Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-4

“Be Ready to Confess Jesus”

2017 LWML Sunday Sermon

Modified from a sermon by Rev Dr. Lawrence R. Rast Jr.- President of CTSFW

October 1, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

2017 is really a rather amazing year. First off, of course, it is the 500th anniversary of Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses. The whole word is paying attention to Luther this year. In fact, it seems like 2017 is all Luther all the time, which is a great thing if they get out the whole point of the Reformation – we are justified, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

But there is even more to 2017.  We celebrated 100 years of Zion Lutheran Church. It is also the 100^th anniversary of the Lutheran Layman’s League, which operates The Lutheran Hour.  And this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, our LWML, which has done so much to encourage and support the sharing of Christ’s gospel within our Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and among partners and friends throughout the world. This is a big deal!

In the half millennium since the Reformation began and the 75 years since the LWML formally organized itself, confessing the faith has not gotten any easier. In fact, it may be even more difficult for us to speak and to live as Christians today. And who knows what the future might hold for us, our children, and our grandchildren? Yet God is faithful and has promised that His church will survive all the challenges that the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh can throw at us.

Building on God’s promises, we know that this is our time to be distinctly Lutheran. As confessing Lutherans in a rapidly changing world and in an increasingly hostile culture, we need to Be Ready to Confess the Gospel of Christ to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

To be proclaimers of the message of salvation is central to our identity as Christ’s people.  Our Epistle reading today, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching”  (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

When Saint Paul wrote these words to Timothy, he did so as one writing to a fellow pastor, a man specifically called to carrying out the office of the public ministry. And he did so also knowing full well the challenges that faced preachers of the Gospel in the setting of the early church. But he did so also knowing that Timothy had come to the faith through the Holy Spirit working through faithful teaching of a committed mother and grandmother. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well (2 Timothy 1:5).

The good news of the Gospel is given to each of us to share with those whom God places in our sphere of influence regardless of our station in life. Proclaiming the salvation won by Jesus is not just “the pastor’s job.”  It’s not just the job of the professional missionaries. Every single one of us is all called to be ready to confess Christ as God opens the doors for us to do so. You are called to be ready to confess!

The need for sharing Christ is as important today as it has ever been. While it is true that somewhere around 90 percent of Americans claim that they believe in “God,” their understanding of the one, true God is often less than biblical. Add to that the fact that upwards of 60 percent of Evangelical Christians (a category that would include LCMS members) think there may be other ways to salvation outside of faith in Jesus, and the need to be ready to confess the message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone is as pressing today as ever.

Add to that Paul’s realistic assessment of where people were at his time. ”For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4).It sounds like a commentary on 2017!

But not just 2017 – also 1517. The setting in which God called Martin Luther to confess Christ was easily as confused as our own day. Worship of saints had intruded on worship of Christ; works were preached as necessary to salvation in addition to faith in Christ; purgatory, images, relics, and other aberrations had obscured the Gospel of salvation in Christ alone.

This context, of course, led to the unique character of the Lutheran Reformation. For Luther, as he read the New Testament and particularly read Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, was confronted by the question of righteousness: What does it mean to be right in God’s eyes? And the Scriptures were clear to him: keep God’s law perfectly. However, he knew that he did not keep God’s law perfectly; he knew that he did not keep God’s law sufficiently.

Oh, he tried to make things right. He went to his priest repeatedly and confessed his sins. He dredged up every thought, word, deed from a lifetime of sin, confessed it, was conditionally absolved, and then went and did good works as a satisfaction. But as he worked, he remembered other sins. His mind recalled other things that he had done, and he realized that his confession of sin was insufficient. And that meant his works were not enough. Finally, his priest confronted him: “Luther, it is not that God hates you; it is that you hate God.”

The dam finally broke when Luther understood, through the Scriptures, that the righteousness of God is not about us being good enough. The righteousness of God is about Christ who is perfect. Christ, the God-man, who has completed salvation for Luther, for you, and for me, perfectly, once and for all.

