Trinity 10, 2023
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 19:41-48
Trinity 10
August 13, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This Gospel account takes place immediately following the events of Palm Sunday. Luke records that Jesus rode along on the colt and the crowds spread their cloaks on the road, the whole multitude began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. And as they were rejoicing and praising God, they cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
But following this great scene, Jesus drew near to Jerusalem and immediately wept over it saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Jesus weeps for the Holy City of Jerusalem. He weeps because He knows what will take place. Here He prophesies exactly what will happen in the year 70 A.D. when the Romans under command of the future emperor Titus would lay siege to Jerusalem, destroy the city, and destroy the temple.
Jesus cites the exact reason for this impending destruction: The city and her inhabitants were to be dashed to the ground; the inhabitants will be slain. And so it is, that his destruction was to be absolute and utter ruin because they did not know the time of their visitation. This destruction, which occurred in the year 70 A.D. is a type and foreshadowing of the destruction that will be brought upon all those who reject the Lord, those who reject His gracious visitation. They will be declared to be His enemies and will be placed as footstools under his feet. That is, those who do not have faith—those who despise preaching and His Word; those who despise the Sacraments.
To be sure, He still comes to us now, He still visits us in mercy. For the mercy of the Lord endures forever. But His patience does not. For now, He comes to us and visits us, and He even is patient with us. Even now, He is visiting us, He “looks in upon us.” He invites us into His house, to come to the feast. He comes to us through the Word, through preaching, through what He says in Holy Scripture to show us what He desires of us in His Law and to shower us with His love by reminding us what He has done for us in His Son. He comes to us through Word and Sacrament, in our prayers, in our home devotions. He has redeemed us, purchased and won us from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil. That is how He comes to us in mercy and in patience now. The Lord desires that all men be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But eventually, His patience will run out. Those who have no desire for Him, who reject His visitation, who spurn Him and scorn Him, who cast off His love as though they were fine without it, will face the greater, far worse, eternal destruction of their body and soul in hell.
That’s the warning. That’s the Law speaking. Do not brush off the Lord as though you can deal with Him later—what you have going on now is more important and matters of faith are secondary. To be sure, the Lord is patient. His mercy abounds. But eventually, His patience will run out. Do not test the Lord.
Of course, there is a Gospel side to all this as well. We are living in the Last Days. The end has not yet come. Jesus hasn’t yet come in His glory. He still comes to us in meekness and in gentleness, in ways we can experience Him and not be destroyed. In fact, one of our hymns speaks to this in this very way. Many of you know this hymn as it is often used in our funeral liturgy. It is stanza three of the hymn Abide with Me. The stanza goes like this: “Come not in terrors, as the King of kings, but kind and good, with healing in Thy wings; tears for all woes, a heart for every plea. Come, Friend of sinner, thus abide with me.” That’s what our Lord is in these latter days—a friend of sinners.
The first reason that this is our prayer and why this is good, is because God still blesses us in our day by His gracious visitation. It’s too late for those who lived in Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago who rejected Him. But it is not too late for us. Though we are living in these last days, we are blessed to experience and to know God’s patience and ongoing visitation among us. He is still looking in on us, forgiving our sins, drawing us nearer and nearer to Himself through His Word and Sacraments. Thus, the second reason why we pray this hymn stanza and sing it, is to remind us of this very fact. God comes to us in mercy. Because He visits us, because He comes to us and looks in on us, this ought to direct and guide our ways so that we would learn and desire to do what is pleasing to Him, according to His will. Children want to please their parents. Parents love and rejoice when their children behave rightly and when they’re faithful.
So because we know that God still is patient with us and He will always have mercy, even when we fall into temptation, this ought to order our lives. We should be taking advantage of the means of grace. We should not despise the Lord’s Supper, but be constantly receiving it with joy. We should be praying and doing devotions at home as a family. We should be reading our Bibles and even the Lutheran Confessions. Even though most of us have already been Confirmed in the Lutheran Church, we should break out our Small Catechisms and study them. What I have just described to you and encouraged you to do is nothing outrageous or something that if you do it, you’d be going above and beyond. What I have just described to you in doing those things, is encouraging you simply to be a Christian. Because in these various things, God in Christ Jesus comes to us, visits us, forgives our sins, and strengthens our faith. This is what we desperately need, above all else, in this dying world.
Which brings me to my last point. In Luke 19, Jesus prophesies the impending destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. This was a necessary outcome for two reasons. The first is obvious. He explicitly tells us why the Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed. Jerusalem and her inhabitants have rejected Him. To this end, it’s no surprise then, why, to this day, there are ongoing conflicts between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem and in the surrounding area. Two of those religions have rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah and as the Son of God. These ongoing conflicts in Israel, Palestine, the Temple Mount, and the surrounding areas are temporal consequences when someone rejects Christ and pays no heed to His visitation.
At the same time, the destruction of the temple was necessary because God no longer dwells in a temple built with hands, but in a temple of human flesh. The dwelling place of God is with Man. He is Immanuel, God with us. God with man. God in Jesus Christ has taken up flesh and comes to us, visits us in the most intimate way. It is for this exact reason, that despite all the attempts throughout history to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, none of it would ever matter. There is no reason, according to the Christian religion that we should desire the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem. Because we do not go to a newly built temple to worship God. Nor do we go to the cross or the empty tomb. We come to this altar, where Jesus Christ has promised to come to us in the most intimate way, in His crucified, yet risen body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. God does not desire sacrifices, or else we would give it. He does not delight in burnt offerings. Rather, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, He will not despise. And if we bring Him our broken and contrite heart, if we bring Him our terrified consciences, He will mend our broken hearts, comfort and console our terrified consciences, and cleanse our sinful and lying tongues with His living body and blood.
Those who practice modern Judaism and Islam have it all wrong. There is no truth to be found there. Our God does not dwell in in a specific place—on a temple mount, or in a temple, or in a dome on a rock. He dwells here, here and now, in this place. For wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is among them. And blessed are you, for you recognize this, and you have desired His visitation, or else you would not be here. You shall be satisfied.
In +Jesus’ name.
