Trinity 10
Lk
19:41-48
8/5/18
We think of the Roman army as being
an incredibly powerful force. And
certainly it was – how else was Rome able to conquer an empire that extended
from England to the Middle East; an empire that encompassed the Mediterranean
Sea? But at the same time the Roman army
as it existed in the first century A.D. had some significant limitations.
Under Augustus the army had become a
professional force. It was a standing
army of paid soldiers, many of whom had made the army their career. The problem is that an army like this is very
expensive. So while it was of an
extremely high quality, there were always limitations on how big it could be.
In 70 A.D. when the Romans laid
siege to Jerusalem and captured it – thus effectively ending the Jewish revolt
that began in 66 – they gathered four full legions, detachments from two
others, along with significant number of auxiliary cohorts, and troops from
vassal kings. During the five month siege, one seventh of the entire Imperial
army was gathered at Jerusalem. The Oxford University historian Fergus Millar
has observed, “Nothing could have served to emphasise more clearly the degree
to which the coherence of the Empire depended on at least passive acquiescence
by the provincial populations, or at the very least the absence of any coherent
local or regional nationalism which might offer a challenge to Rome.” Economics
limited the number of troops Rome could field.
The other limitation was that the
Roman army was essentially a heavy infantry force that excelled in siege
warfare. The areas it conquered were all societies that were based on fortified
cities protected by infantry. Here the
Romans knew no equal. However,
ultimately the Romans weren’t able to colonize Germany because in that land
there were no fortified cities to conquer and the population could simply
withdraw further into the forested regions. Likewise, as the Romans moved east
and fought Persia they ran into real problems as they faced the Persian cavalry
in the large open spaces.
Yet when they laid siege to
Jerusalem, the Romans were in their element.
They were experts at siege warfare and there was no question about the
outcome. They did exactly what Jesus
describes in our text this morning as they captured the city, destroyed its
wall, and tore down the temple.
Our text
takes place on Palm Sunday as Jesus approached Jerusalem. Luke tells us, “As he was drawing
near--already on the way down the Mount of Olives--the whole multitude of his
disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty
works that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of
the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” Pharisees in the crowd
said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if
these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’”
We learn in
our text that as the Lord drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. He said,
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for
peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you,
when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem
you in 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.”
Jesus weeps
in sorrow because Jerusalem had rejected him. The comments by the Pharisees as
he approached the city are representative of the fact that the people of the
city had not believed in Jesus. Jesus laments
that they had not responded in faith. They had not recognized the things that
make for peace. They did not know the time of their visitation.
Jesus
Christ is the One had come to bring peace.
In him, the visitation of God had occurred to bring the reign of God –
the kingdom of God. Filled with the Holy
Spirit, Zechariah had declared at the naming of John the Baptist, “Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
and
has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as
he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”
In the Old
Testament Yahweh had promised that he would send the Christ – the Messiah – who
would descend from King David. This One would free God’s people from all that
sin had done to them and to creation itself.
John the Baptist would prepare the way for this One. As Zechariah went
on to say, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for
you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
because
of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
As the Son
of God incarnate by the work of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary,
Jesus Christ was God’s visitation that brought peace. The angelic host announced this on the
evening of his birth as they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Jesus was present
to overcome all of the ways sin oppresses us – even death itself. At Nain he raised the widow’s son from the
dead. Fear seized the crowed, and they
glorified God saying, A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’” They were
right. In Jesus the reign of God was
present to bring forgiveness and peace. The
Lord forgave a repentant woman and told her, “Your
faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Yet the city of Jerusalem as a whole
did not receive Jesus in faith. They did not recognize in Jesus the things that
make for peace. And so our Lord declared that these had now been hidden from
their eyes. God had given them over to their rejection of Jesus, and there
would be judgment. It arrived in 70 AD
when the Romans laid siege to the city and destroyed it.
Jerusalem had rejected Jesus because
they refused to accept Jesus on his terms. They had their
own ideas about what a Messiah should look like. They wanted to hang on to their own views about who God is and how
he works. They did not want to repent.
They wanted to hold onto their own ideas
about how to live life.
This is always the temptation for
us. We have our own ideas about how life
should work, and when it doesn’t go that way we get angry with God or decide he
doesn’t really care. We have our own
ideas about what we should be able to do, and when they conflict with God’s
Word we just ignore God. We have our own
ideas about what makes for peace – we look to money and career and other
individuals instead of God.
Many times, we know that we are
wrong – that we are rejecting God’s Word and will. We just choose to ignore it. We can find ourselves unconcerned because
after all, in the end, God isn’t really
going to condemn us.
Yet Jesus’ words this morning are a
call to repentance. They are a reminder
that the Christian life is a call to struggle against sin, and not just to
acquiesce to it. The way of sin gets easier and easier. The way of unbelief gets easier and easier.
We cannot live in the assumption that everything will still be ok. Jesus says in our text today to Jerusalem: “‘Would that you, even you, had known
on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your
eyes.’”
Instead, as
Christians we struggle against sin. As
Paul said, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” God’s Word becomes the tool we use to do
so. When you are hearing and reading the
Scriptures, the Spirit uses that to assist in the struggle against sin. Better yet, as we learn the Scriptures by
heart – as we commit them to our mind and our mind to them – they are present
and ready for the Spirit to use in assisting us. So consider: When was the last time you bothered
to memorize – to learn by heart – a new Bible verse?
Jesus
Christ was the visitation by God bringing peace for you. He was numbered with the transgressors in
your place as he died on the cross for your sins. Yet Christ did not merely
“get us off the hook” from judgment against sin. He also began the new creation that has been
freed from of the ways sin warped and twisted things. In his resurrection he has begun the Last Day
– he has begun the resurrection and restoration of all things.
Because of
Jesus Christ we now have peace. In fact,
peace was at the heart of some of the risen Lord’s first words to the gathered
disciples. He appeared in their midst on
Sunday evening and said, “Peace be with you.”
Because of
Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have peace.
We have the peace of sins forgiven.
We have the peace of death defeated.
We have the peace of a resurrection future in the new creation.
This kind
of peace is not something that can be kept to oneself. Instead, it simply must
be shared in word and deed. It is shared
most directly as we tell others about the source of this peace – Jesus Christ. It is shared as we speak words of forgiveness
and reconciliation and encouragement to others.
It is shared as we act in ways that help and support others.
By God’s
grace, we know the things that make for peace. We know that God’s saving
visitation has occurred in Jesus Christ.
And we also know that this same saving work continues to visit us
through our Lord’s Means of Grace here and now.
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