Daily Gospel Reflection for November 20, 2020

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Luke 19:45-48

So I have to admit that this was the first time I read this passage in the context of its placement at the end of the nineteenth chapter of Luke. This coda to the chapter, if you will, takes place immediately after Jesus makes His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which leads Him to weep over the city and the spiritual blindness of its people. In Jesus’ time, as well as before and after, a triumph was a parade reserved to celebrate the return to Rome of a conquering military leader. The military leader would then enter the Roman temple and offer sacrifice to the god Jupiter.

This was Jesus’ triumph: entering a city oppressed by Rome. On a donkey. Cheered by peasants. Clamoring not for attention for Himself but weeping for the fate that befalls all the unrepentant, all those too stubborn ever to find peace.

In today’s gospel, we see Jesus entering His temple, not offering up empty things to empty deities but striking out at impurity, chasing away those who would seek earthly profit off of faith, speaking the truth even though a host of powerful people would kill Him for it.

They did kill Him for it. That death, however, was His war to win us to Himself, away from sin and false gods, back to intimacy with Him and all the Trinity. We just have to be willing to walk with Him, die with Him, and rise—not in our own triumph, but into His.

Ponder:

What are some places in our hearts that need to be cleansed before we can make good room for Jesus?

Pray:

Jesus, conqueror of sin and death, enter my heart and drive out all that is not of You. Purify me of my sinful desires so that I can be Your faithful subject.