Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)
1 He came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
2 Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
3 was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
5 When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."
6 And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
7 When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over."
9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham."
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."
commentary by Pablo T. Gadenz, Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Trenton (NJ) :
Theology of the cross. St. Augustine compares the tree that Zacchaeus climbed to Jesus’ cross: “Climb the tree on which Jesus hung for you, and you will see Jesus” . This thought can be developed further. Whereas Jesus hung on the tree because he was crucified (23:33), Jesus told Zacchaeus to come down from the tree (19:5). In effect, the sinner is replaced by the Savior. This is the substitution accomplished by Jesus (Catechism 615). He died on the cross in our place, giving us salvation (19:9), which by grace we can begin to experience today (19:9; 23:43), and which reaches its fullness in the glory of eternal life.
comments by Keith A. Fournier (Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia):
This verse underscores the importance of the stories that are actually recorded in the Gospels. They have been selected among many, many others for a Divine purpose. Every character we meet on the pages of the sacred texts is more than just a player in a nice story. They are a door into eternal truth, meant to teach, inform and transform our lives. They put us more in touch with the Lord, ourselves and the very purpose of our lives. Upon prayer and reflection, they become an invitation to each of us to be converted, to change our lives, through our ongoing encounters with Jesus Christ.
What can we learn from Zacheus today? Let’s take a look.
The Context: In the days when the Lord walked in our midst, Israel was under Roman occupation. An unfair tax was extracted by people, like Zacheus, Jews who worked for the oppressor. They earned their living by adding an extra surcharge for themselves. These Jews were hated by the Jewish people. They were considered traitors, “sell outs’, “compromisers”…. However, they were still Jews. They were sons of the Covenant. They were children of Abraham. They knew the law and they were God’s special people.
In a sense, Zacheus was not unlike many of us who are Christians. We have been baptized into Christ. We know the faith. Perhaps however, we have conveniently separated “what we do” from “who we are”. “After all” we tell ourselves, “we are simply trying to make a living.” The parallel continues. For many of us, we even feel these days like we are living in what increasingly feels like occupied country. Have we “sold out”, actually working for the occupier.
Somewhere deeply within Zacheus he hungered for the Living God more than anything else. He wanted to see Jesus more than he wanted to maintain his economic comfort. Jesus knew that. He had come to Jericho that day seeking to save the lost. He knew Zacheus like He knows each one of us. The “crowds” around Zacheus may have deemed him as unworthy of the encounter that was about to occur but God did not see him this way. Jesus saw Zacheus’ heart and he drew him to Himself.
Each one of us should find great hope in this story because, literally or figuratively, we have compromised in our lives; perhaps in our work -by failing to live fully the implications of our faith. Perhaps in our family- by failing to love in the way that we know we ought, sacrificially, perhaps in our so called “free time”- by giving in to pursuits that we know actually lead to bondage. The “Good News” is that, no matter what has happened in our past, Jesus walks into the dusty streets of our own lives, this day. He comes for us.
1) Remember that God is already there
We often think of the Christian life in terms of our own efforts to reach and to know God- and to do His will. However, almost the opposite is what really occurs. God seeks us and we respond. Yet, we need to “position” ourselves for the meeting. Zacheus climbed that tree to see Jesus; he positioned Himself for the encounter; the call, the vocation that was given to Him that wonderful day.
The Christian life is really more about God’s action and our response to what He is already doing. Jesus reminds us “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Zacheus serves to remind us of who does the choosing and who does the responding.
Augustine of Hippo had been raised by a Christian mother named Monica. She had taught him, by word and example, the Christian faith. However, as a young man, he wandered far from the narrow path of authentic, faithful Christianity and lived a wayward and dissolute life. He had an illicit sexual relationship and cohabited with a woman outside of marriage. He also fathered a child and followed a heretical sect. Yet, God still sought Augustine, like He seeks us. He always comes to “seek and save the lost”. After Augustine returned to the Christian faith, He became one of the great Bishops of the Christian Church. One of his most beautiful prayers is recorded in His Book entitled “The Confessions”. It provides a deep insight into the true dynamic of the life of faith:
“Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within and I was without. I was looking for You out there, and I threw myself, deformed as I was, upon those well-formed things which You had made. You were with me, yet I was not with you. Things held me far from you, things which would not have existed had they not been in you. You did call and cry out and burst in upon my deafness; You shone forth Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath and now I pant for You; I have tasted, and now I hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I was inflamed with desire for Your peace“.
Zacheus teaches us to learn to listen for the voice of God in our personal lives and then to respond, without holding anything back. He had to make the choice to follow the Lord and so do we.
2) Focus on the Lord and not “the crowd.”
Faith is not a vicarious experience. While it is true that others can help to bring us to Jesus, He calls our name and we must personally respond to that call. Not just once, but every day, every moment. Faith is a call into an ongoing, intimate dynamic relationship with a living, loving God who, in Jesus Christ, has come to seek and save the lost.
Zacheus climbed that tree in order to see the Lord, not to be seen by Jesus. He did not care what the crowd thought of a grown man climbing a tree! He went after the encounter with Jesus Christ with a childlike simplicity and a reckless abandon. Do we?
The “crowd’s” in our lives rarely lead us to God. Remember the exchange with Simon Peter recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter sixteen? Jesus asks the disciples “Who do men say I am”. They told him what the “crowds” said about Him. “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah….” Jesus then spoke personally to Simon and asked “…but you, who do you, say I am.” Peter replied “You are the Christ”. You can almost sense the joy pop off the page of the biblical text when you read the words of Jesus that follow Peters response: “Blessed are you Peter for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven….”
In the Lord’s invitation and Simons’ response we find the foundation for a living faith. Simon was forever changed, signified biblically by the changing of his name, his identity, to “Peter”. He went from being an enthusiastic, sometimes mercurial follower, to being a “rock”, a leader, configured to the image of the One whom He served. He would spend the rest of his life responding to that call and eventually pour out his own blood in obedient love for Jesus Christ as a martyr.
We all have “crowds” in our lives. They are everywhere. Often, they appear to be well intended. However, Zacheus reminds us that crowds do not reveal Jesus. Nor do they show us the way to becoming all we are invited to become in Him. Only hearing His voice and responding to it for ourselves, by exercising our freedom and choosing the Lord, can lead us on the road to ongoing conversion and transformation.
3) Desire to see Jesus more than anything or anyone else
One of those questions is do we really want to see Jesus? Or, are we comfortable with keeping Him at a distance? Do we compartmentalize our lives, living a separation between faith and life that keeps religious things in a “religious compartment”, treating faith like a hat that we put on and take off depending upon the environment that we find ourselves in? This is not the way of Christianity.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the early Christians in Galatia “No longer do I live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God…” That way of living “in Christ” is meant to become our daily reality as well. Christians are called to live differently because we live now “in” Jesus Christ. We are also called to love differently, because we love “in” Jesus Christ. We are invited to “be” differently, because we are different now, at the deepest level. Jesus Christ continues His life and mission on this earth through His Body, His Church, of which we are members.
St. Paul wrote to the early Christians in Corinth in his second letter, and encouraged them to take just such an examination: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? --unless, of course, you fail the test. I hope you will discover that we have not failed”
When we see Jesus on the Jericho Road of our own lives, we are invited to exercise our faith, to choose Him and, in the choosing, we are invited to change, He does not do the changing in the relationship. He is the same “yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Prayer is not, in the first instance, about getting God to do what we want. It is about entering into an intimate communion with Him and in Him, and then abiding (St. John 15). In that relationship, we invite Him to change us and we learn to surrender all to Him in love.
Notice Zacheus’ response to the encounter with Jesus on the road. He was converted. He changed the way he lived. He gave back to the poor and made reparation for what he had done wrong. The Christian calling is about ongoing conversion, holiness and living differently. One of the Greek words for conversion is “metanoia”. It does not translate into an equivalent English word. Often it is translated repentance, but it means much more. It means to turn, to change our perspective and to act in an entirely different way.
4) Choose to live in the Sycamore tree.
For some of my readers this concluding insight may sound odd. What do I mean? Well, the Sycamore tree created a clear line of vision for Zacheus. It helped him to rise above the crowd and see the Lord clearly. It placed him in the right position for the invitation that would follow.
Where is Jesus passing through, right now, in our own personal lives? He always shows up for those who have their spiritual eyes opened to see Him. How about in our workplace? How about in our relationships? How about in our families? Are we running out to meet Him? Or are we afraid? Are we wondering…. “if we see Him, what will He ask of us?”
The invitation found in this story is to climb that Sycamore Tree; to find the place that will make it possible for us to see Jesus, unimpeded, so as to hear Him call our name. He still comes to seek and to save what is lost. He still comes to the homes of all who open their hearts wide to his presence and are willing to live lives bathed in the light of His refining fire.
Like Zacheus, let us choose to seek God without reserve. When we hear His voice, let us quickly obey and open our “homes”, our entire lives, to His presence. Let us live our lives in the Sycamore tree, always looking for Jesus!
Parable of the Talents (Luke 19:11–27)
11
While they were listening to him speak, he proceeded to tell a parable
because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.
