Trinity
10
Lk
19:41-48
8/4/24
The
Gospels are theological biographies.
They were written to give us accurate information about the life of
Jesus Christ. Yet they were not written
simply to give us facts about Jesus – an overview of his life from beginning to
end. Instead, they were written to make
a theological point about Jesus. They
were written to teach us about what God has done in Christ.
Each
of the Gospels has a different, but complimentary emphasis. The early church called the four Gospels “the
fourfold Gospel.” The Holy Spirit had
not given only one Gospel to the Church.
Instead, he had given four Gospels, and that fourfold nature
provided a richness of revelation about Jesus.
The
Gospels sometimes organize material differently as they make their theological
point. So in Matthew’s Gospels we have
five blocks of teaching that have been gathered together. Luke’s Gospel on the other hand is
characterized by the theme of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
In
chapter nine Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ as the Lord asks, “But
who do you say that I am?” Then Luke
tells us, “And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, ‘The
Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’” Jesus predicts his passion for the first
time.
Then,
just a little later in the chapter after the transfiguration has occurred, we
learn, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his
face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus
begins his journey to Jerusalem – a trip that he has said will end in death and
resurrection. That journey comes to and
end in chapter nineteen – the chapter in which our text is found – as Jesus
enters into the city. In between, Luke
places material about Jesus – material that must always be understood in light
of the fact that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
Luke
has just narrated Jesus’ approach to the city on Palm Sunday as his disciples
celebrate his arrival. Then we read in our text, “And when he drew near and saw
the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had
known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden
from your eyes.’” Our Lord is moved to
tears – the only time we hear about this in Luke’s Gospel – as he arrives at
the city. He laments the fact that city
had not recognized the things that make for peace. They had not recognized him as the Christ
sent by God. And now it was too late.
It
was too late because the city had rejected Jesus and now the truth about Jesus
was hidden from them. They had rejected
Jesus and this would bring judgment upon Jerusalem. The Lord says, “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
describes the process by which an army laid siege to a city as they surrounded
it and shut it in. He says that the city
would be torn down to the ground because Jerusalem did not know the time of its
visitation. Our Lord’s words found their
fulfilment in 70 A.D. when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem and destroyed it.
In
our text Jesus says that Jerusalem had not recognized the things that make for
peace. Jesus had come to bring
peace. On the night of his birth, the
angels had declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” As the Lord was just approaching the city his
disciples had cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the
Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Jesus
came to bring peace because we as sinners are hostile and opposed to God. Our sin is not just the breaking of some
abstract rule. Instead, it is sin against
God. We hear in the Psalms, “For I
know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only,
have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you
may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” Left to ourselves, God’s judgment on the Last
Day can only bring our eternal damnation.
We
had no ability to change this situation.
But in his grace and love, God acted to save us. He sent his Son into the world as Jesus was
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. This was God’s saving visitation. At the naming of John the Baptist, Zachariah
praised God as he prophesied and said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people.”
In
this visitation by God, Jesus was the presence of God’s reign. He brought the kingdom of God that was
defeating the presence of sin in this world.
At Nain Jesus encountered a funeral party that was carrying out a
widow’s only son for burial. Our Lord
had compassion on the woman and told her not to weep. Then he touched the
funeral bier and said, “Young man, I say to you arise.” The dead man was restored to life. And when the crowd saw it they glorified God
saying, “God has visited his people!”
They
were right. Jesus Christ was the
presence of God visiting his people in order bring freedom from all that sin
has caused. As our Lord began his
ministry he went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath. He was given the scroll from Isaiah and read
these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed
me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Jesus
rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant and sat down. With the eyes of all fixed on him he said, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus announced that he was the fulfillment
of Isaiah’s prophecy. He had been
anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism.
He was here to give sight to the blind.
He was here to set at liberty those who are oppressed by sin.
Jesus
Christ was the visitation of God. In him
were present the things that make for peace.
Yet Jerusalem had not recognized him as such. They did not receive and believe in him as
the Christ sent by God. This situation
was not surprising. Simeon had said it would be this way. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple
he said to Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising
of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.”
Jesus
was the Christ. Yet he was rejected
because he had not come to bring God’s visitation by force and power. Yes, he overcame sin’s impact as he healed
and cast out demons. But Jesus’ use of power to help the weak and afflicted was
not the kind of action the world wanted to see.
The world wanted a Christ who would act with might and power to defeat
the Romans. It wanted glory and victory
that all could see.
Yet
as we have already seen, Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem was for no such
purpose. Instead he was going to
Jerusalem to suffer and die. At the Last
Supper Jesus said, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled
in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is
written about me has its fulfillment.” Jesus had come as God’s visitation that
brings peace by dying on the cross. He
had come to bring redemption – freedom from sin – by offering himself as the
sacrifice.
Jesus’
death on the cross was God’s visitation.
The Son of God dying on the cross was God at work to free us from the
judgment against sin. It did not look
powerful. It did not look mighty.
Instead, it was a man dying in the humiliation and weakness of
crucifixion. Yet the cross was the means
by which God has given us redemption – freedom from God’s judgment against sin.
Jesus
has told the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die. He also told them that he would be raised
from the dead. On the third day, God
raised Jesus from the dead. It is in
Jesus’ resurrection that we come to recognize the cross for what it was. We find that through the cross God has given
us peace with him. And in the
resurrection we find peace that overcomes death.
When
Jesus appeared in the room where the disciples were on the evening of Easter he
said, “Peace to you!” In the risen Lord we have peace for we know that death
has been defeated. The grave does not
get the final say. Instead, we know that
in death we are with Christ the living Lord.
As Paul said, “I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by
far.” And we know that our bodies await
the day when Christ will return and raise them up to be like his own. Paul tells us, “we await a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his
glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all
things to himself.”
The
question our text raises for us is whether we know the things that make for
peace. Certainly, we know and believe in
Jesus Christ. But is this something that
occupies our thoughts during the week?
It is this something we think about, not only as we have devotions and
read God’s word? It is something that
guides our behavior? Having received peace with God through Christ, do we now
seek to act in peace toward others?
Our text also asks whether we know
the time of our visitation and how Christ comes to us. Christ’s reign continue to come to us now
through the Means of Grace. Do we
recognize and use these as the means by which we receive Christ’s visitation?
Do we view God’s Word as something
that we need to continue to study and learn through the reading of Scripture at
home and attending Bible class? Do we recognize the gifts of Holy Absolution
and the Sacrament of the Altar as the means by which Christ visits us with his
forgiveness and by which the Spirit strengthens us in faith?
There is always the danger that we
will take these things for granted.
After all, like Christ on the cross they do not look mighty and
impressive. It is easy to ignore them as
we use Sunday morning for some other purpose.
But to do so deprives us the means by which Christ is present and active
for us. And it is easily becomes a
pattern by which we receive these gifts less and less as our absence grows more
and more.
The people of Jerusalem did not know
the things that make for peace. They did not recognize the time of their
visitation because they did not believe in Jesus Christ. Their rejection did
not change what Jesus was there to do.
By his death on the cross he has redeemed us from sin and judgment. And
in his resurrection he has given us victory over death.
Now, we know the things that make
for peace through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith receives peace with God,
and then seeks to share that peace with others. And we receive the God’s
visitation in the Means of Grace as Christ comes to us and gives us the saving
benefits of his cross and resurrection.
This visitation prompts us to act in love toward others because of what
Jesus had done for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment