Restoration, not a Riot

45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

47 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, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. 

(Luke 19)

This is the next paragraph after the one we looked at yesterday, where Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem.  I wasn't planning to talk about it, but it jumped off the page.  Jesus was not rioting here, tearing up something that did not belong to Him just to be destructive. The temple was the place of God's presence where He would meet with His people.  You might say Jesus was in His own home. The court He "cleansed" was the one where Gentiles could come to worship, but was too crowded to access, so He was only removing what did not belong there. And He did not destroy, hurt people and run. He stayed all week, every day, coming back to share the truth. He came to restore, not to destroy.

Looking over the City...

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 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. 43 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 44 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.” (Luke 19)
Cities.  You love them or you hate them. Jesus loved Jerusalem, even though He was not "from there". He had been raised in a smaller city and spent time in all sizes of communities. But as a Jew, a descendant of David, the Messiah, the city of Jerusalem did hold a special place in his heart. Enough so that we find this gripping picture of Him crying over the city because of what lay ahead for it.  Cities represent the best and worst of men. They are centers for business, for learning, for cultural expression, and often the display of the latest technology and architecture. They can also be places filled with anger, crime and hopelessness. May our response be that of Jesus: sincere concern, prayer, and a willingness to do our part to make things better, be they received or not. 

Sober Hope

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (I Thessalonians 5)
Hope is one of several threads running through this letter. Especially when life seems like it is on a runaway train to disaster. We need to remain sober and hopeful in Christ, and we need to encourage each other along the way. We need to together look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who "for the hope before Him" kept looking foward.  Let us stand strong in the assurance of our salvation, trust in Him, and love one another. 

You, Me, and Ours, Lord...

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. 16 O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.

My wife loves old family friendly movies, and has infected me with the disease. One of our favorites is "Yours, Mine, and Ours," about a widow and widower who each have several children, then marry, and all sorts of craziness happens. Here, in I Chronicles 29, David talks about what happened when God and His people got together. It is all one-sided. God brings allt he greatness, power, glory, majesty, riches and strenght to the relationship. We are aliens and strangers. Everything we are and have comes from Him, yet He loves us, chooses us, and makes us His family, His people.  May we remember that, and keep that perspective as we humbly walk through this day. 

Stirring the Pot

A soft answer turns away wrath,
    but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,
    but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
    keeping watch on the evil and the good.
4 A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
    but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
5 A fool despises his father's instruction,
    but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
6 In the house of the righteous there is much treasure,
    but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge;    not so the hearts of fools.
(Proverbs 15:1-7)
The first verse was the first verse I ever put in the back of a classroom. I wanted something to grab the hearts and minds of my middle school students, but guess who saw it more than anyone else? I did. Every day that year. I did not take it down.  Often in proverbs we feel like it is this scattering of wise sayings, but notice here Solomon keeps hitting us with the same thing: word, tongue, mouths, tongue, lips.  We can make a real mess with our mouths. We can act like real fools. We can act like we never learned anything.  Ouch. The bottom line is "What am I letting fill my heart?" That's where the words come from. That's what does the damage.  Let's imagine that first verse above every headline we read, ever person we see, every challenge we face. 

When weary...

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;    they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
Life lately has made many of us more than a little weary.  It is predictable, understandable, and even promised: 
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
13 As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. (II Thessalonians 3)
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12)
There are many reasons we may "grow weary": we don't seem to be getting anywhere; others seem to be messing up our lives, or at least are not doing anything to help matters; we keep feeling the pull of sin dragging us down.  All of these things weigh us down and make us weary.  And when life all around us seems to be falling apart and going downhill, spiritual and emotional gravity take their toll on us.  But we are exhorted here to not grow weary, and we are given good reason: God has more than enough strength to provide - to push us forward, Jesus Christ is there drawing, pulling us forward, and the Holy Spirit is within reminding us all the time.  When weary, may we find our strength, hope and courage in the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good triune God. 

The City

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21: 2-4 ESV
Some days this vision of the future looks even better than others.  When we look around and see devastated cites, hear cries of anger and pain, and feel hopeless in it's presence, we long even more for the beautiful city, with no crying or pain, and the sense that all is well, and will be forever.  May that certainty fill our hearts with hope and purpose today.