12 So he said, "A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
13 He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins 5 and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.'
14 His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, 'We do not want this man to be our king.'
15 But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.
16 The first came forward and said, 'Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.'
17 He replied, 'Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.'
18 Then the second came and reported, 'Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.'
19 And to this servant too he said, 'You, take charge of five cities.'
20 Then the other servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.'
22 He said to him, 'With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant;
23 why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.'
24 And to those standing by he said, 'Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.'
25 But they said to him, 'Sir, he has ten gold coins.'
26 'I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
27 Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.'"
In this parable Luke has combined two originally distinct parables: (1) a parable about the conduct of faithful and productive servants (Luke 19:13, 15b-26) and (2) a parable about a rejected king (Luke 19:12, 14-15a,27). The story about the conduct of servants occurs in another form in Matthew 25:14-20. The story about the rejected king may have originated with a contemporary historical event. After the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus traveled to Rome to receive the title of king. A delegation of Jews appeared in Rome before Caesar Augustus to oppose the request of Archelaus. Although not given the title of king, Archelaus was made ruler over Judea and Samaria. As the story is used by Luke, however, it furnishes a correction to the expectation of the imminent end of the age and of the establishment of the kingdom in Jerusalem (Luke 19:11). Jesus is not on his way to Jerusalem to receive the kingly power; for that, he must go away and only after returning from the distant country (a reference to the parousia) will reward and judgment take place.
comments by Marcel LeJeune (Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center at Texas A&M and blogger at Aggie Catholics blog):
Here we see Christ teaching through a parable. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral lesson or teaching. They are not perfect reflections of every situation. But, we can take a lot out of this one here. The story gives us several representative persons and ideas:
The King is Jesus.
The Servants are those that follow him - some remain faithful and others do not.
The money represents the gifts of God (our talents and possessions).
The killing of the servants represents a spiritual death, not a physical one.
So, Jesus is certainly not advocating the killing of our enemies, rather he is telling us that those that reject Him are endanger of losing eternal life in Heaven. This is the teaching of the parable.
It also has a second dimension. As St. Luke says, "they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately" - thus, the apostles had a false understanding of the Kingdom of God. It is not a political or earthly kingdom, but a spiritual one.
Finally, God expects us to use the gifts He gives us for His purposes and glory. Notice though that the King lavishes gifts upon the faithful servants who did as he commanded, "Engage in trade with these until I return". The lazy servant wasted the gifts of God, disobeyed the commandment, and was punished accordingly.
This should serve as a reminder to us all. Our salvation is not complete until the end of our lives and we are to be judged on our faithfulness to God by how we lived out His commandments.
There is certainly no fabrication of the sentence and the "scribes" as you call them are actually St. Luke faithfully recording the words of Christ.
comments by Father John Doyle, LC:
1. Jesus, the King of Kings
Nowadays there is renewed interest in the imminence of the Lord’s return in glory. Every Sunday when we recite the Creed we attest to our faith that Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” But we also know that we do not know when it will be, as Our Lord clearly states: “But about that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36). So what should we do in the meantime? The answer is very simple: Live faithful to the values of Christ’s Kingdom and show that he is our King right now. Are there any areas in my life where Christ is not ruler? Am I faithful to my Christian commitments? Do I use my time well?
2. Earning One Gold Coin at a Time
In today’s parable each servant receives only one gold coin, but some invest it better than others. There are some gifts that God has given all of us in equal measure and some that we each receive in varying degrees. At baptism we receive the gifts of faith, hope and love in seed form, so to speak, and it is up to us to make sure they are cultivated, irrigated and exposed to enough light so that they will grow and bear fruit. These gifts of faith, hope and love are not given to us just for rainy days or moments of trial, but rather to keep us focused on who we are as children of God and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Exercising these virtues is like earning gold, one coin at a time. How often have I thanked God for his gifts of faith, hope and love? Do I strive to grow in these virtues by keeping my heart set on the things of heaven and through charity towards my neighbor?
3. God’s Generosity
St. John reminds us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8 - “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”). God’s essence is self-giving. The man who hid his coin could not discover or fathom this reality, but the man who “spent” his gold coin found this out as he was able to earn many more. Jesus tells us that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain” (John 12:24). Later however a metamorphosis occurs which brings many new grains of wheat into being. Jesus’ death on the cross is the perfect example of the transformation of sacrifice and self-giving into fruitfulness. We can’t have Jesus as our king unless we are willing to follow him on his journey to Jerusalem and impending death. We have much to give up, but we have so much more to gain by using our talents for the Kingdom.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I am sometimes afraid of what it means to die to myself. Help me to use all of my talents for your kingdom. Help me to realize that I have nothing to lose and everything to gain and to take steps courageously to love you.
Jesus' Jerusalem conflicts, crucifixion, and resurrection
Entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28–44)
28 After he had said this, he proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
29 As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.
30 He said, "Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
31 And if anyone should ask you, 'Why are you untying it?' you will answer, 'The Master has need of it.'"
32 So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them.
33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying this colt?"
34 They answered, "The Master has need of it."
35 So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount.
36 As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;
37 and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen.
38 They proclaimed: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."
40 He said in reply, "I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!"
41 As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,
42 saying, "If this day you only knew what makes for peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.
44 They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
With the royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a new section of Luke's gospel begins, the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem before his death and resurrection. Luke suggests that this was a lengthy ministry in Jerusalem and it is characterized by Jesus' daily teaching in the temple.
Teacher, rebuke your disciples: this command, found only in Luke, was given so that the Roman authorities would not interpret the acclamation of Jesus as king as an uprising against them. The lament for Jerusalem is found only in Luke. By not accepting Jesus (the one who mediates peace), Jerusalem will not find peace but will become the victim of devastation. Luke may be describing the actual disaster that befell Jerusalem in A.D. 70 when it was destroyed by the Romans during the First Revolt.
Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a colt was a prophecy from Zechariah 9:9:
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, Meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. – (Zechariah 9:9)
and it marks a pivotal moment of Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. His triumphal entry was the first step toward Christ completing His mission on the cross. He has gone from Teacher to King, loved by the people, but will soon become a hated man. On closer reading of Luke’s account, however, we see that the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; there is no mention of palms. Mark mentions leafy branches that people had cut from the fields (11:8). That is probably what actually happened. What liturgy and popular imagination have adopted is John’s version: a great crowd took palm branches and went out to meet Jesus (Jn 12:13). Jesus is welcomed the way pagan kings and emperors were welcomed by a populace waiting for favors. The theme of his kingship is clearly underlined. Later, in Christian liturgy and art, the palm will become a symbol of martyrdom. A great multitude of martyrs stand before the Lamb—Jesus in glory—holding palm branches in their hands and crying out: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb” (Rv 8:9-10).
comments by Fr John Hemer (Diocese of Westminster):
When Jesus, a devout Jew and prophet, comes up over the Mount of Olives and sees this view, he begins to weep.
In Luke’s story this poignant scene is indicative of Jesus’ love for Jerusalem, the sacred city of his people, the scene of so much of its history. Yet it is also a place of failure and tragedy that ultimately will be the place of Jesus’ rejection and crucifixion. “He wept over it, saying, ‘If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you…They will not leave one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation’” (Lk 19:41-44). Later Luke will describe Jesus entering into the Temple precincts, purifying the Temple and challenging the religious leaders.
Jerusalem is a city over which those who loved it have had their hearts shattered. Luke presents Jesus as not a casual tourist, but someone who is so deeply in love with the city, its history and its people that he weeps when he looks on it and considers its troubled destiny.
It was the violence of the zealots, the people who believed that God was summoning them to armed resistance which brought about the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus was clearly not for this kind of struggle. If they had listened to him Jerusalem might still have been standing. After the raising of Lazarus we read: So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation." (Jn. 11:47-48) Clearly they were mistaken that Jesus would be the cause of this, but it did happen, and this is what Jesus is alluding to here.
comments by Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth):
Jesus rides on a borrowed donkey into the city and, soon afterward, has the animal returned to its owner.
To today’s reader, this may all seem fairly harmless, but for the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus it is full of mysterious allusions. The theme of the kingdom and its promises is ever-present.
The use of an animal on which no one had yet sat is a further pointer to the right of kings. Most striking, though, are the Old Testament allusions that give a deeper meaning to the whole episode. For now let us note this: Jesus is indeed making a royal claim. He wants his path and his action to be understood in terms of Old Testament promises that are fulfilled in his person. The Old Testament speaks of him—and vice versa: he acts and lives within the word of God, not according to projects and wishes of his own. His claim is based on obedience to the mission received from his Father. His path is a path into the heart of God’s word.
