Trinity 10 July 31, 2016
Trinity 10
Luke 19:41-48
July 31, 2016
“A Cry for Peace”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the El Paso Journal two weeks ago, the front page had this picture that is just perfect for the Gospel reading today. It’s almost like they planned this for me or something, right? It’s a picture overlooking the city of Jerusalem. If you didn’t see it, a local guy, ————– from the Baptist Church, did a seminary class for three weeks over in Jerusalem and they had an article about it and a big picture of him on the Mt. of Olives overlooking Jerusalem in the background.
Two thousand years ago it was Jesus in that spot. He was on His way into Jerusalem. It was Palm Sunday. And He, too, stopped and looked out over the city of Jerusalem. Now in the picture in the paper, our local man is smiling. But Jesus, not so much. Jesus was crying. He looked out over God’s holy city and He wept. And, mind you, He didn’t just shed one tear and that was it. He wailed. There is more than one Greek word for weeping. And this one means crying loudly—like a child would cry. Jesus was visibly upset.
You might remember that Jesus was usually the One telling everyone else not to cry. There are many examples of Him stopping tears. There was the funeral procession coming out of the town of Nain where a widow had lost her only son. Jesus said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He raised her son. There was Jairus, whose twelve year old daughter had died. Everybody was weeping and wailing at the house. Jesus said, “Do not cry.” And He raised the daughter from the dead.
This is what Jesus does, right? Wipes away tears? Takes away sorrow? Brings life and joy to the dead? So why? Why here is HE crying? Why is God crying? Why is He so upset as He looks over the city? There’s only one thing that makes Jesus cry like this. He cries because they won’t receive Him. No faith in Him—that’s what makes Him weep.
This is a really big point. Please think about this a minute. Jesus doesn’t cry and weep just because He’s sad about the way the world is going or sad about the troubles of the world. It’s not that Jesus is sad because people can’t get along. He’s not just sad because the Pharisees can’t get along with the Sadducees or the Judeans can’t get along with the Samaritans or the Galileans. He’s not just said because the Romans are in control of the Holy Land or because Herod is such an evil king. In other words, He’s not just crying because the world is “messed up”. Of course, the world is messed up. He already knew that. That’s why He came in the first place. He can easily handle that and He will.
But what makes Him cry and weep bitterly is when His people won’t receive the peace that He brings. What makes Him sad is that God has sent His own Son into the world to bring peace—and instead, the people want to try and find their own peace everywhere else.
And Jesus tells them exactly how that’s going to work out for them. If they want to try and find their peace with the Romans—instead of Jesus—it was going to get ugly. And it did. As Jesus weeps He 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.” That’s exactly what happened. In 70AD the Romans brought their version of peace. Which is to say, they destroyed Jerusalem. They surrounded it and starved them out and murdered them until eventually they seized the entire city and destroyed the Temple.
So Jesus weeps. Because they refuse to find real and true peace in Jesus.
What about today? Does Jesus cry and weep when He looks out over our world today? We Christians like to weep and wail and lament about how bad the world is. “Oh,” we say, “The world is such a mess.” Is that what makes Jesus weep? That our world is such a mess? Does He weep because of the lack of morality? Because of high crime rates? Because people don’t show respect to each other? Does He weep because of poverty and sickness? Does He weep because of corrupt governments and corrupt leaders? Does He weep because of wars and terrorism? Does He weep because we can’t all get along? In other words, does Jesus just weep because the world’s going to pot?
No. The world has always been to pot since Adam and Eve sinned. There’s always been a lack of morality. Always been sickness. Always been war. Always been terrorism and corrupt leaders. But Jesus weeps—because in the midst of all of this we look for peace elsewhere instead of finding it in Jesus. We try to justify ourselves and act like we’re above all of it. We act like all these problems are everybody else’s problems. It’s everybody else’s fault that the world is such a mess and we’re just innocent little victims. We even blame God for all the problems. We forget all His blessings and we’re never content. We get angry and bitter and can’t get along with anyone because no one will live up to our standards. We look for peace in sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We look for peace in money and pleasure. Jesus weeps. He weeps for us. He weeps when we won’t turn to Him and find real and true peace in the midst of all this sin and sorrow.
Friends, let me remind you of something. Jesus will clean up this mess of a world eventually. We have His Word on that. Hillary Clinton won’t do it. Neither will Donald Trump. They can’t. Jesus can and will. In His time and in His hour, Jesus will come again and bring an end to all the sin and strife and sorrow. On that day He will, once and for all, clean up the world’s ills like terrorism and disease and plagues and wars and hatred and abortion and slavery and human trafficking and everything else. He will wipe all our tears away and create a new heavens and earth where only righteousness dwells. You can count on that and look forward to that with great hope.
At the same time, that’s not the peace that Jesus promises right now. The peace Jesus brings right now isn’t taking away all the messes and problems of this world. The peace He brings right now is the peace of His cross. And you and I can do right now what the city of Jerusalem refused to do. You and I can cry tears of repentance. We can cry, not just because of the mess in the world, but because of the mess in our hearts. And we can turn to Jesus and find peace in His death and resurrection.
Peace isn’t having all your problems go away—peace is having Jesus your Savior with you through all of it. Jesus weeps and says, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!” Oh, that you and I would know those things.
Let’s know today the things that make for peace. Things like the forgiveness of all our sin. Now there is peace! All your sin has been released by the blood of Jesus. All your terrorism. Gone. All your hatred and anger. Gone. All your discontentment. Gone. All your lust and greed and jealousy. Gone. Forgiven. This body and blood that Jesus gives you here at this altar is peace. Don’t try to make peace with your sin by justifying it or blaming it on the rest of the world. Bring it here to Jesus who took that sin and went to the cross long before you even knew that you needed Him to. At this altar is peace. Jesus isn’t weeping here at His altar. He is rejoicing. Rejoicing with all the angels in heaven and rejoicing with all the saints in heaven. Because here is real peace.
Let’s know what things make for peace. Things like a clean and good conscience. Peace is not having the guilt and shame of all our sins and other’s sins riding around on our conscience. Peace is having a conscience that knows it’s not up to us to solve all the problems of the world. A conscience that doesn’t constantly feel guilty because we’re not doing enough. Jesus gives us a good conscience. A conscience that knows we are right with God already. This conscience frees us to serve others in peace. Not just from a guilty conscience. But out of true and pure love for one another.
Let’s know what things make for peace. Things like the hope of eternal life. We have eternal life with God. Whoever believes in Jesus will not die but will have eternal life. That eternal life can’t be taken away from you. Not by Romans, not by terrorists, not by communists, not by bad leaders, bad pastors, not by poverty or sickness, not by anything in all of creation. You are with Jesus. Your sorrow will turn to joy. Guaranteed.
Will you and I know the things that make for peace? The sad things isn’t that you have so many problems in your life or that there are so many problems in the world. The sad thing is when we don’t turn to Jesus for peace in the midst of those problems. Jesus weeps when you turn away from Him. He rejoices when you turn to Him.
Jesus is your peace. In the midst of all the sins and all the sorrows, He is our peace. Know the things that make for peace. His Word. Your Baptism. The Lord’s Supper. Prayer. Forgiveness. Eternal life. Not men. Not militaries. Not money. Not nations. Not drugs. Not pleasure. Not any of it. Only Jesus. And there is a day coming when we will all weep for joy with Jesus. When He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. God give us peace in Jesus. Amen.