The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 141

Ver. 45~h. xx. 18.-Passion Week. The last of the old Hebrew prophets, Malachi (iii. and iv.), had announced that the Lord, the Sought One, would come "suddenly" into his temple, and manifest himself there in a threefold character-that of Judge, that of the Purifier and Refiner, and that of the swift Witness of the kingdom of heaven. It is in this threefold character that Christ is presented during the week in which he suffered. The Judge. St. Mark, with his usual delicacy of touch, informs us that, after the procession which swept through the gates of the city halted at the foot of Mount Moriah, Jesus advanced to the temple, walked through its courts, and looked round a.bout on a.11 things (Mark xi. 11). Every part of the building, every arrangement, every feature, was comprehended in that gaze. It was the act of the Judge. The survey completed, the Purifier and Refiner disposes his crucible. At the beginning of the ministry he cleansed the house of his Father, which had been rendered a den of merchandise; at the end of the ministry he repeats the cleansing (vers. 45, 46). Jerusalem was crowded; outside the city wall there was a vast city of pilgrims' booths. For the sale of victims for sacrifice, and no doubt for the vending of many wares besides, the temple precincts were for the time a huge holy fair. One could scarcely distinguish that its real purpose was an asylum for weary hearts, a refuge for sin-stricken consciences, a placo for quiet meditation and prayer. Where, amid the hubbub of buyer and seller, could the pious Israelite" dwell in the courts of Jehovah, beholding his beauty and inquiring in his temple"? It is this that kindles the wrath of the Son of God, and incites to the action portrayed by the synoptic evangelists. "Who shall stand when he appears who is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap?" This purging of the holy house of that which made it like, a cave of brigands was the work of that first day, which has been called Palm Sun~ay. The night which followed was spent in Bethany, perhaps on the slope of Ohvet. On the second day we find the Lord again in the temple, and now in the third of Ma.la.chi's characters-as the swift Witness against the enemies of God. This was the aspect of his countenance on the days which remained until the night came ou LUKE,-ll, L  146 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [err. xrx. 1-48.