Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, January 17, 2014 Read Luke 19:41-48 Luke, like Matthew basically follows Mark; however, he has radically shortened the story. Aside from the quoted verses from Isaiah and Jeremiah much has been stripped away. But in its place Luke has added an agonizing lament over the Temple and its impending destruction to the beginning of his account. Jesus weeping over the Temple at this point is something only Luke tells us – Jesus laments because he knows that the Temple would be destroyed which it was in 70 AD. Luke’s description nearly matches the actual description of the assault on by the Romans. In this way Luke has also added his own twist to the story – one cannot help but pity those for whom the Temple held such importance as one reads Luke’s story. All this brings us back once again to John. As we have noted John’s story is quite similar to the others with one glaring addition. We have seen how that addition is John’s way of speaking of Jesus replacing the Temple with his own body. One other item is worthy of our consideration. If it was the cleansing of the Temple that became the straw that broke the camel’s back in the stories of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, and that ultimately led to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, how can John move such an episode forward and not lose the motive for the arrest? That may have been a risk for John. However, as we will see, it is the raising of Lazarus from the dead that provides the motive in John’s gospel. We will talk more about that when we get to that part of John’s story. We will notice then that only John tells this story of the raising of Lazarus.