Zechariah 14:12-21

12 This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths. 13 On that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other; 14 even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected-gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps.

16 Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths. 17 If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them. 18 And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shall come the plague that the LORD inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths. 19 Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.

20 On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD.” And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar; 21 and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day. (Zechariah 14:12-21, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with revision and supplement from November 27, 2004, two years ago (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year Two):

Zechariah describes a final victory for Jerusalem, including “the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem,” causing their flesh to “rot while they are still on their feet,” their eyes to “rot in their sockets,” and their tongues to “rot in their mouths” (Zech. 14:12). Among Jerusalem’s enemies there will be “great panic” (v. 13), but “the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected–gold, silver, and garments in great abundance” (v. 14). Due to Jerusalem’s victory, “all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths” (v. 16). Those who refuse will suffer “the plague that the LORD inflicts” (v. 18) as “punishment” (v. 19). Holy things will be restored: bells on horses inscribed, “Holy to the LORD,” and “cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar” (v. 20); in fact, “every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice” (v. 21a). The final statement, “And there shall no longer be traders [‘Or Canaanites’ NRSV note d] in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day” (v. 21b), reminds us of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, when he said, “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; / but you are making it a den of robbers” (Mt. 20:13, citing Isa. 56:7; cf. 60:7; Jer. 7:11). According to Gregory Mobley, “The Hebrew Bible often uses the term ‘Canaanite’ with the meaning of trader” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Zech. 14:21). “Either no traders will be needed because everything will be holy, or nothing will be permitted that defiles pure worship (Jn. 2:16)” ( R. Lansing Hicks and Walter Brueggemann, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Zech. 14:21b). Mobley sees in this paragraph a picture of “Jerusalem itself [as] a virtual temple” (on vv. 20-21).

Philippians 2:1-11

Imitating Christ's Humility

2:1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

7 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

8 he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death-

even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11, NRSV)

The following comments are combined with revision and supplement here from November 27, 2004, two years ago (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year Two), and from comments of September 7, 2005 (Wednesday of the week of the Sunday closest to September 7, Year One) which were repeated on February 27, 2006 (Monday of the week of the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two):

As a part of living “your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27), and as a part of their “sharing in the gospel” (1:5), that is, sharing in Paul’s mission, he urges the Philippian believers to humbly “regard each other as better than yourselves” (2:3) and “look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (2:4). He introduces Christ as the example of humility with poetic lines that many regard as an early Christian (pre-Pauline) hymn. Whether Paul wrote it himself, or endorsed it by quoting it, he follows its advice. “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ” (3:7). The first stanza of the hymn asserts the pre-existence and divinity of Christ, of which he “emptied himself” (2:7) on a downward trajectory from “equality with God” (v. 6) to “the form of a slave” and “human likeness” (v. 7), being “obedient to the point of death– / even death on a cross” (v. 8). But from this nadir, the hymn rises, as it were, with the exalting of Christ, when God “gave him the name / that is above every name” (v. 9), at which name “every knee should bend” (v. 10) and “every tongue should confess / that Jesus Christ is Lord, / to the glory of God the Father” (v. 11).

Whether Paul composed this passage himself or, as some think (noted above), he is citing an earlier Christian hymn about Christ, it is a significant early expression of what the earliest Christians believed about Jesus. But Paul’s use of it as an example for us, to be humble and look to the interests of others, is also important. In the continuation Paul shows that he follows Christ’s example. He did not regard his Jewish credentials “as something to be exploited” (cf. 3:4-8), and he urges the Philippians to “join in imitating me” (3:17).

Luke 19:41-48

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God."

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Mt 21.12-17; Mk 11.15-19; Jn 2.12-25)

45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, "It is written,

'My house shall be a house of prayer';

but you have made it a den of robbers."

