August 9, 2026

Today's Reading: Luke 19:41-48

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 25:1-22; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

“Would that you… had known on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:42)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus sees His beloved city and her people carrying on in great busyness and happiness in preparation for the Passover celebration… so why does Jesus weep? Why the turning over of the money changers' tables? Because the people thought that maintaining longstanding traditions since the first Passover and making money was what made for peace. Was Jesus there just to kill the vibe of Passover, or to dampen the mood of the millions gathered in Jerusalem? Not in the least… although it kinda sounds like it when he drops the hammer of foretelling them that in 70 AD, His whole city would be leveled.

Jesus is fully God, He is fully man; This God/man shows sorrow (His weeping), and He exhibits controlled wrath (casting the merchants out by His word), but it is His mercy that should not be overlooked. Martin Luther writes: “He who is true God weeps with true tears. He laments not for Himself but for those who would not have Him.” (AE 75:417) Jesus weeps for His people… His beloved… because of their unbelief, hardness of heart, and their spiritual blindness. They, and all sinners, believed that their riches, their busy lives, and their works made for peace. Jesus, in great love and mercy, enters the temple, made with hands, and kicks the ones who bought and sold out with His word, showing us that He’d come to us… how the strong man would be bound and cast out. Jesus is the ‘thing’ that makes for peace… the time for peace was then, and peace would be won in the most terrible and wonderful manner, and still He came to dwell with His people through His Word. Even as He weeps, His cross is fully in view where He will be the true temple that will be torn down and built up again after three days… and that cleansing He provides will involve more than the turning over of tables and the casting out of merchants… it will be the event that overturns the world and casts out the enemies of sin, death and the Devil forever; the ‘thing’ that makes for peace with God and our neighbor right here on earth. Jesus laments over unbelief and dies for unbelievers, making His dwelling among us in the Church, the bride, He died to save.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“O Christ, cleanse the temple of our hearts. Let Your Word dwell richly within us. And grant that we may know, even now, the things that make for our peace — You, our Savior and our God.”

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.