There is a great exchange that occurs. The filthy rags of our sinfulness and rebellion towards God, Jesus took upon Himself, carried it to the cross, and crucified it once and for all. The perfect righteousness that is His, He now clothes us in and through the waters of Holy Baptism. Where before there was sinner, God now sees his perfectly redeemed child through Christ; where before the person was far from God, there is now a child of God. God’s work is for us and is applied to us freely and completely because of Christ.

This—the biblical Gospel—is what we must be ready to confess! Luther didn’t see all of this clearly in 1517. It took a few years for him to work out all of the scriptural implications. But once he did he was ready to confess—and he did so to the end of his life in 1546.

Which poses a question for us. How do we, like Luther, prepare ourselves to be ready to confess? Today in particular, as we’ve already noted, we want to recall the work of the LWML, which is celebrating its diamond anniversary this year.

The LWML has had a marvelous impact on the mission efforts of the congregations, districts, seminaries, and other entities of our Synod. And it has done so always by carrying out faithfully its mission “to assist each woman of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in affirming her relationship with the Triune God so that she is enabled to use her gifts in ministry to the people of the world.”

Could we have chosen a time more challenging to start the LWML than 1942? The world had been at war for three years and the United States had joined the effort in 1941. Rations were short, many young—and older!—men were preparing to fight overseas. Women were entering the workforce to fill the vacancies left by the new soldiers. The circumstances were challenging, to say the least!

Yet, on July 7-8, 1942, over 100 women—among them twenty-eight formal delegates—met in Chicago and established the LWML. Its purpose was to encourage a greater consciousness among women for “missionary education, missionary inspiration, and missionary service.” It also decided to gather funds for mission projects above and beyond the Synod’s budget. From this humble beginning— and through the use of the now familiar “Mite Boxes”—the League has blessed the mission efforts of congregations, districts, and synod in amazingly powerful ways!

But there is more, as LWML historian Marlys Taege Moburg has captured it so well:

…the blessing of the LWML, now also known as Lutheran Women in Mission, goes far beyond the millions raised for missions. Its benefits can be seen in faith deepened through Bible studies, in confidence built through leadership training, in the befriending of career missionaries, in blankets and clothing gathered for the impoverished, in food shared with the hungry and, above all, in the friendships nurtured and the lives changed by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.[1]

The Lutheran confession has always struggled against the intrusion of false teaching. But the Lord has been faithful and has raised up faithful pastors like Timothy who have preached the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins and raised for our justification. And the Lord has gathered faithful men, women, and children who have carried out the work of the Lord with zeal and devotion, meeting the challenges and opportunities to reach out to those who need to hear the Gospel. Simply put, our faithful God keeps His promises and we pray that He will always enable us to be ready to confess.

Matthew 6:24-26

Anxiety of Faith

Trinity 15

September 24, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

This a two part video;

Video Player Video Player    Part 1      Video Player  Part 2

Pastor and guest preacher, Will Weedon from the LCMS church joined us in Celebration on Sunday September 17th.  Pastor Weedon Delivered this beautiful  Sermon based on Scripture reading;   OT:1 Kings Chapter 8  Epsitle: Chapter 1 1st Peter, and the Holy Gospel: St Luke the 19th Chapter. 

Luke 10:23-37

What Must I Do?

Trinity 13

September 10, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’”  This question is at the heart of story of the Good Samaritan. This is so much a part of our culture that we have hospitals named after it, books, movies, morality.  We even have a jingle, “Like a good neighbor.”

The lawyer was looking into some life insurance. What did he need to invest in for life?  Even people today who don’t believe in heaven or hell ask this question, though in a different way.  How can I make a mark in life through work, family.  What legacy can I leave for the next generation?  Will I be remembered?  Fountain of youth?  Download your memories into a computer?

Today, I’m not going to tell you to be a Good Samaritan. Instead, let’s look at what Jesus says in response to this question.  Jesus does what He often does when asked a question, He responds with another question. “What is written in the Law?” Jesus says.  The assumes that the Law is the way of life.  This assumes that the Word of God is more than just information, more than just a story, but that the Word effects what is says.  That the Word is creative, powerful, active.