47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard. (Luke 19:41-48, NRSV)

The following combines comments from November 27, 2004, two years ago (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year Two), and comments which were repeated from June 10, 2005 (Friday of the week of the Sunday closest to June 8, Year One) on April 9, 2006 (Palm Sunday, Year Two):

The section in which “Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem” (Lk. 19:41-44) is found only in Luke. Matthew and Luke present Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem in passages that are almost verbatim (Mt. 23:37-39; Lk. 13:34-35). The main point here is to recognize “the things that make for peace” (v. 41), and “the time of your visitation from God” (v. 44). We need to be open to God’s will and the Spirit’s guidance in our lives. The particular focus of the dire prediction for Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44, with its vivid description of a city under siege, “when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side” (v. 43), is unique in the Gospels, though the prediction of the temple’s destruction occurs elsewhere (Mt. 24:1-3; Mk. 13:1-4; Lk. 21:5-7). But the details of the siege in the war with Rome, including “They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you and they will not leave within you one stone upon another” (v. 44, cf. v. 43), lead some critics to suggest that reports of what had happened had influenced Luke’s reporting of Jesus’ prediction, that is, this saying reflects Luke’s knowledge of the Roman siege of Jerusalem prior to Jerusalem’s fall to them in A.D. 70. But Josephus’ eye-witness report is much more graphic and detailed (Jewish War, Book VI, on the Internet at http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-6.htm, accessed December 1, 2006).

Eric Franklin hints at the view that Luke’s report reflects knowledge of the siege. But he says that Luke describes Jerusalem’s inevitable destruction “in terms which are taken from the OT “ and adds

it [i.e. Jesus’ description of the destruction of Jerusalem according to Luke] suggests knowledge of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Jewish rejection of Jesus and his way of peace leads them into confrontation with Rome with its inevitable disastrous results. Though the biblical language catches these up into the purposes of God, the description as a whole does not suggest that the events are understood by Luke as actually determined by him. Israel is the cause of her own ruin. (Eric Franklin, The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 952).

Franklin suggests that “Luke probably wrote his gospel around 80-5 C.E.” (Franklin, p. 925), which is a good possibility, since Mark, probably written in the late 60s or early 70s (as is implied by the Papias tradition), was very likely one of Luke’s sources. Franklin doesn’t say, as some critics have, that this “knowledge of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem” led Luke to create a saying for Jesus, a vaticinium ex eventu (“prophecy” after the fact), nor does he quite say that Jesus “knew what was going to happen to the city” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Daily Study Bible, rev. ed., 1975, p. 241). I. Howard Marshall states that “this section [Lk. 19:41-44] is unlikely to be a Lucan composition” (I. Howard Marshall, Commentary on Luke, NIGTC, 717), and adds:

The language shows at least one Aramaic feature (v. 44), and the theme is found elsewhere in Luke’s special material (cf. 13:34f.; 23:28-31, and possibly 21:5f., 20-22). The material may have formed part of an apocalyptic discourse, traces of which can be seen in 21.l The thought is dependent on Je. 6:6-21 (Hastings, 116-120) and Is. 29:1-4, and it is therefore unnecessary to hold (with Bultmann, 130; Wilson, 71) that it was composed after AD 70: ‘To describe these verses as a Christian composition after the event is the kind of extravagance that brings sober criticism into disrepute’ (Manson, Sayings, 320). This comment may itself be exaggerated; but, although the passage may have been edited in the light of AD 70 (J. Weiss, 501), there is no reason to doubt that the Christian interpretation of the fall of Jerusalem as the outcome of failure to accept the message of Jesus goes back to Jesus himself (Ellis, 226). (Marshall, 717)

Marshall cites authors from both sides of this question. I would agree with him and add that if Luke were creating a saying for Jesus after the fall of Jerusalem, he probably would have been much more precise in his description of the details.

Luke’s version of Jesus’ Cleansing of the Temple is very brief (Lk. 19:45-48) as compared with Mark’s version (Mk. 11:11, 15-17) and Matthew’s (Mt. 21:10-17). As compared to Mark, Luke’s description of the activity in the temple omits the details of Mark 11:15, merely saying, “Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there” (Lk. 19:45). Matthew, on the other has more material than Mark because he includes Jesus’ encounter with the chief priests and scribes, who question what the crowds are saying about Jesus, and Jesus response (Mt. 21:15-16), a brief version of which Luke puts with the Triumphal entry (Lk. 19:39-40). According to Matthew, when questioned in the temple, Jesus quotes scripture (Ps. 8:2, cited in Mt. 21:16) to silence the chief priests and scribes; according to Luke, as the procession enters the city, Jesus silences the Pharisees, who have said, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop,” by answering, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out” (Lk. 19:39-40). Should we let the stones do our praising for us?

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com