Arulvakku

20.11.2020 — Resistance or Openness

33rd Week in Ord. Time, Friday – 20th November 2020 — Gospel: Lk 19,45-48

Resistance or Openness

As God’s Messiah, Jesus takes possession of the temple, seeking to cleanse it from impurities and declaring what it should be. Jesus first cites Isaiah, expressing the divine hope that the temple will be “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Is 56,7). He contrasts what the temple should have been, a house of prayer for Israelites and foreigners; and what it has become, a commercial centre to benefit the powerful priestly aristocracy. Jesus then cites Jeremiah, condemning those who have made the temple “a den of robbers” (Jer 7,11). The religious leaders have become robbers, enriching themselves from the temple worship. Through this prophetic action, Jesus symbolically expresses his protest of those who would use God’s temple for profit rather than prayer. He upholds his preference for relationship with God through prayer.  For this reason, the religious leaders sought a way to put Jesus to death. They immediately dismissed him as a radical and fanatic, without just reason.  On the other hand, his listeners, however, were amazed by Jesus and hung on his every word.