Eucharistic meditation

Isaiah 11:7-8: And the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He immediately went to the temple. What He saw filled Him with outrage: Jews were going about their sacrifices and their purifications and their prayers, but Jesus knew they spent their lives outside the temple in lives of greed, violence, lust, abuse.

Zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him and in a moment He was tossing around money, overturning tables, and driving away the sacrificial animals with a whip. “You have made this house a den of thieves,” He charged. It is supposed to be a “house of prayer for all nations.” On Palm Sunday, Jesus came to Jerusalem as a Jeremiah, a Jehu ready to tear down the temple until there was not one stone left on another.

Jesus is the Branch, riding into the city in the midst of waving branches, ready to bring justice with the rod of His mouth and to slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. From righteousness springs peace, a restored Eden, and more – a glorified Eden where a fresh young Adam leads and plays with serpents.

Jesus brings the peace that the temple was supposed to bring, and didn’t. Jesus brings predator and prey together to live in the same field. He brings together cow and bear, lion and ox, to the same table, to share the same diet.

This table is the great sign that the Branch has come. Nearly all of us were unclean Gentiles who have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. Some of you are meek lambs, some wild lions, but you are all here to eat the same bread. Some of you are leopards, and some kids – but all drink the same cup of joy. This table is a sign that the work of the Branch is being fulfilled, and that He has made His own body the house of prayer for all nations.