One must read the Law as the book of God’s gracious election of His people despite their sins, and not as a “how to” book about earning merit before God.  If one loses sight of the primacy of God’s , then the whole focus shifts from what God gives to the deeds people do. 

And so the Lawyer answers, and he answers correctly quoting from Deuteronomy 6, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  There is no question about that, this is the Word of the Lord.  He answers Jesus’ question correctly and Jesus affirms this.  “Do this.” This is an eternal lecture and sermon preached and delivered to all people.  This is the exact right answer.  Love God, love your neighbor.  Do this perfectly and without exception and you will earn eternal life.  The problem is that no one who has ever lived has been able to do and continue to do this.  It is an impossible standard, to be saved by the Law. 

He tries to deflect attention away from himself by implying that the Law is the problem, that the Law is unclear.  He thinks he knows better than what Christ can teach him.  Looking for the way out, seeking to justify himself,  he asks another question: Who is my neighbor? He seeks to limit God’s commands, to make the Law doable.  Asking the question, “Who is my neighbor” implies there is someone who is not.  The lawyer’s defensiveness comes from his knowledge that he has been put between a rock and a hard place.  He knows that if he claims he does love God, he should then love his neighbor as well.  To do otherwise is pure hypocrisy. 

The dispute between the lawyer and Jesus is this: Jesus sees the Law as part of the God’s given means to eternal life, life which comes purely by grace through faith, which is active in love.  The lawyer attempts, and fails, to justify himself by twisting the it into a legal system that would excuse him from showing love to others. The lawyer wants to justify his deeds of love and mercy; he wants to assert his own righteousness and his claim to deserve eternal life.

We never do this, do we?  Never try to show how good of a Christian we are by following the Law, the rules.  We never modify those rules when we come across something that seems too hard, too harsh, or too uncomfortable?  We never try to twist God’s Word to make it a little more doable, a little nicer, a little more accommodating to the culture?  Try to make eternal life something that we can get, something we can earn, something that we must “do.”

Jesus’ answer to such issues, and ultimately to the question of “what must I do to inherit eternal life” is the story of the Good Samaritan.  He knows that the lawyer, as a good Pharisee, would view the priest and the Levite as the most lovable, and the Samaritan as the least. In the context of the story, it is the priest and the Levite who should be the most loving, the ones who out of anyone know and can do what they need to for eternal life.  The Good Samaritan’s compassion is made clear in compassionate actions.

It’s all too easy to take what Jesus says and turn this into another moral story of how to be good enough for eternal life.  I told you at the beginning I was not going to tell you to be like the Good Samaritan.  If Jesus is simply telling this as an example, the effect of the parable is “try even harder.”  How do I go to heaven? Well, what does the Law say?  The lawyer answers correctly, love God and love your neighbor. He tries to be good, but he knows he’s not perfect.  If the parable is just a moral of the story fairy tale, then the moral is just “try harder, love more.” But this does not give comfort, it does not forgive sins, it does not create faith, it is not the Gospel.

If you’re looking for who to love, that answer is everyone. But you’re not going to be saved that way.  The Law is simply going to beat you up and leave you in a ditch to die. The only way you can be saved is not to go out and find neighbors to love, but to be found by the One who has mercy. That one is Jesus.

The point of this interaction is that you cannot earn your way into heaven.  The Law’s demands do not bend and cannot be softened.  They can only be met, but not by you, no matter how hard you try. They can only be met by God Himself, so God Himself comes down to earth to meet them and do this perfectly. Jesus loves God perfectly. He loves His neighbor perfectly.  He justifies you, He drags you out of the ditch of your sin, cleans you up with the waters of Baptism, feeds and nourishes you with His body and blood, pays for your stay in life, and promises to return again.

