The Lord Jesus went into Jerusalem, into the temple. And when he had looked around upon all things, then, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.^[1] The Lord went into Jerusalem and into the temple. He went in, and, having entered, what does he do? He looks about at everything. In the temple of the Jews he was looking for a place to rest his head and found none. He had looked around upon all things. Why did it say, He had looked around upon all that was there? He was looking for the priests; he wanted to be with them, but he could not find them. He always had regard for priests. So he surveyed all that was about him, almost as though he were searching with a lantern; so says the prophet Zephaniah: I will explore Jerusalem with lamps. In this same way, the Lord too looked around at everything with the light of a lamp. He was searching in the temple, but he did not find what he wanted. When it was already evening, he was still exploring everything; he was looking around upon all things. Even though his search was unfruitful, nevertheless, as long as there was light, he remained in the temple; but when evening had come, when the shades of ignorance had darkened the temple of the Jews, when it was the evening hour, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The Savior searched; the apostles searched; in the temple they found nothing, so they left it.

The lust of possessions and money are not to be sought for. In Solomon, in Ecclesiastes: He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver.^[1] Also in Proverbs: He who holds back the corn is cursed among the people; but blessing is on the head of him that communicates it.^[2] Also in Isaiah: Woe to them who join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may take away something from their neighbor. Will you dwell alone upon the earth?^[3] Also, in Zephaniah: They shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them; and they shall appoint vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them, because the Day of the Lord is near. Also in the Gospel according to Luke: For what does it profit a man to make a gain of the whole world, but that he should lose himself?^[4]

With reference to that day the prophet Amos says, Woe to them that desire the Day of the Lord. To what end is this Day of the Lord for you? The day itself is darkness and not light.^[1] The prophet Zephaniah says the same thing: The voice of the Day of the Lord is grim and bitter. That is why the penitent now introduced before us earnestly supplicates in the ordered divisions of his prayer that he may not be convicted for his deeds on that day of judgment. What is more beneficial and farsighted for the person who could have no hope in his own deserts because of the sins which he has committed than to decide to pray to God’s fatherly love while in this world, where there is opportunity for repentance?

But since these are light as perceived by the sense, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps its directing and principal part, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.

But let them hear how the prophet Zephaniah holds out over them the power of divine rebuke, saying, Behold, the Day of the Lord comes, great and horrible, the day of wrath, that day; a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clamor, upon all fenced cities, and upon all lofty corners. For what is expressed by fenced cities but minds suspected and surrounded ever with a fallacious defense; minds which, as often as their fault is attacked, suffer not the darts of truth to reach them? And what is signified by lofty corners (a wall being always double in corners) but insincere hearts; which, while they shun the simplicity of truth, are in a manner doubled back on themselves in the crookedness of duplicity, and, what is worse, from their fault of insincerity lift themselves in their thoughts with the pride of prudence? Therefore the Day of the Lord comes full of vengeance and rebuke upon fenced cities and lofty corners, because the wrath of the last judgment both destroys human hearts that have been closed by defenses against the truth and unfolds such as have been folded up in duplicities. For then the fenced cities fall. For souls that God has not penetrated will be damned. Then the lofty corners tumble, because hearts which erect themselves in the prudence of insincerity are prostrated by the sentence of righteousness.

I am weary and vexed at enumerating the multitude of ornaments, and I am compelled to wonder how those who bear such a burden are not worried to death. O foolish trouble! O silly craze for display! They squander meretriciously wealth on what is disgraceful and in their love for ostentation disfigure God’s gifts, emulating the art of the evil one. The rich man hoarding up in his barns and saying to himself, You have many goods laid up for many years; eat, drink be merry, the Lord in the Gospels plainly called fool. For this night they shall take your soul; whose then shall those things which you have prepared be?^[1] Apelles, the painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a figure loaded with gold color to represent Helen, said to him, Boy, being incapable of painting her beautiful, you have made her rich. Such Helens are the ladies of the present day, not truly beautiful but richly got up. To these the Spirit prophesies by Zephaniah: And their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the Day of the Lord’s anger. But for those women who have been trained under Christ, it is suitable to adorn themselves not with gold but with the Word, through whom alone the gold comes to light.