Thursday, March 17, 2016

No wonder they call it "The Passion"...

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 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. 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 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.”
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
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, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
(Luke 19:41-48 ESV)
Jesus has entered Jerusalem, presenting Himself as the King to be received. Though outwardly the crowd seemed in His favor, He could see and hear the doubt, the opposition, the rejection of many.  His responses back are passionate indeed.  He is moved to tears over what will happen to this city, to His people, because of their rejection.  He is moved to anger to purify the polluted prayer haven in the temple.  He is moved to preach boldly the truth in His final days before the cross.  So, when we get to the cross, it is this same passionate Man hanging there - one committed to what is best for others, one dedicated to purity, one who is total truth. He does not hang there passively, but passionately, for us, for justice, for holiness.

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