You are the man left on the side of the road, and Jesus is the Good Samaritan.   Jesus is the one who does mercy as neighbor.  The lawyer says, “I will act to love my neighbor as myself, tell me who my neighbor is.” And Jesus responds, “You cannot act, for you dead.  You need someone to love you, show mercy to you, heal you, pay for you, give you lodging, receive you.  I am the one you despise because I associate with sinners, but in reality, I am the only One who fulfills the Law, who embodies the Torah, and who brings God’s mercy.  I am your neighbor and will give you gifts of mercy, healing, and life.  As I live in you, you will have life and will do mercy—not motivated by the Law, but enabled by My love.”

Like a good neighbor, Jesus is there.  Jesus exposes us to what the kingdom of God is. It is a kingdom of mercy, of compassion, of forgiveness, of help for those who find themselves helpless when it comes to the law, unable to do it themselves and must rely upon this despised outsider. This is God’s primary characteristic.  It is not that we keep the Law, though He certainly wants us to do this. The point of everything he is doing is not so that they would behave, but that they would be reconciled to Him.  That they would receive Him in faith, and thus inherit eternal life.

Mark 7:31-37

Ears to Hear

Trinity 12

September 3, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

No audio

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Out of all the miracles that Jesus does, the one where He heals the deaf and mute man in our Gospel reading from Mark 7 has to be one of my favorites.  It’s for the simple fact that this miracle is so very incarnational, that is to say, it is very physical and earthy.  Jesus doesn’t just speak, He doesn’t stand far off and do these things.  He touches, He gestures, He sighs, He speaks.  Jesus uses these ceremonies to show that He is a true man. His shows power over humanity, over bodies broken and not working right. He stood in the place of all people and at the same time took an interest in the sickness of this man and all people.

Jesus is not just a man, He is true God. His authority over His creation is demonstrated here. He is not a God who stands far off, but one who interacts with His creation in a very real and personal way, again, very incarnational.  Yes, He is the Son of God who could have healed the man with a mere thought or word, but gets very personal with this man.

Jesus often healed others with a word or drove the devil out of them with a word. But here He uses specific gestures. What a sight that would have been to see. Imagine what this would have looked like from one of the onlookers.  Jesus takes this man aside from the crowd.  He places His fingers in the man’s ears, spits, and then touches the man’s tongue. He looks to heaven, to show where help comes from, and speaks a single word, “ephaphtha, be opened”, a word that the deaf man’s ears would not have heard.  And Jesus commands the silence. The man’s ears are opened according to the word of Christ, and his tongue released.

Christ’s sympathy is proportionate to our needs, and not merely to our prayers. His grace seeks even when not sought, gives where it was not asked, knocks where no door was opened. Jesus is concerned about more than just this man. His sighing was that over all humanity. He looks not only at two ears, but all people from Adam onward.

Outward need is sad: need of money, of clothes, of food, the necessities of life. But the real need as those that are inward, and the lack of these are spiritual poverties. The deaf and mute man is a figure of the spiritually poor who are deaf to the voice of conscience, to the call of God. By nature all are deaf. By nature, then, we are also mute, averse to prayer, confession, and praise. We are mute to God, for God, and about God. And it is only Christ who can make us whole, only Christ who can bring healing, as the Psalmist declares in Psalm 51, “ O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare Your praise.”

Jesus is especially occupied with the ears and the tongue. Because the kingdom of God is founded upon the Word of God, which cannot be comprehended or grasped other than through these two organs, the ear and the tongue. He rules in the hearts of people only through the Word and faith. The ear grasps the Word, the heart believes it, and the tongue speaks or confesses what the heart believes.  These two organs make a difference between the believer and the unbeliever. Your ears are made to hear God’s Word. Your tongue formed to speak His praise.

Zion Lutheran Church, do you have ears to hear?  St. Paul tells us in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.  Yet how are we to hear if our ears are deaf? How are we to speak the Lord’s praises if our tongue is tied?  In this miracle, Jesus is not providing this man with a hearing aid, but He is taking what is broken because of sin and making it work rightly. We should learn here that Christ our Lord takes sincere interest in us; we should pay attention to keeping our ears and tongues the way He gave them to us.  We should keep our ears open to His Word, our tongues open to speak His praise. 

