Shalom,
Let the Word of God and the acknowledgement that the Lord is working in our lives fill our hearts so that we can remain firm in His joy and Spirit in going through any kind of struggles, especially during this pandemic.
How do we respond to His once-mentioned visitation (Luke 19:44b) which no one knows when it will take place? Luke 19:29-48 consist of 2 important periscopes, those are: Jesus was worshipped in Jerusalem, and He sanctified the temple of God. Why did the focus lie on Jerusalem and the temple of God? Because His chosen people dwelt in Jerusalem and it was the place of the temple of God where all believers from all over the world came over to celebrate the feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23); while the temple of God points to our lives as believers (1 Corinthians 3:17).
We often think that God truly visits us when He actively extends us His help, comfort, miracle of healing, physical blessings, solution to our problems, and on it goes. The truth is God also visits us through advice, a warning, and even a reprimand. In whatever form God visits us, however, we should actively welcome Him because His visitation shows His love to us. Example: when our President comes to town to inaugurate a building, people must be welcoming him enthusiastically. What if God is the one who comes? How do we respond to Him?
What is actually the purpose of God’s visitation that we need to promptly respond?
- God’s visitation gives us the chance to serve Him (Luke 19:29-40).
- Jesus’ disciples obeyed His command (vv. 29-34).
They did what Jesus told them without any argument (v. 32) although they had to face the risk (v. 33). What kind of risk? Someone must have owned the colt, and if the owner saw them loosing the colt, it might cause a misunderstanding.
Introspection: Has His visitation really encouraged us to serve Him even more? Have we obeyed and applied His word into our lives? Will we still be high-spirited to serve Him even though we face so many challenges and obstacles that try to ruin our ministry? To be honest, we often feel euphoric when things are going great in our ministry, yet at the first sign of disappointment at not getting the credit, we want to quit.
- Jesus’ disciples sacrificed willingly in serving Him (Luke 19:35-36).
They released the colt and brought him to Jesus and they threw their own clothes on the colt and they set Jesus on him. They sacrificed their time, energy and their belongings (clothes).
Application: There are always sacrifices in the ministry. So are we willing to sacrifice our time, energy, mind, feeling and even money for it? The important thing for us to remember is that we must not feel superior and take the credits when we achieve success in our ministry.
- Only Jesus who is glorified in our ministry.
Those two disciples did take off their clothes to be put on the colt before helping Jesus to get on it. But whatever they did, Jesus was the only one worthy to be glorified. Frankly, don’t we sometimes feel we are meritorious because of the things we did for His work? We need to change our mindset from ‘we deserve the praise’ to ‘He is the only one worthy of praise and glory’.
- Jesus’ disciples gave praise and thanks only to Jesus (vv. 37-38) with joyful hearts because they had experienced the miracle without any obstacles—not even being reprimanded by the Pharisee.
What can be found in the praise and thanks? It is filled with blessings and peace for ourselves and others (v. 38).
- God’s visitation is meant for our reminder (vv. 41-44).
Jesus prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Why? Because they had killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to them (Luke 13:34). It is important to know that in 500 BC, the Israelites were thrown to Babylon and Jerusalem was destroyed, but then rebuilt to be a luxurious building. Just like Jesus’ prophecy, it was written in the history of the Jews that Jerusalem was besieged and attacked by the Roman army under the leadership of General Titus, culminating to the destruction of the temple of God. It happened in 70 AD. After the destruction, people in Jerusalem tried to survive so horribly that even the general and soldiers who destroyed Jerusalem wept when looking at how the Israelites suffered.
The truth is the Lord has reminded us of what will happen because everything is in His control.
This factual account is important. All theological beliefs need to be verified by the history. The temple of God in Jerusalem was the Jews’ symbol of pride that was torn down twice, causing them not to be able to worship Him. It served as a reminder for mankind not to take pride in what they created and ignore God, the Creator of man.
Introspection: We need to examine what we take pride in and ask for forgiveness if we have depended more on our wealth, power and success than on the Lord. Let’s learn to be humble and realize that everything we have is from Him!
- God’s visitation is meant to reprimand and sanctify us (Luke 19:45-48).
Jesus was furious and drove all the merchants out of the temple of God because they had made it a den of thieves (v. 46). At that time, the Jews were going to celebrate the Passover; therefore, those who were spread outside Jerusalem came back to Jerusalem and they were to offer sacrifices (animal or money). Surely, those who came from afar could not bring their animal with them, so it was more practical for them to buy one in Jerusalem. For that, they needed to exchange their money with local currency. That’s why the Jews set up the money changer and were selling animals in the temple.
What was the reason behind Jesus’ anger toward those merchants? It was because they took unreasonable profit that had adverse effect and discomfort on those who came to the temple to worship and give offering to God.
These days the devil is trying to look for a way to make children of God feel uncomfortable while attending a church service, causing them to easily get disappointed and angry to their brothers and sisters in Christ, to their teammates in the ministry and even to the servant of God who is delivering the word of God by criticizing or lurking to find his fault. 1 Timothy 6:6 advises, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain”—minimally a peace gain.
While Jesus was driving all the merchants out of the temple of God, He said, “My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’.” He quoted Isaiah 56:6-7. Why was He angry? Because the Lord brought strangers (non-Israelite) to the temple of God (His mountain) for them to believe in Him and worship Him there. When the temple of God was made into a place to buy and sell things where they greedily made unreasonable profit, this became a flaw or a bad testimony and the name of the Lord was disgraced in front of all other nations.
Other than Isaiah 56:6-7, Jesus also quoted Jeremiah 7:9-11 where the Israelites had done wicked things like stealing, killing, committing adultery, giving false testimony, giving offering to Baal, worshipping other gods; having done all, they came to the temple of God without feeling guilty. Didn’t all that they did hurt His heart? They should have regretted and asked for His forgiveness.
Application: We must not turn the temple of God into a place of business where we can gain a lot of profits. Also let’s come to the house of God with a broken heart, regretting all that we have done, asking for His forgiveness and making a promise to sin no more. We cannot worship Him while covering up our sins as though we have not done anything wrong!
We have witnessed and experienced His visitation in our lives. So, let’s welcome Him by getting ourselves ready to serve Him, willing to sacrifice our time, energy, mind, feeling and money. Furthermore, always be humble to be reprimanded for our mistakes and transgressions because it all means to sanctify us so that we will be worthy to stand before Him and please Him. Amen.