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