SIXTY DAYS WITH LUKE:
A New Devotional-Study Excursion through the Third Gospel
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Day 48 WHEN THE SHOUTING IS OVER Read Luke 19:28-48 For a number of years Norman Thomas was the Socialist candidate for President of the United States. He never won the presidency, nor did he ever come close. Yet, though few had voted for him, over the years he earned from many a measure of respect and admiration. Sometime before he died, he was introduced before a distinguished group and the M.C. commented on the great respect Thomas had earned. When he arose to acknowledge the introduction, Thomas commented: “I would have gladly exchanged some of that respect for a little support.” Perhaps Jesus felt like that about the response he got on Palm Sunday. We think he would have gladly exchanged the “Hosannas” that day for some real support. Instead of applauding hands, he was looking for helping hands. As W.M. MacGregor has written: Some people would like to applaud sermons which are adequately appraised by such a welcome. Applause is a relief to one’s feelings and, like any other discharge of feeling, it helps men to remain after an appeal what they were before it.* Wasn’t that true of many who participated on Palm Sunday by shouting their Hosannas? Waving their palm branches and giving Jesus, in effect, a big round of applause, they managed to let off some religious steam and still remained what they were before. They celebrated only a portion of Palm Sunday, barely a third of the significant events, two of which took place after the shouting was over. The first of these occurred just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. As he approached the Holy City, Jesus did something that probably caused people to stop their celebration and watch in bewilderment: he wept over the city! But why would Jesus weep over a city that was giving him such a rousing reception? Perhaps these were tears of joy? But, no, those who were closest to him could see there was no joy on his face and his words were anything but happy ones: Ah, if you only knew at this eleventh hour, on what your peace depends- but you cannot see it. The time is coming when your enemies will encircle you with ramparts, surrounding you and hemming you in on every side... they will not leave one stone standing upon another---all because you did not know when God himself was visiting you. (19:42-44, J.B. Philips) Jesus is making a dark prophecy against Jerusalem, but it is said in sorrow, not joy, for he is part of the nation that he is denouncing. He stands, not outside the people condemned, but within as one of them. Even at this eleventh hour, if only the people would stop applauding for a moment and come to their senses! There was another emotion that gripped Jesus that day: after going to the temple, Jesus’ sorrow gave way to righteous indignation. Loudly condemning all that he found in its outer courts, Jesus literally and figuratively turned the place upside down! We’ve been exposed to this story so often that it may no longer excite us. We get a kind of “That’s–telling-them-Jesus!” feeling about it. But, if we were to witness that incident through the eyes of his contemporaries, we would not view it so indifferently. We need to realize just what Jesus did. He did not preach a scorching sermon and then stand at the door to shake hands with people when it was all over. He took the tables of the temple merchants and turned them over, scattering the money across the floor and ruining some of the merchandise! In fairness, it must be said that the temple money changers and sellers of sacrificial animals served a useful purpose. People needed to be able to exchange their foreign coins so that no money bearing idolatrous images would be offered in sacrifice. And, it was also a convenience to people who traveled long distances to be able to buy their animal sacrifices right their in the temple court. Jesus, however, was incensed, not because these things in themselves were evil, but because they had gotten out of hand. They had become “the tail that wags the dog,” “the cart before the horse,” the kind of subtle corruption that always takes place when profit and loss get in the way of right and wrong. W. M. MacGregor comments: “Men want what stirs their blood; and thus in his church he still rides on amongst the excited feelings of a crowd who, by their shoutings, show that they have not stopped to understand.” *(W.M. Macgregor, Jesus Christ the Son of God, 1907.) Applaud Jesus, if you like, but more than that, make sure you stop to understand that, when the shouting is over: when Jesus has shed his tears, scourged his temple and paid his price on a cross, it is then, not before, that the victory begins. And let us remember that his symbol is a cross, not a palm branch, that what he wants from us is support, not admiration, and when the big parade is over he needs hands, not to applaud, but to help with a cross. TO STUDY AND PONDER 1. In what ways do we give Christ our applause instead of our support? 2. How do you feel about what Jesus did in the Temple on Palm Sunday and what relevance does it have for us today? 3. If the crowds had known that Jesus would wind up on a cross, what do you think would have happened to the big parade? Our Prayer: Father, the Palm Sunday procession we celebrate once each year, but, we give little thought to it. Is our Lord still weeping over our cities? Does he still find things in our temples and churches today that call for righteous indignation? And is he still disappointed that we find it easier to applaud him, rather than support him?
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About the Book
The purpose of this book is to help the reader to spend sixty rewarding days in the Third Gospel, following a schedule of readings taking the reader through Luke’s 24 chapters. All too often the Gospels are experienced in bits and pieces. This book will expose the reader to the whole Gospel of Luke, providing a fuller sense of the scope and continuity of this marvelous tract of faith. The daily interpretations are intended, not as exhaustive expositions of all that is intended by the various passages, but as “meditations,” suggestive of “contemplation,” “musing,” “pondering,” “reflection,” “study” or “thought,”. With each day’s reading and meditation, there is a daily suggestion of a thought to ponder and “prime the pump” of the reader’s own mind and heart. Stimulated by these thoughts and questions, readers may find the Holy Spirit leading them to what is important and relevant for their own lives. Each day ends with a prayer-starter intended to suggest the direction in which the readers’ own prayers might be directed. No “Amen” is added because they are intended to be open-ended for the reader to complete. The study and prayer sections are equally important.
About the Author
Larry Althouse, a native of Reading, PA is a retired United Methodist clergyman and since 1964 the writer of a weekly syndicated newspaper column, “The Bible Speaks,” as well as the author of Youth Guide on Affluence and Poverty (Friendship Press) and Rediscovering The Gift of Healing (Abingdon Press). For twenty years he regularly wrote curriculum materials for the Evangelical United Brethren and United Methodist churches. Larry earned a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania and the Master of Divinity from United Theological Seminary in Dayton OH. He also did graduate studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York, including Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr’s last course before retirement. He served parishes in Harrisburg PA, Crestwood NY and Mohnton PA, before joining the staff of First United Methodist Church in Dallas TX as Director of New Dimensions Ministries. Valere Fuller Althouse was born on a North Texas ranch near Buffalo Springs and worked as a ramp and photographic model before associating for thirty years as a lecturer and consultant at the famous health spa, The Green House in Arlington TX. She also has been a popular speaker for conventions and organizations across the USA, as well as in Europe. She has spoken to a number of medical organizations on her experience as a breast cancer patient. Her fascinating life and career are chronicled in her autobiography, My First Eighty (Trafford). Together, the Althouses have written of her experience with breast cancer, You CAN Save Your Breast (W.W. Norton) and What You Need Is What You’ve Got: Discover, Develop and Use Your Inner Resources (Samuel Weiser). For 22 years they wrote a newspaper column, Travel Talk for a Dallas newspaper and conducted a holistic Spa Holiday program in Badgastein, Austria. For the United Methodist Church they served as consultants for The Upper Room program, “An Experience in Heath and Wholeness,” and conducted that program in churches across the country. After retirement, they wrote and conducted intensive premarital weekend seminars, “Fit To Be Tied” at First UM Church in Dallas, where they continue to be active in various roles, as well as in the community. They have four adult children and two grandchildren.