Scriptures: Luke 19:41-48; Mark 11:12-19; Matthew 21:12-22
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
Luke 19:41-48
When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, 44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”
He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him. 48 They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
Mark 11:12-19
The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. (13) Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. (14) Jesus told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” and his disciples heard it.
They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple, and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables, and the seats of those who sold the doves. 16 He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple.
17 He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”
18 The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, he went out of the city.
Matthew 21:12-16
Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?’”
He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and camped there.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
Matthew 21:18-22
Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?”
21 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. 22 All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

IF ONLY…
Jesus laments over Jerusalem: “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42)
How many times did God say this to His chosen people Israel? How many times did they refuse to listen to Him? How patient and longsuffering is He with a stubborn people?
We see in history how He chastised them, and then they would call out to Him to save them, and He would forgive them, only for them to go back and do the same thing again. And we find God lamenting over His people:
“IF ONLY they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.”
(Deuteronomy 5:29 BSB)
“Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them. IF ONLY they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.”
(Deuteronomy 32:28-29 BSB)
“IF ONLY My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways, how soon I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes!”
(Psalms 81:13-14 BSB)
Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. IF ONLY you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand, and your offspring as numerous as its grains; their name would never be cut off or eliminated from My presence.”
(Isaiah 48:17-19 BSB)
And now we find Jesus lamenting if only they had seen that their redemption that led to their peace was among them. Their Messiah whom they were waiting for!! But they missed it, and their stubbornness had blinded them.
Oh, may His church take a lesson from this. Sadly, we see many religious people who bear the name of Jesus externally, but do not know Him in their hearts. Does Jesus lament for us too?