It is a shame that ears that have been opened too often want to listen to nothing than else such false tongues.  Ears itch to hear what would please the sinful self. Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

One of the greatest harms to the kingdom of Christ comes from the tongue. James writes that the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness, set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3).  The worst is the false preaching, speaking a different Gospel than that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

How do you know?  How do you that what you hear is God’s Word to us? How do you know the words of your mouth reflect that truth? You know because of Christ. Through faith in Christ, in His breathing out of Scripture, in His fulfillment of prophecy, in His miracles, most importantly that He who was crucified was raised upon the third day never to die again. God’s Word sometimes cuts like a knife to expose our sin. But after the Law comes the Word of the Gospel, a word of peace and healing, binding up the wounds of sin, proclaiming nothing but Christ’s forgiveness for all our sins.

What you listen to and what you speak actually matter. Fill your ears with good things, things that are from God. Avoid those which would feed your sinful desires. Use the words of your mouth to glorify God, to build up people in faith, not tear down; to praise Him, not yourself, to make a good confession of your faith in Jesus Christ; to pray, O Lord, let us not seek preaching that satisfies sinful desires, but give us ears to hear that Word of Christ that will continually return us to the forgiveness of sins.

Having hear the Word of this morning, let us be attentive in the rest of the Service, hearing Him, responding with praise. Let us begin by speaking His Word by singing our Offertory, Psalm 51, Create in Me…

Luke 18:9-14

God, Have Mercy

Trinity 11

August 27, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus speaks a parable that is familiar to many, that of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both were well known figures in Jesus’ day and so He uses this parable to teach about God’s mercy, to teach that Jesus comes only for sinners. This is a parable for those who trust in their own righteousness and treat others with contempt. It is a parable for the sinful heart that deludes itself into thinking it is not sick. This is a parable for those who would look down upon others because one sin appears worse than another.  This parable is for those who treat sin lightly, who say that all sin is the same and therefore use God’s grace as an excuse to live immorally.

And so Jesus present these two figures, the Pharisee who is righteous in the eyes of the world and the tax collector who was considered to be a thief and liar and a cheat, in other words, an unrighteous man in the eyes of the world. Both men go up to the temple to pray, but their prayers could not have been more different from each other.  These two symbolize the two ways that people approach God, one is a way of righteousness of faith, the other the way a righteousness of works.

The Pharisee standing by himself presents nothing but himself to God.  In this parable, there’s no need to describe the Pharisee’s outward appearance, for he has worn every kind of face except that of humility.  He thanks God for his virtues, or rather, for the lack of his vices. He recounts all the good things he has done. The nerve of the Pharisee.  What arrogance one must have to be in the presence of God and boast about how good one is! All is part of his prayer, but this is not prayer. He has no conception of any goodness that he himself does not possess. He has not because he asks not, he asks not because he wants not.

Something of the Pharisee is bound to find itself into our hearts, our churches, and our worship. Pride in what we do and are, the feeling that we are better than others, judging other. One of our greatest temptations when our sin is pointed out by someone is to try to turn it around on the other person, to point out their faults. Our ears can’t hear God when our mouths are too busy singing our own praises.  There is no place for boasting among God’s people, save that we boast in Christ.  There is no place for finger pointing, save to the cross of Christ.

Likewise, we need not describe the work of the tax collector, for he has worked in them all. In one thing alone he is ever the same: he is desperately in need. He is ashamed of his sinfulness, so much so that he cannot bear to lift up his eyes, for he knows the guilt that will be shown.  He is so humble toward God that he will not even lift up his eyes to heaven. His prayer is short, not recounting his deeds, but simply stating his reality. He is a sinner who desires mercy.