In Zechariah 9:9, the text that Matthew and John gospels quote explicitly for an understanding of “Palm Sunday”: “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Mt 21:5; cf.Zech 9:9; Jn 12:15). At the time of David, the donkey had been a sign of kingship, and so Zechariah, basing himself on this tradition, depicts the new king of peace riding into the Holy City on a donkey. But even in Zechariah’s day, and still more by the time of Jesus, it was the horse that had come to signify the might of the mighty, while the donkey had become the animal of the poor, and so it served to express an entirely different image of kingship. Jesus is a king who destroys the weapons of war, a king of peace and a king of simplicity, a king of the poor. And finally we saw that he reigns over a kingdom that stretches from sea to sea, embracing the whole world (cf. ibid., pp. 81-82); we were reminded of the new world-encompassing kingdom of Jesus that extends from sea to sea in the communities of the breaking of bread in communion with Jesus Christ, as the kingdom of his peace (cf. ibid., p. 84). None of this could be seen at the time, but in retrospect those things that could be indicated only from afar, hidden in the prophetic vision, are revealed. At the same time, through this anchoring of the text in Zechariah 9:9, a “Zealot” exegesis of the kingdom is excluded: Jesus is not building on violence; he is not instigating a military revolt against Rome. His power is of another kind: it is in God’s poverty, God’s peace, that he identifies the only power that can redeem.
The donkey is brought to Jesus, and now something unexpected happens: the disciples lay their garments on the donkey. While Matthew (21:7) and Mark (11:7) simply say: “and he sat upon it”, Luke writes: “They set Jesus upon it” (19:35). This is the expression that is used in the First Book of Kings in the account of Solomon’s installation on the throne of his father, David. There we read that King David commanded Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah: “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon; and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel” (1 Kings 1:33-34).
The spreading out of garments likewise belongs to the tradition of Israelite kingship (cf. 2 Kings 9:13). What the disciples do is a gesture of enthronement in the tradition of the Davidic kingship, and it points to the Messianic hope that grew out of the Davidic tradition. The pilgrims who came to Jerusalem with Jesus are caught up in the disciples’ enthusiasm. They now spread their garments on the street along which Jesus passes.
They pluck branches from the trees and cry out verses from Psalm 118, words of blessing from Israel’s pilgrim liturgy, which on their lips become a Messianic proclamation: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mk 11:9-10; cf. Ps 118:26).
First comes the exclamation “Hosanna!” Originally this was a word of urgent supplication, meaning something like: Come to our aid! The priests would repeat it in a monotone on the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, while processing seven times around the altar of sacrifice, as an urgent prayer for rain. But as the Feast of Tabernacles gradually changed from a feast of petition into one of praise, so too the cry for help turned more and more into a shout of jubilation
By the time of Jesus, the word had also acquired Messianic overtones. In the Hosanna acclamation, then, we find an expression of the complex emotions of the pilgrims accompanying Jesus and of his disciples: joyful praise of God at the moment of the processional entry, hope that the hour of the Messiah had arrived, and at the same time a prayer that the Davidic kingship and hence God’s kingship over Israel would be reestablished.
“Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord!” had originally formed part of Israel’s pilgrim liturgy used for greeting pilgrims as they entered the city or the Temple. This emerges clearly from the second part of the verse: “We bless you from the house of the Lord.” It was a blessing that the priests addressed and, as it were, bestowed upon the pilgrims as they arrived. But in the meantime the phrase “who enters in the name of the Lord” had acquired Messianic significance. It had become a designation of the one promised by God. So from being a pilgrim blessing, it became praise of Jesus, a greeting to him as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the one awaited and proclaimed by all the promises.
It may be that this strikingly Davidic note, found only in Saint Mark’s text, conveys most accurately the pilgrims’ actual expectations at that moment. Luke, on the other hand, writing for Gentile Christians, completely omits the Hosanna and the reference to David, and in its place he gives an exclamation reminiscent of Christmas: “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (19:38).
All three Synoptic Gospels, as well as Saint John, make it very clear that the scene of Messianic homage to Jesus was played out on his entry into the city and that those taking part were not the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but the crowds who accompanied Jesus and entered the Holy City with him.
This point is made most clearly in Matthew’s account through the passage immediately following the Hosanna to Jesus, Son of David: “When he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying: Who is this? And the crowds said: This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee” (Mt 21:10-11).
People had heard of the prophet from Nazareth, but he did not appear to have any importance for Jerusalem, and the people there did not know him. The crowd that paid homage to Jesus at the gateway to the city was not the same crowd that later demanded his crucifixion. In this two-stage account of the failure to recognize Jesus—through a combination of indifference and fear—we see something of the city’s tragedy of which Jesus spoke a number of times, most poignantly in his eschatological discourse.
Temple incident (Luke 19:45–48):
45 Then Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things,
46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'"
47 And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death,
48 but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
comments by Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit:
Commercial activity connected with the temple was necessary, since pilgrims had to purchase the unblemished animals or birds that they would offer in sacrifice. A lamb or goat brought from the flock at home, perhaps hundreds of miles away, would not necessarily be in shape to pass inspection by the time it arrived in the city.
There were several markets for sacrificial animals on the Mount of Olives. But the temple authorities had also allowed trading within the temple precincts, in the vast Court of the Gentiles. Since all adult Jewish men had to pay an annual temple tax (see Matt 17:24), money changers had also been conveniently set up to exchange pilgrims' Greek or Roman coins for the shekels in which the tax had to be paid. Other merchants were selling doves, required for ritual purifications of women after childbirth or of those healed of disease who could not afford lambs (Lev 12:8; 14:21-22; Luke 2:22-24). The temple area had become a marketplace, a noisy hubbub of business. Instead of the temple sanctifying the city, the city was profaning the temple.
Jesus' actions may have affected only a portion of the vast temple courts, but their symbolic import as a challenge to the temple authorities-and a threat to their lucrative sources of income-did not go unnoticed. It is no surprise that, hearing of what Jesus had done, the authorities were seeking a way to put him to death. For now they do nothing for fear of popular reprisals. Mark does not tell us the content of Jesus' teaching, but perhaps it was about the holiness of God's house and the new temple "not made with hands" that he was about to establish (see 14:58).
Jesus' cleansing of the temple also has significance for the Church, the body of Christ. Christians today can ask: Are we consumed with the zeal for God's house that motivated Jesus (John 2:17)? If we consider the "temple" of our own parish or community, do we find it polluted with what does not belong there-with self-serving leadership, factions: gossip, sexual immorality, commercialization, or lack of charity toward those outside one's socioethnic group? Are we bringing the Church into the world, or the world into the Church? Surely the stewards of the ancient temple are not the only ones guilty of compromising the holiness of God's house. The book of Revelation (2-3) depicts Christ coming to judge local churches, threatening to remove the lampstand of those that do not repent and bear good fruit. The point is not for us to judge others-which would only compound the problem- but to repent for our own part, "to weep and mourn" (Joel 1:13-14), interceding that God's living temple would be restored to holiness.
On another level, St. Paul affirms that not only the Church but also our individual bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6: 19-20). If we consider our own heart, is it sometimes more like a marketplace than a temple? Is it cluttered with worldly pursuits, busyness, lust, or selfish preoccupations? If so, we can pray that Jesus would cleanse this temple too and make it a house of prayer.
comments by Michael J. Lichens, (Catholic author of "Food For Thought" (httpss://catholicexchange.com/author/foodforthought/):
In the Gospel reading, we find a very unusual Jesus. The Gospel usually describes Jesus as a gentle, loving, compassionate, and forgiving person. All of a sudden we see his violent angry outburst in the Gospel reading today. What triggers this violent outburst of anger?
The scripture scholars, William Barclay explains that the Passover was the greatest of all Jewish feasts. And the law prescribed that all adult male Jew who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem are bound to attend it. And at the time of Jesus, the Jews were scattered all over the world, but they never forget their ancestral faith and their ancestral land. And it was the dream and aspiration of every Jew, no matter where they live, to celebrate at least one Passover in Jerusalem. For this reason, thousands, perhaps millions of pilgrims flock to Jerusalem for the Passover.
There was a Temple tax that every Jew over nineteen years of age must pay. The tax was equivalent to two days’ wages. For all normal purposes in Palestine, all kinds of currency were valid. But the Temple tax had to be paid either in Galilean shekels or in the shekels of the sanctuary. These were Jewish coins, and so could be used as a gift to the Temple. The other currencies were foreign and therefore unclean.
Pilgrims arrived from all over the world with all kinds of coins. So in the Temple courts there sat the moneychangers. If their trade had been honest and just, they would have been fulfilling an honest and necessary service. But they manipulated and charged excessive exchange rates, taking advantage and victimizing the pilgrims. It was a rampant and shameless social injustice – and what was worse, it was being done in the name of religion, in the name of serving God
Aside from the moneychangers there were also the sellers of oxen, sheep and doves. Frequently a visit to the Temple meant a sacrifice. Many a pilgrim would wish to make a thanksgiving offering for a favorable journey to the Holy City; and most acts and events in life had their appropriate sacrifice. It might therefore seem to be natural and helpful thing that the animals for the sacrifice could be bought in the Temple court. It might well have been so. But the law was that any animal offered in sacrifice must be perfect and unblemished. The Temple authorities had appointed inspectors to examine the animals, which were to be offered. And for this there was a fee for inspection.
