Matthew 21:10-17 Mark 11:11 Luke 19:41-44 John 12:17-19
10 When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was
stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And
the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” 12 And Jesus entered the
temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and
overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were
selling doves. 13 And
He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF
PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” 14 And the blind
and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed
them. 15 But
when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had
done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of
David,” they became indignant 16 and
said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And
Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND
NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?” 17 And He left them and
went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into
the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with
the twelve, since it was already late.
41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the
city and wept over it, 42 saying,
“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But
now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 “For
the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against
you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you
to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one
stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
17 So
the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised
him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also
the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this
sign. 19 So
the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good;
look, the world has gone after Him.”
This is a scene from the history of the life of Jesus where
we see a stark contrast in the reactions of people. There has just been a tremendous time of
celebration as Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and the people shouting out praises
about Him. However, instead of rejoicing,
Jesus weeps over the city because He can see what the future holds. The people come for healing and the children
continue to praise Him, but the religious leaders accuse Him of blasphemy. So much seems out of place in this picture. This is what we should expect of a world that
rejects Jesus. Our failures to respond
correctly to the Lord will always leave us and those around us in confusion and
out of place.
JESUS PROPHESIES ABOUT JERUSALEM: After being greeted with
palm branches and cries of Hosanna, Jesus looks out over the city and weeps. He knows that the praise they had showered
upon Him would shortly turn to cries to crucify Him. He knows that their hearts are far from God
and they have rejected the call of God for their lives. They were far more interested in a national
kingdom than they were in seeing the nations worship the Lord. He looked down on the temple that was meant
to be a place of worship and it had become a place where people profited from
the sacrificial system. The hearts of
the people were far from God. The
religious leaders had become power hungry and corrupt. This reality brought the Lord to tears,
caused Him to prophecy that the city would once again be destroyed and the
trust Him into the action of cleansing the temple. Jesus had cleared the temple of this
merchandising at the beginning of His ministry, but things had just gone back
to “normal.” Profit had replaced prayer
as the motive for going to the temple.
Great attention must be given to our hearts as we consider how we
respond to the work of God in us.
Prayer, worship, spreading the Gospel to the nations, holiness and
loving one another must be the priorities that mark our lives. If not, Jesus will be standing over our lives
and weeping as He did over Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM TESTIFIES ABOUT JESUS: Many people were
surrounding Jesus all the time. Some of
them were disciples, others were curious about Him, still others were
antagonistic towards Him. Jesus had come
from the home of Lazarus and crowds had gathered to witness Jesus with the man
whom He had raised from the dead. This
crowd came with Him to Jerusalem and testified about Him to other people. This multiplied the crowd even further. After cleansing the temple, many people came
there to be healed which multiplied the crowd even more. The children who were around the temple were
singing praise to Him as they saw the wonderful things He did. All these factors caused the priests and
religious leaders to become even more indignant. There are plenty of people who are testifying
to the greatness of Jesus. This causes
jealousy and starts a power struggle in the hearts of the religious
leaders. The problem with the testimony
of the people around Jesus was that it did not go far enough. They were proclaiming Him to be a great man. They were amazed by the miracles He
performed. They hoped He would be a
political liberator. However, they did
not see Him as the Messiah or the Son of God.
Many people today will testify that Jesus was a good man. He is far more than that. He is our Creator, Lord, Savior and He is
God.
APPLICATION: Make sure that the allure of power and
influence is not the motivation behind ministry. Worship, contentment with God’s provisions
and a love for people must be the marks of our ministries and every aspect of
our lives. Never waste an opportunity to
testify to others about the work that Jesus has done and is doing in our lives
and in the nations. Be sure that our
relationship with Jesus is based on a love for Him and a recognition of His deity
and not just an admiration of His work.
Comments
Post a Comment