Sunday, August 5, 2018

Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 19:41-48


                                                                                    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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