Book of Common Prayer

¹² Fight the noble fight of the faith, get a firm grasp on the life of the coming age, the life you were called to when you made the noble public profession before many witnesses. ¹³ I give you this charge before God, who gives life to all things, and Messiah Jesus, who made the noble profession before Pontius Pilate: ¹⁴ be undefiled and blameless as you keep the commandment, until the royal appearing of our Lord Messiah Jesus, ¹⁵ which the blessed and only Sovereign One, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will reveal at its proper time. ¹⁶ He is the only one who possesses immortality; he lives in unapproachable light; no human being has seen him, or can see him. To him be eternal honor and power, Amen!

Jesus cleanses the Temple

⁴¹ When he came near and saw the city, he wept over it.

⁴² “If only you’d known,” he said, “on this day—even you!—what peace meant. But now it’s hidden, and you can’t see it. ⁴³ Yes, the days are coming upon you when your enemies will build up earthworks all round you, and encircle you, and squeeze you in from every direction. ⁴⁴ They will bring you crashing to the ground, you and your children within you. They won’t leave one single stone on another, because you didn’t know the moment when God was visiting you.”

⁴⁵ He went into the Temple and began to throw out the traders.

⁴⁶ “It’s written,” he said, “ ‘My house shall be a house of prayer; but you’ve made it a brigands’ cave.’ ”

⁴⁷ He was teaching every day in the Temple. But the chief priests, the scribes and the leading men of the people were trying to destroy him. ⁴⁸ They couldn’t find any way to do it, because all the people were hanging on his every word.