Jesus's Authority (Luke 19:45-48)

Jesus begins His last week in Jerusalem at the temple. (The events of Jesus’s public ministry in this last week, before the events of His arrest and trial, will begin and end at the temple.) There is less description here in Luke about the cleansing of the temple. Jesus merely casts out the vendors and traders. What is more important for Luke’s argument is the why of the cleansing.

Jesus quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah and teaches about the purpose of the temple. The relationship the nation has with God, the spiritual condition, these are the purpose of the religious ritual. Not money, not profit, not control. The focus is on God first, and the nations second. This whole relationship God has with Israel is about redeeming mankind.

Jesus isn’t just calling for reform, however. He is confronting the powers that be. He didn’t just come to change culture. He came to change a fallen creation. The cross is in His crosshairs.