If a worshipper bought an animal outside the Temple, it would most likely be rejected after examination. Again that might not have mattered much, but a pair of doves, for example, inside the Temple court could cost about 200 times more than those sold outside. Here again a open extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims, who were practically blackmailed into buying their victims from the Temple booths if they wished to sacrifice at all – once more a glaring social injustice aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated in the name of pure religion.
It was the exploitation of the pilgrims by conscienceless men connected with people in authority in the Temple that moved Jesus to such anger and violence. Because Jesus loved God, as he loved God’s children, and it was impossible for him to stand passively by while the worshippers of Jerusalem were being victimized that way.
But there was an even deeper reason behind the cleansing of the Temple. Matthew’s account says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matt. 21:13). Mark puts it, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17). Luke has it, “My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:46). John has it: “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16).
Jesus acted as he did because God’s house was being desecrated. In the Temple there was worship without reverence. Reverence is an instinctive thing. Worship without reverence is a terrible thing. It may be worship, which is formalized and pushed through in any way; the most dignified prayers on earth can be read like a passage from an auctioneer’s catalogue. It may be worship, which does not realize the holiness of God. Jesus acted to show that no sacrifice of any animal could ever put a man right with God.
The Temple authorities and the Jewish traders were making the Court of the Gentiles into noisy market place, where no man could pray. The noise from the sheep and oxen, the cooing of the doves, the shouts of vendors, the jingle of coins from the vendors – all these combined to make the Court of the Gentiles a place where no man could pray and worship. The conduct of the Temple court shut out the Gentiles from seeking the presence of God. It may be this that was uppermost in the mind of Jesus. Jesus was moved to the depth of his heart, because devout men were being shut out from the presence of God.
Is there in our Church life today – a snobbishness, superiority complex, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, a rigidity- which keeps the searching stranger out? Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the searching stranger to make contact with God.
comments by Father Randy Sly (Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter):
In our Gospel today, Jesus cleanses the temple in Jerusalem. His actions and words betray his fundamental concern - that the temple be used for its intended purpose, being house of prayer.
While there are passages dealing with areas of physical health, how much more our Lord is concerned with what we put in our soul. The cleansing here speaks of more than just the Jerusalem center of worship. The temple of our body is obviously much more important than anything made out of blocks and boards. The psalmist writes, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made."
In Jerusalem, our Lord was quite thorough about this. St. Luke states that "Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, 'It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'" (Lk. 19:45,46)
St. Matthew's Gospel goes into a bit more detail saying, "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, "It is written: 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you are making it a den of thieves." The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them." (Mt. 21:12-14)
Obviously, this cleansing was not a case where Jesus felt that he just needed to quietly ask the "poachers" to leave. He overturned tables, drove out those engaged in unauthorized activities and generally caused a huge uproar. The chief priests, scribes and other leaders already had His death as their major goal by this point. This, then, had added insult to injury.
The presence of money changers and sellers of sacrifice was not only improper; it had also become too familiar! No one seemed to take issue with their presence, which in itself is a bit disconcerting. The meaning of the temple had been compromised.
If you are like me, there are familiar places of compromise in my personal temple. As a temple of the Holy Spirit - a descriptive given to us by St. Paul - I should also see myself primarily as a house of prayer. a house given to the Lord.
Pope Benedict underscored this as the root of our Lord's actions in his second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth."
"According to his own testimony," the Holy Father writes, "this fundamental purpose is what lies behind the cleansing of the Temple: to remove whatever obstacles there may be to the common recognition and worship of God - and thereby to open up a space for common worship."
Compromises are easy to spot, especially when we have something to which they can be compared. Again, Paul to the rescue with a list:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Phil 4:7)
Given the variety of gates into the soul - particularly through the eyes and ears - this list is compromised over and other again, especially in our world of media saturation. The computer, in particular, has raised the stakes considerably when it comes to purity. Folsum East type of experience needs no block party. Perversion and pornography are only a keystroke away.
Advent (preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas) is a great time to hold a good examination of conscience, followed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Be ruthless in looking at yourself. What is in you that is not pleasing to God? Find a good tool for this examination and then make a good confession.
In the mid-1950's a Presbyterian minister by the name of Robert Boyd Munger wrote a little booklet entitled "My Heart Christ's Home." This timeless tract has been an inspiration to Christians from all confessions, encouraging them to invite Christ to examine every room in their heart.
In this booklet, Munger emphasizes the need for Christians to be wholeheartedly devoted to Christ. Imagining what it would be like to have Jesus come to the home of our hearts, Munger moves room by room considering what Christ desires for us. From the Library, where we offer to Christ all that we are reading and taking in through the media, He travels to the Dining Room, to see what our appetites savor - the accomplishments and notices of this world. Also there are visits to the Living Room, Work Room and Rec Room, as He is offered a complete tour of the heart He inhabits.
Then comes the Hall Closet. There we keep our most private and secret things behind lock and key. Munger writes that a particularly bad odor is emanating from the other side of the door. Our Lord wants to deal with the secret sins we share with no one but cause our walk to remain stalled and "stinky."
In this little booklet, not only does our Lord want a tour, He wants the title! He wants to ability to clean up the rooms, throw out what is not pleasing to Him and replenish with those things in Paul's list from Philippians we quoted earlier.
Pope Benedict XVI begins his apostolic letter, "Porta Fidei," regarding the Year of Faith we have just entered, with the following words: "The 'door of faith' (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace."
comments by Pope Benedict XVI (JN):
Let's remember Mark’s account, which, apart from one or two details, is very similar to Matthew’s and Luke’s. After the cleansing of the Temple, so Mark tells us, “[Jesus] taught”. The essential content of this “teaching” is succinctly expressed in these words of Jesus: “Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mk 11:17).
In this synthesis of Jesus’ “teaching” on the Temple—as we saw earlier—two different prophecies are combined. The first is the universalist vision of the Prophet Isaiah (56: 7) of a future in which all peoples come together in the house of God to worship the Lord as the one God.
Here Isaiah’s universalist promise is combined with this prophecy from Jeremiah (7:11): “You have made my house into a den of robbers.” Jeremiah is an impassioned advocate of the unity of worship and life in the context of divine justice. He fights against a politicization of the faith that would see God’s constant protection of the Temple as something guaranteed, for the sake of maintaining the cult. But God does not protect a Temple that has been turned into a “den of robbers”.
In the combination of worship and trade, which Jesus denounces, he evidently sees the situation of Jeremiah’s time repeating itself. In this sense, his words and actions constitute a warning that could be understood, together with his reference to the destruction of this Temple, as an echo of Jeremiah. But neither Jeremiah nor Jesus is responsible for destroying the Temple: both, through their passion, indicate who and what it is that truly destroys the Temple.
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Related: The Temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27)
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?"
25 "Yes," he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, "What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?"
26 When he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him, "Then the subjects are exempt.
27 But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you."
comments by Edward Sri, professor of theology and Scripture:
Jesus does not want to offend the religious authorities. Though the divine King’s Son is free from this tax for God’s house, Jesus is willing to make the offering for the sake of avoiding unnecessary tension. In other situations Jesus has no problem doing something scandalous if it is the right thing to do, either to help others (e.g., curing someone on the Sabbath in 12:9-14) or as a matter of moral principle (e.g., when Jesus accused the Pharisees of being hypocrites in 15:4-12). In this case, however, giving money for the temple is not going to do any harm and violates no moral principle. Therefore Jesus is willing to pay it to avoid unnecessarily offending his opponents (see Rom 14:13-23; 1 Cor 8:13-9:12).
That Jesus has Peter get a coin from a fish to pay the temple tax indicates that he does not have a lot of money on hand. With his unique foreknowledge, Jesus tells Peter that he will catch a fish with a stater—the Greek name of a coin worth about four drachma or one shekel. Since the temple tax was two drachma or a halfshekel, the stater Peter will find is described as a coin worth twice the temple tax—the amount needed to pay for two people, Jesus and Peter.
Jesus offers an important example of humility Here. As God’s Son, he does not have to pay the temple tax. However, he pays it to avoid unnecessarily offending the collectors. There is nothing immoral in paying the tax and no larger religious principle is at stake. So rather than exert his rights, he humbly gives in to their request in order to build bridges with his opponents.
Imagine how much greater unity there would be in Christian marriages, families, parishes, and communities if people had the humble attitude of Jesus. In things nonessential, it is often better to give in to the preferences of others than to insist on one’s own opinion or way, even if we are convinced that we are right. Sometimes it is better to humbly die to self for the sake of unity with our spouse, friend, or colleague than to cause division by fighting vehemently for a position that in the end is not a serious matter. If Jesus was willing to give in to others rather than defend what was justly due to him, we should not do any less.
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| Palma Vecchio - Zacchaeus (1575) |
2 Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
3 was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature.
4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way.
5 When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."
6 And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
7 When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner."
8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over."
9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham."
