Trinity 10, 2024
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 19:41-48
Trinity 10
August 4, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Out of all the emotions that we as humans experience, crying and weeping are perhaps the most powerful. We cry or we weep for a number of reasons. We might weep for joy because the test results came back negative. We might shed tears of joy because our favorite sports team has finally won the big game. But we also might weep at the sight of a child’s coffin or when the doctors are pronouncing a time of death in the hospice room.
And so it is that we are drawn to our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Bible, especially when He weeps. Why should He experience sorrow? Why should he shed tears because of us or on behalf of His own creation? The act of weeping and the shedding of tears, at least in a sorrowful and sad manner, is an indication that something isn’t right—things aren’t the way they should be.
Certainly, we may shed tears of joy because the test results should be negative and maybe our favorite sports team was the favorite and should have won the game. But at the same time, we weep because the child should not lie lifeless in the coffin; the hospice patient should not have died. These things should not have happened because this is not how God had originally planned his creation. This is why Jesus weeps. Things aren’t the way they should be in this life because sin has infected and corrupted the world.
But Jesus “drew near.” Jesus not only “draws near” to the city—that is Jerusalem—but he also “drew near” to the world in the act of his taking up of our humanity into his divinity. In His incarnation, Jesus “draws near” to human beings in such a way that He can perfectly empathize with us. He “drew near” to us, to humanity, so that he might redeem it—that He might buy it back. Jesus “draws near” so that He might make things right, so that He might make things the way they should be and were intended to be: perfect.
But in the reading, Jesus draws near to the city, that is Jerusalem, and there, He weeps. Jesus weeps because Jerusalem and those who live in the city do not know the things that make for peace. Nor do they know the time of their visitation.
Though the prophets warned them, they did not turn from their evil and sinful ways. Though the prophets preached that the Messiah was coming and that anyone who believed in this Messiah would be saved, Jerusalem and her inhabitants didn’t listen. The prophets had preached of a time that was to come when the Lord Himself would visit His people. But instead of receiving this Gospel message with great joy, Jerusalem killed the prophets that the Lord sent to her.
Now the time of Jerusalem’s visitation had come. The Lord, their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt—who saved them from Pharaoh’s yoke of slavery—had drawn near to them and was visiting them in the flesh. As john the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John says this, of course, of Christ. But those who resided in Jerusalem did not heed John’s message. Instead, those in Jerusalem led this Lamb of God to the slaughter affixing Him upon a cross.
Because of their rejection of Christ the Lamb of God—because they did not know the time of their visitation—Jesus pronounces the sentence upon them: “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
What does Jesus do next? He cleanses the Temple. He entered the Temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘my house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
In this way, Jesus addresses the root of the problem in Jerusalem. The root of the problem stemmed from a corruption of worship. The Temple was supposed to be the place where worship was to take place, where sacrifices were to be made, and the place where sins were to be covered by blood. These are the things that made for peace. But those who worked in the Temple had corrupted these things. They did not know the things that made for peace nor did they know the time of their visitation. Instead of promoting the things that made for peace, those who worked in the Temple, instead, bought and sold in God’s house, making His house a den of robbers. Eventually, God would not let even the Temple remain.
What happened to the Temple and what happened to Jerusalem under the Emperor Nero was terrible to behold. Even non-Biblical accounts describe the terrible events that happened. Everything that Jesus said that would happen to Jerusalem and its inhabitants happened down to the last detail. The Romans marched on Jerusalem, dug a trench around the city and eventually captured it. Then there was a great slaughter that made even the enemies of Jerusalem feel remorse and made them turn their heads from such a terrible sight.
The Romans did not hold back. Many Jews were killed. Many more were sold into slavery. Jerusalem lay in ruins, all because she did not know the time of her visitation. Jerusalem and her inhabitants rejected the savior of the world. So He rejected them. And the sad thing is that Jesus knew this would happen. He weeps for them because even still, He loves them and yet they don’t love Him.
The name “Jerusalem” literally means “City of Peace.” Ever since the fall of Jerusalem in September in 70 AD, the city has not known peace. Those who reject the Jesus cannot truly know peace. So it is for those who live today.
We must not think that something like this cannot happen to us today in our country, in our state, or in our town. I doubt that many of those Jews who lived in Jerusalem thought that such a catastrophic event could happen to them—that they would lose the land that the Lord had given them and that they would be separated from each other and dispersed throughout the world. It could happen to them. If it could happen to them, it could certainly happen to us. If we pass Jesus off as non-essential, then He will hand us over to our sins and to our enemies, whether they are physical or spiritual.
Jesus has drawn near to us and visits us daily through His word and sacraments. These things are to be observed and celebrated. We must not pass them off. If we ourselves do not recognize that this is the time of Christ’s visitation, similar events that happened to Jerusalem could happen to us. The city of peace now has no peace. Today it is quite obvious to see that those who live apart from Christ and do not know and recognize His visitation also live without peace.
Those who do not know Jesus and the love He has in redeeming this broken world can never know peace. They can never experience the true peace that is given in the forgiveness of sins. They may attempt to find peace for themselves through their own sinful gain. But though they experience the same troubles that we experience: the positive test results, the death of children and beloved spouses, they remain without comfort, without Jesus, without true peace.
The things that make for peace are the things of God: prayer, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren (that is, the support and fellowship that we have as Christians and with one another). These are the things that make for peace. Though Jesus walked on earth and visited humanity 2000 years ago, He still continues to visit us through the Means of Grace. Even now, we are being visited by God Himself in Christ Jesus and he comforts us in our trials.
There will come a time, when Jesus Himself will visit us again. At that time, He will visit us in the fullness of His glory. He will visit us and in doing so say to us, “Behold, I am making all things new.” There will be a time when there will be no more tests to be done because cancer and all disease will be eradicated. The child will be given back to the parent. The beloved spouse will be raised to live forever, created perfect and anew where no debilitating disease that riddles the body. Behold, Jesus does all things well. He makes all things new.
In His mercy, He extends the time of His visitation so that we might come to Him and repent of our sins. It is too late for those who lived in Jerusalem. But it is not too late for us. Jesus said these things to Jerusalem so that we might recognize that our time on earth is short. But Jesus desires mercy. As a father has mercy on His children so He has mercy on us. He visits us even when we may not desire it, or may not “feel” it or whether or not we believe it is happening. Jesus comes to us in His visitation because of the love He has for us. Jesus is Who makes for peace. He is in you and you are in Him.
In +Jesus’ name.
