that in the time of the high priest Caiaphas, which is the
high priest. At the time of Jesus, he allowed
some animals to be sold in the actual Temple.
So, it was a recent change in the time of Jesus.
Now, the other gospels also tell us that there are money changers
sitting in the temple as well. And that was another needed
Market because you needed to change your Gentile money to
Jewish money in order to do the proper sacrifice.
Devices in the temple. Jesus doesn't have a problem
with the fact that these things are happening per se.
The problem he has is the location of the transactions.
He has a problem with the fact that the transactions are
happening in the outer Court of the temple, that part of the
temple is supposed to be for the Gentiles.
It's the only part of the temple that Gionta Gentiles can come
into to worship. They can't go any further than
that. So if a gentile wanted to come
and worship god, there would do that in the outer court.
But here, these Merchants have set up their it's in the outer
Court, which makes it very hard for people to come and pray and
worship God. That's why Jesus.
Here says stop turning. My father's house into a den of
robbers, probably. Also the people who are here who
are selling the money making money off it and they're
probably inflating the prices, so there's probably like
extortion going on as well, but the main thing Jesus mentions
here is the fact that they are stopping people from using the
outer court, for worshiping God, which is what supposed to be
for. And the texture says that he
drives them out and we know from John's gospel that he probably
made a whip to do this, Jesus is not driving them out to make a
public scene. That's not the point.
The point is to get the merchants out of the temple so
that the area can be cleared and people can come back in and
worship. That's why he chases them out.
It's not to make a scene. It's to allow people to come
back in and verse 46. He says, according to scripture,
or we can translate that as it is written.
So Jesus, here is going to quote from the Old Testament.
So Jesus sees the Old Testament as authoritative.
And he's going to quote from the Old Testament, to help the
merchants that he's just driven out to help him.
See why he's doing what he's doing.
And this is what he quotes. My house will be a House of
Prayer but you have turned it into a robbers Den.
Now, that's actually two separate quotes from the Old
Testament. The first phrase my house will
be a House of Prayer. That's from Isaiah 56:17 and
then but you have turned it into a robbers Den.
It's from Jeremiah 7 verse 11. So two different books of the
Bible and in the time of Jesus, they commonly would do this.
They would put two parts of scripture together and put them
into one Court in order to make their point and the church
fathers did a lot of this as well and we can learn a lot of
things from that. It teaches a certainly that they
saw All of the Old Testament, scripture to be equally
authoritative. They could just pull a verse
from here in a verse from there and put them together to help
make a point. So it's really interesting the
way they use scripture. So these courts that Jesus uses
helps us understand what his problem is.
His problem is that they've turned the temple from a House
of Prayer into a robbers Den. He wants people to be able to
access God in the temple. That's his heart's desire, but
the merchants are preventing that from happening.
In the eyes. I passage so Isaiah, chapter 56
verse 7, which says my house will be a House of Prayer in
context. Isaiah is prophesying, that one
day, God will gather all the nations to himself in the time
of Jesus. Now the merchants seem to be
stopping that passage, from being fulfilled, Isaiah said,
the temple should be a House of Prayer.
But according to Jesus, these Merchants are stopping that from
happening there, obstructing God's intentions, in the
Jeremiah passage, Jeremiah 7 verse 11, you have turned it
into The robbers Den in context, that's from a sermon, that
Jeremiah delivers against the Jews, who think they're secure,
despite their sinfulness, and in context G, Jeremiah gives this
sermon that supposed to be a warning that if the Jews don't
repent, the temple will be destroyed.
While the situation in Jesus time in the temple, was pretty
similar to what was going on in Jeremiah's day.
So, it's significant that Jesus chooses a part of Jeremiah
sermon, which is all about predicting the The temple
because what is what happens to Jerusalem shortly after Jesus
dies. It is also destroyed because
they did not repent. Also notice what Jesus does, he
he's quite aggressive, he puts people out of the temple, some
Scholars. Think that, that foreshadows the
temples destruction, which is coming soon in 70 AD and also
his expulsion of the animals that might be sort of a symbolic
prophecy that the sacrifices in the temple.
Would soon. Stop some Scholars.
See, there's a lot of significance to what Jesus does
here in the temple. Now that's all Luke gives us.
Luke gives us a very short description of Jesus cleansing
the temple. That's all he has to say about
it. The other gospels tell us Us a
bit more though. But look, continues in verse 47.
He said Jesus taught in the temple everyday.
So, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the last week of his life up
till now, he's been preaching in their synagogues all over
Israel. But now, in the last week of his
life, he preaches in the temple, the greatest worship place for
the Jews, it was common for popular preachers to preach in
the temple that was allowed and often Jews would come, and
listen to the preachers as part of their visit to the temple.