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."
commentary by Pablo T. Gadenz, Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Trenton (NJ) :
Theology of the cross. St. Augustine compares the tree that Zacchaeus climbed to Jesus’ cross: “Climb the tree on which Jesus hung for you, and you will see Jesus” . This thought can be developed further. Whereas Jesus hung on the tree because he was crucified (23:33), Jesus told Zacchaeus to come down from the tree (19:5). In effect, the sinner is replaced by the Savior. This is the substitution accomplished by Jesus (Catechism 615). He died on the cross in our place, giving us salvation (19:9), which by grace we can begin to experience today (19:9; 23:43), and which reaches its fullness in the glory of eternal life.
comments by Keith A. Fournier (Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia):
This verse underscores the importance of the stories that are actually recorded in the Gospels. They have been selected among many, many others for a Divine purpose. Every character we meet on the pages of the sacred texts is more than just a player in a nice story. They are a door into eternal truth, meant to teach, inform and transform our lives. They put us more in touch with the Lord, ourselves and the very purpose of our lives. Upon prayer and reflection, they become an invitation to each of us to be converted, to change our lives, through our ongoing encounters with Jesus Christ.
What can we learn from Zacheus today? Let’s take a look.
The Context: In the days when the Lord walked in our midst, Israel was under Roman occupation. An unfair tax was extracted by people, like Zacheus, Jews who worked for the oppressor. They earned their living by adding an extra surcharge for themselves. These Jews were hated by the Jewish people. They were considered traitors, “sell outs’, “compromisers”…. However, they were still Jews. They were sons of the Covenant. They were children of Abraham. They knew the law and they were God’s special people.
In a sense, Zacheus was not unlike many of us who are Christians. We have been baptized into Christ. We know the faith. Perhaps however, we have conveniently separated “what we do” from “who we are”. “After all” we tell ourselves, “we are simply trying to make a living.” The parallel continues. For many of us, we even feel these days like we are living in what increasingly feels like occupied country. Have we “sold out”, actually working for the occupier.
Somewhere deeply within Zacheus he hungered for the Living God more than anything else. He wanted to see Jesus more than he wanted to maintain his economic comfort. Jesus knew that. He had come to Jericho that day seeking to save the lost. He knew Zacheus like He knows each one of us. The “crowds” around Zacheus may have deemed him as unworthy of the encounter that was about to occur but God did not see him this way. Jesus saw Zacheus’ heart and he drew him to Himself.
Each one of us should find great hope in this story because, literally or figuratively, we have compromised in our lives; perhaps in our work -by failing to live fully the implications of our faith. Perhaps in our family- by failing to love in the way that we know we ought, sacrificially, perhaps in our so called “free time”- by giving in to pursuits that we know actually lead to bondage. The “Good News” is that, no matter what has happened in our past, Jesus walks into the dusty streets of our own lives, this day. He comes for us.
1) Remember that God is already there
We often think of the Christian life in terms of our own efforts to reach and to know God- and to do His will. However, almost the opposite is what really occurs. God seeks us and we respond. Yet, we need to “position” ourselves for the meeting. Zacheus climbed that tree to see Jesus; he positioned Himself for the encounter; the call, the vocation that was given to Him that wonderful day.
The Christian life is really more about God’s action and our response to what He is already doing. Jesus reminds us “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Zacheus serves to remind us of who does the choosing and who does the responding.
Augustine of Hippo had been raised by a Christian mother named Monica. She had taught him, by word and example, the Christian faith. However, as a young man, he wandered far from the narrow path of authentic, faithful Christianity and lived a wayward and dissolute life. He had an illicit sexual relationship and cohabited with a woman outside of marriage. He also fathered a child and followed a heretical sect. Yet, God still sought Augustine, like He seeks us. He always comes to “seek and save the lost”. After Augustine returned to the Christian faith, He became one of the great Bishops of the Christian Church. One of his most beautiful prayers is recorded in His Book entitled “The Confessions”. It provides a deep insight into the true dynamic of the life of faith:
“Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within and I was without. I was looking for You out there, and I threw myself, deformed as I was, upon those well-formed things which You had made. You were with me, yet I was not with you. Things held me far from you, things which would not have existed had they not been in you. You did call and cry out and burst in upon my deafness; You shone forth Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath and now I pant for You; I have tasted, and now I hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I was inflamed with desire for Your peace“.
Zacheus teaches us to learn to listen for the voice of God in our personal lives and then to respond, without holding anything back. He had to make the choice to follow the Lord and so do we.
2) Focus on the Lord and not “the crowd.”
Faith is not a vicarious experience. While it is true that others can help to bring us to Jesus, He calls our name and we must personally respond to that call. Not just once, but every day, every moment. Faith is a call into an ongoing, intimate dynamic relationship with a living, loving God who, in Jesus Christ, has come to seek and save the lost.
Zacheus climbed that tree in order to see the Lord, not to be seen by Jesus. He did not care what the crowd thought of a grown man climbing a tree! He went after the encounter with Jesus Christ with a childlike simplicity and a reckless abandon. Do we?
The “crowd’s” in our lives rarely lead us to God. Remember the exchange with Simon Peter recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter sixteen? Jesus asks the disciples “Who do men say I am”. They told him what the “crowds” said about Him. “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah….” Jesus then spoke personally to Simon and asked “…but you, who do you, say I am.” Peter replied “You are the Christ”. You can almost sense the joy pop off the page of the biblical text when you read the words of Jesus that follow Peters response: “Blessed are you Peter for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven….”
In the Lord’s invitation and Simons’ response we find the foundation for a living faith. Simon was forever changed, signified biblically by the changing of his name, his identity, to “Peter”. He went from being an enthusiastic, sometimes mercurial follower, to being a “rock”, a leader, configured to the image of the One whom He served. He would spend the rest of his life responding to that call and eventually pour out his own blood in obedient love for Jesus Christ as a martyr.
We all have “crowds” in our lives. They are everywhere. Often, they appear to be well intended. However, Zacheus reminds us that crowds do not reveal Jesus. Nor do they show us the way to becoming all we are invited to become in Him. Only hearing His voice and responding to it for ourselves, by exercising our freedom and choosing the Lord, can lead us on the road to ongoing conversion and transformation.
3) Desire to see Jesus more than anything or anyone else
One of those questions is do we really want to see Jesus? Or, are we comfortable with keeping Him at a distance? Do we compartmentalize our lives, living a separation between faith and life that keeps religious things in a “religious compartment”, treating faith like a hat that we put on and take off depending upon the environment that we find ourselves in? This is not the way of Christianity.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the early Christians in Galatia “No longer do I live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God…” That way of living “in Christ” is meant to become our daily reality as well. Christians are called to live differently because we live now “in” Jesus Christ. We are also called to love differently, because we love “in” Jesus Christ. We are invited to “be” differently, because we are different now, at the deepest level. Jesus Christ continues His life and mission on this earth through His Body, His Church, of which we are members.
St. Paul wrote to the early Christians in Corinth in his second letter, and encouraged them to take just such an examination: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? --unless, of course, you fail the test. I hope you will discover that we have not failed”
When we see Jesus on the Jericho Road of our own lives, we are invited to exercise our faith, to choose Him and, in the choosing, we are invited to change, He does not do the changing in the relationship. He is the same “yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Prayer is not, in the first instance, about getting God to do what we want. It is about entering into an intimate communion with Him and in Him, and then abiding (St. John 15). In that relationship, we invite Him to change us and we learn to surrender all to Him in love.
Notice Zacheus’ response to the encounter with Jesus on the road. He was converted. He changed the way he lived. He gave back to the poor and made reparation for what he had done wrong. The Christian calling is about ongoing conversion, holiness and living differently. One of the Greek words for conversion is “metanoia”. It does not translate into an equivalent English word. Often it is translated repentance, but it means much more. It means to turn, to change our perspective and to act in an entirely different way.
4) Choose to live in the Sycamore tree.
For some of my readers this concluding insight may sound odd. What do I mean? Well, the Sycamore tree created a clear line of vision for Zacheus. It helped him to rise above the crowd and see the Lord clearly. It placed him in the right position for the invitation that would follow.
Where is Jesus passing through, right now, in our own personal lives? He always shows up for those who have their spiritual eyes opened to see Him. How about in our workplace? How about in our relationships? How about in our families? Are we running out to meet Him? Or are we afraid? Are we wondering…. “if we see Him, what will He ask of us?”
The invitation found in this story is to climb that Sycamore Tree; to find the place that will make it possible for us to see Jesus, unimpeded, so as to hear Him call our name. He still comes to seek and to save what is lost. He still comes to the homes of all who open their hearts wide to his presence and are willing to live lives bathed in the light of His refining fire.
Like Zacheus, let us choose to seek God without reserve. When we hear His voice, let us quickly obey and open our “homes”, our entire lives, to His presence. Let us live our lives in the Sycamore tree, always looking for Jesus!
Parable of the Talents (Luke 19:11–27)
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| Willem de Poorter - The Parable of The Talents (1641) |
12 So he said, "A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
13 He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins 5 and told them, 'Engage in trade with these until I return.'
14 His fellow citizens, however, despised him and sent a delegation after him to announce, 'We do not want this man to be our king.'
15 But when he returned after obtaining the kingship, he had the servants called, to whom he had given the money, to learn what they had gained by trading.