The tax collector comes seeking nothing but mercy. The God who forgives things of which our conscience is afraid, who gives  good things to those not worthy to ask, who poured out an abundance of mercy on him who would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat upon his breast, humbly saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Such is the prayer of the needy, and such is the answer of grace. Knowing his inadequacy before God, he seeks a God who saves rather than condemns. It was this man, this “sinner,” who went down to his house justified, that is, declared righteous and therefore acceptable to God.

The point is this: St. Paul tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus… This Jesus is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Him (Romans 3:23-24, 26).  There is a wrong and a right way to appear before God, of worshipping Him.  There is a wrong and a right kind of heart to bring into God’s house. There is a wrong and a right way to pray.  God is not indifferent to our hearts, our words, nor our actions in worship.  What you believe in your heart, what you confess with your mouth, and what you perform with your hands and feet and eyes and body actually matter. True worship of God is such an entrance into His presence, of casting oneself upon God’s love.  In and of yourselves, you have nothing to bring before God except a life of sin, of failures, of dark secrets in our hearts.  That is why we come here so often, yet maybe not often enough. We come not because we are righteous, but to beg and receive God’s mercy.   

We certainly have many sins to repent of.  But not the least of them is the gall to demand of the Lord that He looks at our works. For all our righteous works are as filthy rags, the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah.  But the Christian looks not at his own works and presents them not as something to earn God’s favor, but rather looks only to the grace and mercy of God found in Jesus, in His righteousness, in His work upon the cross. To live and walk in the humility of the Lord.

The arms of Christ outstretched on the cross reveal to us His mercy upon us sinners. Christians move from the mercy of God back to the mercy of God.  The Christian lives in the constant awareness that God’s mercy endures forever.  Faith looks at the cross.  Faith sees the goodness of the Lord. Lord, grant me humility. When pride would prevent my repentance, then strip my pride away. When pride would prevent me from turning to you, then humble me.

Jesus is only for sinners.  God’s mercy in Christ is only for those who know and confess their sin and their need for mercy.  The Lord enters into our world, taking human flesh upon Himself, and while without sin, takes the sin of the world upon Himself. He suffers in our place upon the cross and He dies there our death.  This is the Gospel. That Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God died in our place. That He was raised on the third day, never to die again.  That His righteousness opens up the doors of the kingdom of heaven.  And that through faith in Him, His righteousness becomes your own.  Leave here today, justified solely through faith in the righteousness of Christ.

Luke 19:41-48

Weeping for Jerusalem

Trinity 10

August 27, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Jerusalem was quite the city. For 1000 years, the city had been the capital of Israel, then of the southern kingdom of Judah.  After 70 years of the Babylonian exile in the 500s BC where the people were taken away, they were allowed to return by the Persian King Cyrus. They rebuilt the city, the temple, and culture.  By the time of the Romans, the city was along a major trade route and held some prominence, so the Romans quickly snatched it up.  The Romans were very impressed by it all, so much so that after the Romans conquered the city, that the Emperor even commented that it was so well and firmly built that it would have been impossible to conquer if God had not wanted it to be so. (Josephus, Jewish War 6.409-413).

By the time of Jesus, the city was well known throughout the Roman Empire.  The temple that King Herod built was one of the greatest architectural feats of the ancient world. But the Jews were a constant thorn in the Roman’s side, and worse, it Jerusalem was not the city of faith toward God as it was supposed to be. 

Our Gospel reading from Luke 19 takes place the day after Palm Sunday, on Monday of Holy Week.  As Jesus looks at this city, He weeps over it.  His tears were tears of insight. He was not deceived by the marble and gold of Jerusalem, but He saw a spiritual poverty and ignorance of things that really matter. He saw beneath the peaceful view of the Holy City, that there was no true peace in the city of peace.

