Jesus brings change, but does it stick?

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold… And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.” – Luke 19:45-48

It’s one thing to make a scene and drive out a few money men for an afternoon.  It’s quite another to set up shop in their spot from then on and not have these business people come back to reclaim their livelihood.

Something about Jesus’ person and His teaching has a profound way of making space for lasting change.  How telling, that though factions of business and religious leaders undoubtedly wanted to drag things back to the way they were, they could not because “the people were hanging on His words.”

It wouldn’t be long, though, before the same crowd that hung on Jesus’ words demanded His body be hung on a cross.  It seems that though Jesus’ touching and teaching can make space for lasting change, how long it lasts is often up to us.