16 The first came forward and said, 'Sir, your gold coin has earned ten additional ones.'
17 He replied, 'Well done, good servant! You have been faithful in this very small matter; take charge of ten cities.'
18 Then the second came and reported, 'Your gold coin, sir, has earned five more.'
19 And to this servant too he said, 'You, take charge of five cities.'
20 Then the other servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it stored away in a handkerchief,
21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a demanding person; you take up what you did not lay down and you harvest what you did not plant.'
22 He said to him, 'With your own words I shall condemn you, you wicked servant. You knew I was a demanding person, taking up what I did not lay down and harvesting what I did not plant;
23 why did you not put my money in a bank? Then on my return I would have collected it with interest.'
24 And to those standing by he said, 'Take the gold coin from him and give it to the servant who has ten.'
25 But they said to him, 'Sir, he has ten gold coins.'
26 'I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
27 Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.'"
In this parable Luke has combined two originally distinct parables: (1) a parable about the conduct of faithful and productive servants (Luke 19:13, 15b-26) and (2) a parable about a rejected king (Luke 19:12, 14-15a,27). The story about the conduct of servants occurs in another form in Matthew 25:14-20. The story about the rejected king may have originated with a contemporary historical event. After the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus traveled to Rome to receive the title of king. A delegation of Jews appeared in Rome before Caesar Augustus to oppose the request of Archelaus. Although not given the title of king, Archelaus was made ruler over Judea and Samaria. As the story is used by Luke, however, it furnishes a correction to the expectation of the imminent end of the age and of the establishment of the kingdom in Jerusalem (Luke 19:11). Jesus is not on his way to Jerusalem to receive the kingly power; for that, he must go away and only after returning from the distant country (a reference to the parousia) will reward and judgment take place.
comments by Marcel LeJeune (Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center at Texas A&M and blogger at Aggie Catholics blog):
Here we see Christ teaching through a parable. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral lesson or teaching. They are not perfect reflections of every situation. But, we can take a lot out of this one here. The story gives us several representative persons and ideas:
The King is Jesus.
The Servants are those that follow him - some remain faithful and others do not.
The money represents the gifts of God (our talents and possessions).
The killing of the servants represents a spiritual death, not a physical one.
So, Jesus is certainly not advocating the killing of our enemies, rather he is telling us that those that reject Him are endanger of losing eternal life in Heaven. This is the teaching of the parable.
It also has a second dimension. As St. Luke says, "they thought that the kingdom of God would appear there immediately" - thus, the apostles had a false understanding of the Kingdom of God. It is not a political or earthly kingdom, but a spiritual one.
Finally, God expects us to use the gifts He gives us for His purposes and glory. Notice though that the King lavishes gifts upon the faithful servants who did as he commanded, "Engage in trade with these until I return". The lazy servant wasted the gifts of God, disobeyed the commandment, and was punished accordingly.
This should serve as a reminder to us all. Our salvation is not complete until the end of our lives and we are to be judged on our faithfulness to God by how we lived out His commandments.
There is certainly no fabrication of the sentence and the "scribes" as you call them are actually St. Luke faithfully recording the words of Christ.
comments by Father John Doyle, LC:
1. Jesus, the King of Kings
Nowadays there is renewed interest in the imminence of the Lord’s return in glory. Every Sunday when we recite the Creed we attest to our faith that Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” But we also know that we do not know when it will be, as Our Lord clearly states: “But about that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36). So what should we do in the meantime? The answer is very simple: Live faithful to the values of Christ’s Kingdom and show that he is our King right now. Are there any areas in my life where Christ is not ruler? Am I faithful to my Christian commitments? Do I use my time well?
2. Earning One Gold Coin at a Time
In today’s parable each servant receives only one gold coin, but some invest it better than others. There are some gifts that God has given all of us in equal measure and some that we each receive in varying degrees. At baptism we receive the gifts of faith, hope and love in seed form, so to speak, and it is up to us to make sure they are cultivated, irrigated and exposed to enough light so that they will grow and bear fruit. These gifts of faith, hope and love are not given to us just for rainy days or moments of trial, but rather to keep us focused on who we are as children of God and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Exercising these virtues is like earning gold, one coin at a time. How often have I thanked God for his gifts of faith, hope and love? Do I strive to grow in these virtues by keeping my heart set on the things of heaven and through charity towards my neighbor?
3. God’s Generosity
St. John reminds us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8 - “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”). God’s essence is self-giving. The man who hid his coin could not discover or fathom this reality, but the man who “spent” his gold coin found this out as he was able to earn many more. Jesus tells us that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain” (John 12:24). Later however a metamorphosis occurs which brings many new grains of wheat into being. Jesus’ death on the cross is the perfect example of the transformation of sacrifice and self-giving into fruitfulness. We can’t have Jesus as our king unless we are willing to follow him on his journey to Jerusalem and impending death. We have much to give up, but we have so much more to gain by using our talents for the Kingdom.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I am sometimes afraid of what it means to die to myself. Help me to use all of my talents for your kingdom. Help me to realize that I have nothing to lose and everything to gain and to take steps courageously to love you.
Jesus' Jerusalem conflicts, crucifixion, and resurrection
Entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28–44)
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| “Flevit super illam” (He wept over it); by Enrique Simonet, 1892. |
29 As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.
30 He said, "Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
31 And if anyone should ask you, 'Why are you untying it?' you will answer, 'The Master has need of it.'"
32 So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them.
33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying this colt?"
34 They answered, "The Master has need of it."
35 So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount.
36 As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;
37 and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen.
38 They proclaimed: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."
40 He said in reply, "I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!"
41 As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,
42 saying, "If this day you only knew what makes for peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.
44 They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
With the royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a new section of Luke's gospel begins, the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem before his death and resurrection. Luke suggests that this was a lengthy ministry in Jerusalem and it is characterized by Jesus' daily teaching in the temple.
Teacher, rebuke your disciples: this command, found only in Luke, was given so that the Roman authorities would not interpret the acclamation of Jesus as king as an uprising against them. The lament for Jerusalem is found only in Luke. By not accepting Jesus (the one who mediates peace), Jerusalem will not find peace but will become the victim of devastation. Luke may be describing the actual disaster that befell Jerusalem in A.D. 70 when it was destroyed by the Romans during the First Revolt.
Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a colt was a prophecy from Zechariah 9:9:
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, Meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass. – (Zechariah 9:9)
and it marks a pivotal moment of Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. His triumphal entry was the first step toward Christ completing His mission on the cross. He has gone from Teacher to King, loved by the people, but will soon become a hated man. On closer reading of Luke’s account, however, we see that the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; there is no mention of palms. Mark mentions leafy branches that people had cut from the fields (11:8). That is probably what actually happened. What liturgy and popular imagination have adopted is John’s version: a great crowd took palm branches and went out to meet Jesus (Jn 12:13). Jesus is welcomed the way pagan kings and emperors were welcomed by a populace waiting for favors. The theme of his kingship is clearly underlined. Later, in Christian liturgy and art, the palm will become a symbol of martyrdom. A great multitude of martyrs stand before the Lamb—Jesus in glory—holding palm branches in their hands and crying out: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb” (Rv 8:9-10).
comments by Fr John Hemer (Diocese of Westminster):
When Jesus, a devout Jew and prophet, comes up over the Mount of Olives and sees this view, he begins to weep.
In Luke’s story this poignant scene is indicative of Jesus’ love for Jerusalem, the sacred city of his people, the scene of so much of its history. Yet it is also a place of failure and tragedy that ultimately will be the place of Jesus’ rejection and crucifixion. “He wept over it, saying, ‘If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you…They will not leave one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation’” (Lk 19:41-44). Later Luke will describe Jesus entering into the Temple precincts, purifying the Temple and challenging the religious leaders.
Jerusalem is a city over which those who loved it have had their hearts shattered. Luke presents Jesus as not a casual tourist, but someone who is so deeply in love with the city, its history and its people that he weeps when he looks on it and considers its troubled destiny.
It was the violence of the zealots, the people who believed that God was summoning them to armed resistance which brought about the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus was clearly not for this kind of struggle. If they had listened to him Jerusalem might still have been standing. After the raising of Lazarus we read: So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation." (Jn. 11:47-48) Clearly they were mistaken that Jesus would be the cause of this, but it did happen, and this is what Jesus is alluding to here.
comments by Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth):
Jesus rides on a borrowed donkey into the city and, soon afterward, has the animal returned to its owner.
To today’s reader, this may all seem fairly harmless, but for the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus it is full of mysterious allusions. The theme of the kingdom and its promises is ever-present.
The use of an animal on which no one had yet sat is a further pointer to the right of kings. Most striking, though, are the Old Testament allusions that give a deeper meaning to the whole episode. For now let us note this: Jesus is indeed making a royal claim. He wants his path and his action to be understood in terms of Old Testament promises that are fulfilled in his person. The Old Testament speaks of him—and vice versa: he acts and lives within the word of God, not according to projects and wishes of his own. His claim is based on obedience to the mission received from his Father. His path is a path into the heart of God’s word.
