Harsh words! When we think of Palm Sunday, we often focus on the people praising Jesus and saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Yet just a short while later we find Jesus angrily driving out the sellers in the Temple. It was not the first time he had seen them there. I suspect there are many other times when it bothered him and when he could have acted. Why now?
The key is in Luke 19:41-42: “Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’” What catches my attention is the focus of Jesus’ rebuke. His house should have been a house of prayer. It should have been a place where the focus was on God and where an atmosphere of dependency and trust was developed.
I wonder what Jesus would say today. People sometimes use this passage to worry about “selling” things in the church on a Sunday. I think that misses the whole point. The issue is not on what they were doing but on what they were not doing. They should have been in prayer.
At New Covenant, we have been developing a culture of “prayer, care, and share.” My hope is that this has gone beyond just prayer for Cedar Rapids. Roughly one third of the world – two billion people! – have no access to the Gospel. They have no missionary or local church. They may live their whole lives without meeting a single believer. Let me challenge you to consider praying globally as well as locally.
To learn more about global prayer, be sure to be a part of the Great Commission Weekend, April 4-6 at New Covenant.
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