And He shed tears of foresight. Just the day before, He was greeted with shouts of Hosanna by the crowds, but He knew how the week would end. He saw the coming doom, the retribution toward those who would reject Him because they did not accept the time of the Lord’s visitation.  Somewhere around 35-40 years later, in the year of our Lord 70, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.  The ancient Jewish historian Josephus notes there were nearly 3 million people there at the time.  The apostles and Christians had all been scattered by God throughout Samaria, Galilee, and beyond.  Thus God has extracted the grain and piled up the chaff.  The city was overrun with poverty and famine, greed and evil.  So great was their hunger that they ate their shoes, and some even resorted to cannibalism. In desperation, some of the Jews swallowed their money so that it wouldn’t be taken from them by the Roman soldiers.  But this didn’t stop them, and led to even greater suffering.  Roman soldiers cut open the stomachs of thousands looking for money. There was such a slaughter that even the heathens were moved to pity, and Roman emperor had to command his soldiers to stop the killing, instead them as slaves and selling them. This they did, but these slaves became so cheap that they would gained more by continuing in the slaughter.  And so because of their rejection of Christ, the Jews were left homeless, alienated from the city until the late 1940s.

When Jesus entered the temple, there were no tears. First He weeps out of great sympathy and pity, and then quickly changed and attacked with great wrath. As merciful and compassionate as He was toward the poor people being misled to their own destruction, so great was His wrath displayed against those who were the cause of this destruction. The temple and the priesthood were instituted so that people would proclaim God’s Word, praise His grace and mercy, give thanks to Him, and be a light to the Gentiles.  Here was the house of God, the place where the glory of the Lord dwelt on earth.  There was no excuse for ignorance here.  But there was more evil and lack of faith here than anywhere. They made the Lord’s house into a den of robbers. Not only full of greed and covetousness, but one that robbed the Gospel from the people they were supposed to serve.

The serious sin of the Jews in our Gospel reading is that they paid more attention to their belly than their God. The Jews were repaid for not recognizing the time of their visitation. They took greater pains about how to fill their greed than how to be saved. They didn’t know the things that make for true and lasting peace. They thought it rested in their buildings and possessions, their status and good works.  And so they stumbled over Christ and His righteousness.

This serves as an example to us.  We have the Gospel in our country, and a freedom to live out our faith in ways unheard of throughout history.  God will let the godless world complain and cry out, “If it weren’t for Christianity, this or that would not have happened. It’s the Christian’s fault that we have racism or bigotry or sexism or repression.”  Similarly, the Jews at Jerusalem complained and blamed all their afflictions on the preaching of the prophets and apostles, and even said that if Jesus continued in His preaching that the Romans would come and take away their land and the people.  And then, when the Roman Empire fell, they blamed it on God and the teaching of the Gospel over and against paganism.  So it still goes on today. 

We are also now visited by God.  Christ Himself is present here. He has given us His Word so that we might recognize His will and see Christ for us.  But people don’t want to take it seriously.  They ignore it, they twist it, they deny it, they trip over it as the stumbling block.  God is patient through it all. He watches it go on, and for the sake of some, He delays His final judgment. Whenever the Church is sunk in selfishness and greed, Christ will not weep.  He will be too angry to weep, and He will use the scourge and drive out sin.  If we continue to disregard His Word and His visitation, the wrath that came upon the Jews will also come upon us. It’s the same Word, the same God and the same Christ which the Jews had.

May the Lord preserve His Church from the same complaints, from the same worldly greed, from the same lack of faith.  And may we hang onto the Word, the very words of Jesus.  May we fear and love God so that we do not despise God’s Word or the preaching of it, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  We are in the very presence of the Lord who comes to us in His Word.  The Lord has made His holy dwelling among us – in Word, in the water of Baptism, in the bread and wine of the Sacrament.

The Lord, who came with great zeal to cleanse His Father's house comes to us with equally great zeal, to cleanse our hearts and minds of all sin.  He comes with the message of repentance and salvation by faith. With great zeal He comes to expose our sin, for with equally great zeal He comes to give us the total and complete forgiveness that He won for us by dying on the cross.  With great zeal He knocks us down by His Law, and with equally great zeal He lifts us up with His Gospel, for He has paid the price for our sins, not purchasing us an animal in the temple courts but has redeemed us, lost and condemned persons, purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.