Particularly during Passover, they would often be preachers.
That, that would come to listen to.
So, all during Passover week, Jesus is preaching in the
temple. Now, later In this passage, we
learned that his preaching to what the Greek says, is layoffs,
La OS. So he's preaching to an English.
That's all the people. The Greek there though for
layoffs, implies not. Just crowds in general like he's
been speaking to on the roads. No, this is the people who are
responding positively to Jesus, it's his disciples basically.
So those who are here in the temple are mostly people.
All who have accepted Jesus and want to hear more from him.
So, that's in contrast with the crowds in general.
So, in Jerusalem, at this time, there's all sorts of crowds.
But here, Jesus preaches to his people.
The people who are listening to him.
So all week during Passover, Jesus continues to speak in the
temple and he also has a lot to say to the Jewish priests and
the other Jewish leaders in this last week of his life, we're
going to see what he has to say in the coming chapters.
Matthew's gospel. In particular tells us more
about the things. He preached in the final week
And the reaction of the Jewish leaders, the last sort of
quarter of Matthew's gospel is Jesus preaching in the temple in
the final week. And then we hear that the chief
priests and the scribes with the support of the leading citizens.
So we have here, a group of Jewish leaders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, the chief Priests of those who were
in charge of the temple in Jerusalem and the scribes are
the experts of the law. So they are very highly trained
people. We also have here, another group
of Jewish leaders called the leading citizens or the
principal men of the people. These are probably members of
the Sanhedrin, most likely the leading Jewish Council.
That is the most powerful Jewish body that managed all Jewish
Affairs. So in Luke year says, the
leading citizens are probably means high-ranking members of
the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was largely made
up of Sadducees, so that would be wealthy men in Jerusalem who
wanted to maintain stability in society.
So probably here, we're talking about Sadducees, the Sadducees,
had an alliance with the Romans, which allowed them to keep their
positions of authority in exchange for cooperating, with
the Romans. So the Sadducees in Killer want
to take Jesus down? Because he threatens their
wealthy way of life that they're benefiting from.
So, they get together, the chief priests the scribes, and the
leading citizens. And the texture says, they try
to do away with him. By this point, the Jewish
leaders are afraid, that Jesus is causing too much trouble.
Particularly after his entrance on Palm Sunday, there's just too
much of the crowd being stirred up and they are probably worried
that if this continues, the Jesus movement could result in
the Romans cracking down on the Jews and punishing them, which
is not what the Jewish leaders want.
And it says here, they're try to do away with If him that could
be translated as destroy, they plot to destroy him.
Destroy can either mean kill. So, maybe the text here
intensity Chaser, they're planning to kill him.
And we know that they are trying to do this, but that can also be
translated discredit, maybe they're just trying to discredit
him based on asking him, certain questions because if they can
get him to say something silly that will discredit him.
And the whole Jesus movement we'll stop.
We'll see this in chapter 20, when they try to discredit him
with certain questions, they ask him. 48.
But they did not see how they could carry this out because the
people as a whole hung on his words, So, the Jewish leaders
here, they realize that there's these big crowds listening to
him, and they coming to hear him speak.
So they realize they can't really take any action against
Jesus at the moment. He has too much support.
There's too many people around in the temple during the day.
If the Jewish leaders, try to take him down, there's going to
be too many people around who support him, and it's not going
to work. That's why they had to take him
at night. So when there wasn't too many
people around who could support him and stop them from capturing
him. So that's the end of Luke
chapter 19. A really interesting chapter the
lectionary now, skips over a large section of text.
So you don't get to hear most of Luke Chapter 20 or the first
part of Luke Chapter 20, by going to mass.
It's never read it Mass. So at the start of chapter 20,
if you have a look at your Bible, firstly, Jesus is
questioned by the Jewish leaders and then Jesus tells the parable
of the wicked tenants and then he discusses the issue of paying
taxes. That happens in verses 1 to 26
of chapter, 20 and those verses verses 1 to 26, never read on a
weekend or a week day. You never hear them at Mass.
So, if you want to hear a verse by verse exegesis of the next
part of Luke, so the start of Luke Chapter 20, that will be
available to you through the patreon page.
So if you're willing to become a supporter of the ministry, you
can get access to those bonus episodes of the podcast, and the
link for that is in the show notes our next week day reading
will start. At verse 27 of Luke Chapter 20.
There's no catechism references for us to look at today.
So we'll finish it there. Please keep praying for this
ministry and share it around. So more and more people can
learn their Bible that Catholics can be more prepared to hear the
Bible readings at mass and please keep listening in the
coming days as we get close to the end of the Gospel of Luke