In Zechariah 9:9, the text that Matthew and John gospels quote explicitly for an understanding of “Palm Sunday”: “Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Mt 21:5; cf.Zech 9:9; Jn 12:15). At the time of David, the donkey had been a sign of kingship, and so Zechariah, basing himself on this tradition, depicts the new king of peace riding into the Holy City on a donkey. But even in Zechariah’s day, and still more by the time of Jesus, it was the horse that had come to signify the might of the mighty, while the donkey had become the animal of the poor, and so it served to express an entirely different image of kingship. Jesus is a king who destroys the weapons of war, a king of peace and a king of simplicity, a king of the poor. And finally we saw that he reigns over a kingdom that stretches from sea to sea, embracing the whole world (cf. ibid., pp. 81-82); we were reminded of the new world-encompassing kingdom of Jesus that extends from sea to sea in the communities of the breaking of bread in communion with Jesus Christ, as the kingdom of his peace (cf. ibid., p. 84). None of this could be seen at the time, but in retrospect those things that could be indicated only from afar, hidden in the prophetic vision, are revealed. At the same time, through this anchoring of the text in Zechariah 9:9, a “Zealot” exegesis of the kingdom is excluded: Jesus is not building on violence; he is not instigating a military revolt against Rome. His power is of another kind: it is in God’s poverty, God’s peace, that he identifies the only power that can redeem.
The donkey is brought to Jesus, and now something unexpected happens: the disciples lay their garments on the donkey. While Matthew (21:7) and Mark (11:7) simply say: “and he sat upon it”, Luke writes: “They set Jesus upon it” (19:35). This is the expression that is used in the First Book of Kings in the account of Solomon’s installation on the throne of his father, David. There we read that King David commanded Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah: “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon; and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel” (1 Kings 1:33-34).
The spreading out of garments likewise belongs to the tradition of Israelite kingship (cf. 2 Kings 9:13). What the disciples do is a gesture of enthronement in the tradition of the Davidic kingship, and it points to the Messianic hope that grew out of the Davidic tradition. The pilgrims who came to Jerusalem with Jesus are caught up in the disciples’ enthusiasm. They now spread their garments on the street along which Jesus passes.
They pluck branches from the trees and cry out verses from Psalm 118, words of blessing from Israel’s pilgrim liturgy, which on their lips become a Messianic proclamation: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mk 11:9-10; cf. Ps 118:26).
First comes the exclamation “Hosanna!” Originally this was a word of urgent supplication, meaning something like: Come to our aid! The priests would repeat it in a monotone on the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, while processing seven times around the altar of sacrifice, as an urgent prayer for rain. But as the Feast of Tabernacles gradually changed from a feast of petition into one of praise, so too the cry for help turned more and more into a shout of jubilation
By the time of Jesus, the word had also acquired Messianic overtones. In the Hosanna acclamation, then, we find an expression of the complex emotions of the pilgrims accompanying Jesus and of his disciples: joyful praise of God at the moment of the processional entry, hope that the hour of the Messiah had arrived, and at the same time a prayer that the Davidic kingship and hence God’s kingship over Israel would be reestablished.
“Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord!” had originally formed part of Israel’s pilgrim liturgy used for greeting pilgrims as they entered the city or the Temple. This emerges clearly from the second part of the verse: “We bless you from the house of the Lord.” It was a blessing that the priests addressed and, as it were, bestowed upon the pilgrims as they arrived. But in the meantime the phrase “who enters in the name of the Lord” had acquired Messianic significance. It had become a designation of the one promised by God. So from being a pilgrim blessing, it became praise of Jesus, a greeting to him as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the one awaited and proclaimed by all the promises.
It may be that this strikingly Davidic note, found only in Saint Mark’s text, conveys most accurately the pilgrims’ actual expectations at that moment. Luke, on the other hand, writing for Gentile Christians, completely omits the Hosanna and the reference to David, and in its place he gives an exclamation reminiscent of Christmas: “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (19:38).
All three Synoptic Gospels, as well as Saint John, make it very clear that the scene of Messianic homage to Jesus was played out on his entry into the city and that those taking part were not the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but the crowds who accompanied Jesus and entered the Holy City with him.
This point is made most clearly in Matthew’s account through the passage immediately following the Hosanna to Jesus, Son of David: “When he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying: Who is this? And the crowds said: This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee” (Mt 21:10-11).
People had heard of the prophet from Nazareth, but he did not appear to have any importance for Jerusalem, and the people there did not know him. The crowd that paid homage to Jesus at the gateway to the city was not the same crowd that later demanded his crucifixion. In this two-stage account of the failure to recognize Jesus—through a combination of indifference and fear—we see something of the city’s tragedy of which Jesus spoke a number of times, most poignantly in his eschatological discourse.
Temple incident (Luke 19:45–48):
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| Rembrandt - Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple (1626) |
46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'"
47 And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death,
48 but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
comments by Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit:
Commercial activity connected with the temple was necessary, since pilgrims had to purchase the unblemished animals or birds that they would offer in sacrifice. A lamb or goat brought from the flock at home, perhaps hundreds of miles away, would not necessarily be in shape to pass inspection by the time it arrived in the city.
There were several markets for sacrificial animals on the Mount of Olives. But the temple authorities had also allowed trading within the temple precincts, in the vast Court of the Gentiles. Since all adult Jewish men had to pay an annual temple tax (see Matt 17:24), money changers had also been conveniently set up to exchange pilgrims' Greek or Roman coins for the shekels in which the tax had to be paid. Other merchants were selling doves, required for ritual purifications of women after childbirth or of those healed of disease who could not afford lambs (Lev 12:8; 14:21-22; Luke 2:22-24). The temple area had become a marketplace, a noisy hubbub of business. Instead of the temple sanctifying the city, the city was profaning the temple.
Jesus' actions may have affected only a portion of the vast temple courts, but their symbolic import as a challenge to the temple authorities-and a threat to their lucrative sources of income-did not go unnoticed. It is no surprise that, hearing of what Jesus had done, the authorities were seeking a way to put him to death. For now they do nothing for fear of popular reprisals. Mark does not tell us the content of Jesus' teaching, but perhaps it was about the holiness of God's house and the new temple "not made with hands" that he was about to establish (see 14:58).
Jesus' cleansing of the temple also has significance for the Church, the body of Christ. Christians today can ask: Are we consumed with the zeal for God's house that motivated Jesus (John 2:17)? If we consider the "temple" of our own parish or community, do we find it polluted with what does not belong there-with self-serving leadership, factions: gossip, sexual immorality, commercialization, or lack of charity toward those outside one's socioethnic group? Are we bringing the Church into the world, or the world into the Church? Surely the stewards of the ancient temple are not the only ones guilty of compromising the holiness of God's house. The book of Revelation (2-3) depicts Christ coming to judge local churches, threatening to remove the lampstand of those that do not repent and bear good fruit. The point is not for us to judge others-which would only compound the problem- but to repent for our own part, "to weep and mourn" (Joel 1:13-14), interceding that God's living temple would be restored to holiness.
On another level, St. Paul affirms that not only the Church but also our individual bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6: 19-20). If we consider our own heart, is it sometimes more like a marketplace than a temple? Is it cluttered with worldly pursuits, busyness, lust, or selfish preoccupations? If so, we can pray that Jesus would cleanse this temple too and make it a house of prayer.
comments by Michael J. Lichens, (Catholic author of "Food For Thought" (httpss://catholicexchange.com/author/foodforthought/):
In the Gospel reading, we find a very unusual Jesus. The Gospel usually describes Jesus as a gentle, loving, compassionate, and forgiving person. All of a sudden we see his violent angry outburst in the Gospel reading today. What triggers this violent outburst of anger?
The scripture scholars, William Barclay explains that the Passover was the greatest of all Jewish feasts. And the law prescribed that all adult male Jew who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem are bound to attend it. And at the time of Jesus, the Jews were scattered all over the world, but they never forget their ancestral faith and their ancestral land. And it was the dream and aspiration of every Jew, no matter where they live, to celebrate at least one Passover in Jerusalem. For this reason, thousands, perhaps millions of pilgrims flock to Jerusalem for the Passover.
There was a Temple tax that every Jew over nineteen years of age must pay. The tax was equivalent to two days’ wages. For all normal purposes in Palestine, all kinds of currency were valid. But the Temple tax had to be paid either in Galilean shekels or in the shekels of the sanctuary. These were Jewish coins, and so could be used as a gift to the Temple. The other currencies were foreign and therefore unclean.
Pilgrims arrived from all over the world with all kinds of coins. So in the Temple courts there sat the moneychangers. If their trade had been honest and just, they would have been fulfilling an honest and necessary service. But they manipulated and charged excessive exchange rates, taking advantage and victimizing the pilgrims. It was a rampant and shameless social injustice – and what was worse, it was being done in the name of religion, in the name of serving God
Aside from the moneychangers there were also the sellers of oxen, sheep and doves. Frequently a visit to the Temple meant a sacrifice. Many a pilgrim would wish to make a thanksgiving offering for a favorable journey to the Holy City; and most acts and events in life had their appropriate sacrifice. It might therefore seem to be natural and helpful thing that the animals for the sacrifice could be bought in the Temple court. It might well have been so. But the law was that any animal offered in sacrifice must be perfect and unblemished. The Temple authorities had appointed inspectors to examine the animals, which were to be offered. And for this there was a fee for inspection.
