Hidden From Your Eyes

Luke 19:41-44
Jesus, amongst a crowd of people praising him and God (vs. 38), people described as his disciples (vs. 37), when arriving in Jerusalem, laments and weeps over it (vs. 41).  He knows this worship and praising will not last.  Although they worship and praise him now, it is not real and lasting, because true worship consists in spirit and truth (John 4:24), which is hidden from their eyes (vs. 42).  They will suffer total destruction due to their ignorance (vs. 44).  People here capable of worshiping even in the midst of deception.  God, along with Jesus, are worthy of our praise and will ultimately get it (vs. 40), whether it is by us or in spite of us, to our detriment or our profit.  One can quickly decipher this worship to be somewhat false when we see the condition of the Lord's house,having been converted into a den of robbers (vs. 46).  These worshipers had allowed or been responsible for the temple becoming a place of business, a for profit venture that no longer caused people to commune with the living God (prayer).  But before we judge, let us look at present day.  Are we really that different?  Are our churches not run like businesses, trying to balance budgets and make money and "expand the business", while neglecting the greater task of calling people to commune face to face with God?  Are tithes not encouraged so that expenses are met and salaries paid, so that more amenities may be offered to the lost world (or ourselves) to draw them in by appealing to their fleshly tendency to indulge self?  What would we consider a successful Sunday?  What is the criteria we use to determine?  Is it not how many visitors came or the overall attendance or the giving report or whether or not the sermon appealed to us or the singing was to our liking?  What about how many people encountered God or repented?  Do we even ask this or "track it" as we do other numbers and statistics?  I am sure these temple money changers probably brought in people to the temple that did not normally go.  And yet they were rebuked for it because their motives were impure.  Their goal was to simply draw in others, for selfish reasons.  Are we so different?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  Do people encounter God more when they come to our business-like churches than they did in that day with the money changers?  These disciple's worship would quickly change to condemnation for Jesus and his disciples  because it wasn't in truth and spirit but surface (vs. 37), and there was not church to nourish and nurture them in this true worship.  They worshiped for the mighty things they had seen (vs. 37), not from the heart.  What about us?  Do we worship out of abundance of his mighty works done among us (our stuff we possess, the blessings of the comforts and ease of our lives) or out of pure love?  Time will tell, but hopefully before it is too late (Matthew 24:9-12, 36-29).  And in the end, the responsibility of this will be held against the church,Christ's body.  And God's measuring stick is not adorned temples or attendance or numbers of ministries or appealing songs and lessons, but lives changed for eternity and true worship in spirit and truth, in prayer and intercession.  Are these priorities in our churches?  Or are we dens or robbers, who have left behind actual prayer and worship in favor of business and profit?  The truth was hidden from these people's eyes (vs. 42), is it also hidden from ours?