Trinity 10 2019
Luke 19:41-48
August 25, 2019
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
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In the New Testament, only only a few times does Jesus weep. The first time is in John 11:35 when Lazarus dies. And the second is here at the beginning of Holy Week. He weeps over their rejection of Him and the destruction that awaits this beloved city of God. This shows us a few things. It is a wonderous thing that the God of the universe, the creator of all that is, became a man and shares in the experience of humanity living in a fallen creation. He knows the sting and pain of the death of loved ones. He knows what it is to feel betrayal, to love and not be loved back in return, to be rejected. As Jesus is led away to the cross, He says to the daughters in Jerusalem, “Do not weep over Me; but over you yourselves weep and over your children” (Luke 23:28). While Jesus wept over these things, He did not stop.
As Jesus weeps over these things, it is ok for Jesus’ people to weep as well. We may weep over the death of a loved one, but we do so in light of the future resurrection and knowing that those who die in the Lord go to the heavenly Jerusalem, the eternal kingdom of God. We may weep when people we love reject Jesus, praying for them that God would soften their hearts and enliven their souls. To mourn over the effects of sin, though we do not do so as others who have no hope.
There’s a sadness in all of this. Jesus dies to save the world from sin, to heal the wounded, to mend the broken. And still some reject Him, even while He is standing right there in front of Him and witnesses to His teaching and miracles.
When God looks at the world today, our society, does He weep? Does He get angry over our own stubbornness, over a future that might come by a rejection of Him? I don’t know. It’s possible. But what I do know is this, I know what He’s done about it. And not just something that happened in the past, but something that has implications here and now. Out of the great love and compassion, God the Father sent His Son to suffer and die in our place. He doesn’t hold back, avoid suffering and sadness and loss. He deals with it. Jesus takes it to the cross. That is a man of sorrows, and well acquainted with grief, that He understands what you’re going through. That He has an answer that you may have healing and hope and He has borne our grief and carried your sorrow. And so as we prayed in the Introit from Psalm 55, call to God and He promises to hear. Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you.
Jerusalem was guilty of not recognizing God’s gracious visitation in Jesus. Jerusalem’s lack of faith in Jesus as the Messiah led to her destruction and Jesus prophetically describes with detail how devastating that will be by the Romans in the year 70, fulfilling Jesus’ prophetic words and His cause for weeping. In the bulletin, you’ll find an insert with the historical account of this by the Jewish historian Josephus. It is a tragic account, but also one that serves as a warning. Not all will believe in Jesus. Not everyone goes to heaven. Apart from faith in Christ, there is no salvation and no other way to God the Father except through Jesus.
Notice that Jesus not only weeps, but He also chastises Jerusalem for not knowing or believing in Him. The temple built with human hands is a place of prayer for Israel. But the place where all nations will gather is in the body of Christ, the new Israel, where Jesus is present among those who gather in His name through the hearing of His Word and the reception of His Sacraments. He entered the Temple as Lord of the Temple. And He finds there great abuses. He drives out those who were buying and selling. He proves by His Word that He is justified in doing so, “It is written,” He says, “‘My house shall be a house of prayer’ but you have made it a den of robbers”, echoing the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years earlier.
In St. John’s account of the cleansing of the temple we hear how Jesus is angered for the twisting of His creation and the purpose. The temple had been erected so that God’s Word could be taught there, that sacrifices, prayers, and other divine services could be performed there. But the chief priests and the scribes had turned it into something else. He must cleanse the temple to make it fit for His teaching. He “drives out” those who sold, which is same word Luke uses in casting out demons in exorcism. Jesus’ exorcises the temple, cleansing it from thieves to make room for the One who would be crucified with thieves. After driving out the buyers and sellers, He begins to teach daily in the temple, for which He receives little gratitude.
Why does He do all this? He wishes to fulfill Malachi 3, “And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiners fire and like fullers’ soap…” (Mal 3:1b-2). He comes like a refiner’s fire, to purify, to cleanse.
He wishes to purify you, to cleanse you from idolatry and sin. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit and He comes to sweep you clean, to rid you of the sin that gets in the way of faith. For as St. Paul says in 1 Cor 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Today you have a chance to do what Jerusalem refused to do. Repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness. Amend your ways and your deeds. God is not a tool for you to use and His grace is not an excuse to continue in sin. His patience, while great, does not last forever. The Lord hates sin, He despises the wicked, He does not tolerate evil (Psalm 5:5). Judgment will come and it is the Lord’s desire that all would be saved through faith in Christ. Today is the day to confess your sins and turn to Jesus. Shed tears of repentance, but not of despair. For your sins are forgiven by Jesus, who on the glorious day of His return, will bring His holy city, the new Jerusalem down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, where God Himself will dwell with His people, will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be no mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away by the One who makes all things new, even Jesus Christ, our Lord (Rev 21:1-5).