If a worshipper bought an animal outside the Temple, it would most likely be rejected after examination. Again that might not have mattered much, but a pair of doves, for example, inside the Temple court could cost about 200 times more than those sold outside. Here again a open extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims, who were practically blackmailed into buying their victims from the Temple booths if they wished to sacrifice at all – once more a glaring social injustice aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated in the name of pure religion.
It was the exploitation of the pilgrims by conscienceless men connected with people in authority in the Temple that moved Jesus to such anger and violence. Because Jesus loved God, as he loved God’s children, and it was impossible for him to stand passively by while the worshippers of Jerusalem were being victimized that way.
But there was an even deeper reason behind the cleansing of the Temple. Matthew’s account says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matt. 21:13). Mark puts it, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17). Luke has it, “My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:46). John has it: “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16).
Jesus acted as he did because God’s house was being desecrated. In the Temple there was worship without reverence. Reverence is an instinctive thing. Worship without reverence is a terrible thing. It may be worship, which is formalized and pushed through in any way; the most dignified prayers on earth can be read like a passage from an auctioneer’s catalogue. It may be worship, which does not realize the holiness of God. Jesus acted to show that no sacrifice of any animal could ever put a man right with God.
The Temple authorities and the Jewish traders were making the Court of the Gentiles into noisy market place, where no man could pray. The noise from the sheep and oxen, the cooing of the doves, the shouts of vendors, the jingle of coins from the vendors – all these combined to make the Court of the Gentiles a place where no man could pray and worship. The conduct of the Temple court shut out the Gentiles from seeking the presence of God. It may be this that was uppermost in the mind of Jesus. Jesus was moved to the depth of his heart, because devout men were being shut out from the presence of God.
Is there in our Church life today – a snobbishness, superiority complex, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, a rigidity- which keeps the searching stranger out? Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the searching stranger to make contact with God.
comments by Father Randy Sly (Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter):
In our Gospel today, Jesus cleanses the temple in Jerusalem. His actions and words betray his fundamental concern - that the temple be used for its intended purpose, being house of prayer.
While there are passages dealing with areas of physical health, how much more our Lord is concerned with what we put in our soul. The cleansing here speaks of more than just the Jerusalem center of worship. The temple of our body is obviously much more important than anything made out of blocks and boards. The psalmist writes, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made."
In Jerusalem, our Lord was quite thorough about this. St. Luke states that "Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, 'It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'" (Lk. 19:45,46)
St. Matthew's Gospel goes into a bit more detail saying, "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, "It is written: 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you are making it a den of thieves." The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them." (Mt. 21:12-14)
Obviously, this cleansing was not a case where Jesus felt that he just needed to quietly ask the "poachers" to leave. He overturned tables, drove out those engaged in unauthorized activities and generally caused a huge uproar. The chief priests, scribes and other leaders already had His death as their major goal by this point. This, then, had added insult to injury.
The presence of money changers and sellers of sacrifice was not only improper; it had also become too familiar! No one seemed to take issue with their presence, which in itself is a bit disconcerting. The meaning of the temple had been compromised.
If you are like me, there are familiar places of compromise in my personal temple. As a temple of the Holy Spirit - a descriptive given to us by St. Paul - I should also see myself primarily as a house of prayer. a house given to the Lord.
Pope Benedict underscored this as the root of our Lord's actions in his second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth."
"According to his own testimony," the Holy Father writes, "this fundamental purpose is what lies behind the cleansing of the Temple: to remove whatever obstacles there may be to the common recognition and worship of God - and thereby to open up a space for common worship."
Compromises are easy to spot, especially when we have something to which they can be compared. Again, Paul to the rescue with a list:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Phil 4:7)
Given the variety of gates into the soul - particularly through the eyes and ears - this list is compromised over and other again, especially in our world of media saturation. The computer, in particular, has raised the stakes considerably when it comes to purity. Folsum East type of experience needs no block party. Perversion and pornography are only a keystroke away.
Advent (preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas) is a great time to hold a good examination of conscience, followed by the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Be ruthless in looking at yourself. What is in you that is not pleasing to God? Find a good tool for this examination and then make a good confession.
In the mid-1950's a Presbyterian minister by the name of Robert Boyd Munger wrote a little booklet entitled "My Heart Christ's Home." This timeless tract has been an inspiration to Christians from all confessions, encouraging them to invite Christ to examine every room in their heart.
In this booklet, Munger emphasizes the need for Christians to be wholeheartedly devoted to Christ. Imagining what it would be like to have Jesus come to the home of our hearts, Munger moves room by room considering what Christ desires for us. From the Library, where we offer to Christ all that we are reading and taking in through the media, He travels to the Dining Room, to see what our appetites savor - the accomplishments and notices of this world. Also there are visits to the Living Room, Work Room and Rec Room, as He is offered a complete tour of the heart He inhabits.
Then comes the Hall Closet. There we keep our most private and secret things behind lock and key. Munger writes that a particularly bad odor is emanating from the other side of the door. Our Lord wants to deal with the secret sins we share with no one but cause our walk to remain stalled and "stinky."
In this little booklet, not only does our Lord want a tour, He wants the title! He wants to ability to clean up the rooms, throw out what is not pleasing to Him and replenish with those things in Paul's list from Philippians we quoted earlier.
Pope Benedict XVI begins his apostolic letter, "Porta Fidei," regarding the Year of Faith we have just entered, with the following words: "The 'door of faith' (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace."
comments by Pope Benedict XVI (JN):
Let's remember Mark’s account, which, apart from one or two details, is very similar to Matthew’s and Luke’s. After the cleansing of the Temple, so Mark tells us, “[Jesus] taught”. The essential content of this “teaching” is succinctly expressed in these words of Jesus: “Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mk 11:17).
In this synthesis of Jesus’ “teaching” on the Temple—as we saw earlier—two different prophecies are combined. The first is the universalist vision of the Prophet Isaiah (56: 7) of a future in which all peoples come together in the house of God to worship the Lord as the one God.
Here Isaiah’s universalist promise is combined with this prophecy from Jeremiah (7:11): “You have made my house into a den of robbers.” Jeremiah is an impassioned advocate of the unity of worship and life in the context of divine justice. He fights against a politicization of the faith that would see God’s constant protection of the Temple as something guaranteed, for the sake of maintaining the cult. But God does not protect a Temple that has been turned into a “den of robbers”.
In the combination of worship and trade, which Jesus denounces, he evidently sees the situation of Jeremiah’s time repeating itself. In this sense, his words and actions constitute a warning that could be understood, together with his reference to the destruction of this Temple, as an echo of Jeremiah. But neither Jeremiah nor Jesus is responsible for destroying the Temple: both, through their passion, indicate who and what it is that truly destroys the Temple.
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Related: The Temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27)
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?"
25 "Yes," he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, "What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?"
26 When he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him, "Then the subjects are exempt.
27 But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you."
comments by Edward Sri, professor of theology and Scripture:
Jesus does not want to offend the religious authorities. Though the divine King’s Son is free from this tax for God’s house, Jesus is willing to make the offering for the sake of avoiding unnecessary tension. In other situations Jesus has no problem doing something scandalous if it is the right thing to do, either to help others (e.g., curing someone on the Sabbath in 12:9-14) or as a matter of moral principle (e.g., when Jesus accused the Pharisees of being hypocrites in 15:4-12). In this case, however, giving money for the temple is not going to do any harm and violates no moral principle. Therefore Jesus is willing to pay it to avoid unnecessarily offending his opponents (see Rom 14:13-23; 1 Cor 8:13-9:12).
That Jesus has Peter get a coin from a fish to pay the temple tax indicates that he does not have a lot of money on hand. With his unique foreknowledge, Jesus tells Peter that he will catch a fish with a stater—the Greek name of a coin worth about four drachma or one shekel. Since the temple tax was two drachma or a halfshekel, the stater Peter will find is described as a coin worth twice the temple tax—the amount needed to pay for two people, Jesus and Peter.
Jesus offers an important example of humility Here. As God’s Son, he does not have to pay the temple tax. However, he pays it to avoid unnecessarily offending the collectors. There is nothing immoral in paying the tax and no larger religious principle is at stake. So rather than exert his rights, he humbly gives in to their request in order to build bridges with his opponents.
Imagine how much greater unity there would be in Christian marriages, families, parishes, and communities if people had the humble attitude of Jesus. In things nonessential, it is often better to give in to the preferences of others than to insist on one’s own opinion or way, even if we are convinced that we are right. Sometimes it is better to humbly die to self for the sake of unity with our spouse, friend, or colleague than to cause division by fighting vehemently for a position that in the end is not a serious matter. If Jesus was willing to give in to others rather than defend what was justly due to him, we should not do any less.
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