Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

About a month ago, I was contacted by a man who wanted to know who was responsible for tearing down our old church building at 400 Glenridge Avenue. He was upset because he had been living in the basement of the building at the time. He was upset that no one had told him that the building was coming down that day. He was eager to initiate a law suit.

 

On the day that the old church was torn down, I went down the hill to watch and pray and to be there in case anyone showed up who might need some consolation. I talked with one of the neighbours who told me that the police had cleared out those who were living in the building a few days prior. I don’t know if perhaps the man who had contacted me was not there at the time and didn’t get the message. I feel bad for him but at the same time, he shouldn’t have been in the building. He was trespassing all along. To a much greater degree, Jesus showed His compassion and His judgment as He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.

 

The Bible tells us of Jesus weeping three times. Most people know the shortest verse in the English Bible from John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” It was at the tomb of his friend Lazarus who had died. It revealed the love He had for His friend, and it revealed that in becoming man, the eternal Son of God fully took on our human nature. God felt the pain of the loss of a loved one and wept at the death of His friend. And it is no surprise to us that Jesus wept during the suffering of His Passion. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that “In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7).

 

In today’s Gospel reading we have the account of Jesus making His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And while the crowds of His disciples were rejoicing, He began weeping over the visit He was making to the great city of His people (Luke 19:41), Jerusalem, the centre of the kingdom of His ancestor David, the location of the temple where the LORD had promised to hear the prayers of His people and answer them with His grace and blessing.

 

Jesus had come as the answer to all of those prayers made over thousands of years. He came to bring peace to His people. He came as the LORD came once the tabernacle had been set up, so that the Old Testament people of God would know that the LORD who brought them out of slavery in Egypt would be with them all of the way to the promised land (Exodus 40:34). He came as the LORD entered Jerusalem with the ark of the covenant to establish the kingdom under David (2 Samuel 6:17). He came as the LORD filled the temple which Solomon built, promising to hear the prayers of His people (1 Kings 8:10). The LORD was coming again, graciously visiting His people as He had promised to do through the prophets.

 

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied about the coming of the LORD when He sang the Benedictus after Mary (pregnant with Jesus) had come to visit Elizabeth just before the birth of John. “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people... to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:68-79). When Jesus was born, the angels were sent from heaven to sing to the shepherds of the peace that this visitation of the LORD would bring. We join their hymn regularly in the Divine Service: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth” (Luke 2:14; LSB 154).

 

We might have hoped that Jesus would receive another such welcome as He entered Jerusalem for the final time during His earthly ministry. But even though His disciples shouted, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38), Jesus was challenged by the religious leaders of the people. They are called the religious leaders because the people follow them. The hype of Jesus’ entrance would die away. The excitement of the moment would wane and disappear. It wasn’t a full recognition of the LORD coming to visit His people.

 

So Jesus wept as He came near the city of Jerusalem because His people did not know the time of the LORD’s visitation and what would bring about their peace. They did not see Him as the God who led His people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. They did not know that He was the God who established the kingdom of David and promised that one of David’s descendants would reign forever. They did not recognize Him as the LORD who filled the tabernacle and the temple and promised to hear their prayers.

 

Despite the proclamation of the prophets this visit of the LORD was hidden from those in Jerusalem that day. Consequently they did not look to Him to give them peace. They did not expect that He was the answer to their prayers. There is no peace apart from Jesus Christ. He is the only One who brings us peace with God and as a result peace with one another. He is the One who died for all of our sins through bitter tears and suffering so that we might be forgiven and at peace with our Creator. If we do not recognize the visitation of the LORD in Jesus Christ, we can have no peace, there is no forgiveness of sins, and destruction is sure to come.

 

Jesus prophesied that the destruction of Jerusalem (His city, the location of the temple, His house) was going to happen. He knew that in about forty years time, the Romans would lay siege to the city, the people inside (including the children) would start to starve to death, and then the Romans would set the city on fire and tear down its buildings (including the temple). Historians outside of the biblical record describe it just as Jesus foretold with tears. The temple has never been rebuilt and you can see the little bit of its ruins left behind to this day.

 

Knowing what would happen to the city, Jesus went to the house of the LORD, to the temple, to His house. If anyone was looking for peace surely they would be there. Surely the temple would be the place where prayers were offered to the LORD to bring His forgiving presence and grant absolution and peace to His people. If any would be happy to open the doors to the LORD’s visitation, they would be there, like Simeon and Anna were when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple.

 

Simeon “took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29). He had the peace of knowing that the LORD had come in answer to his prayers. His eyes looking upon the baby Jesus saw the salvation of God for him and for all who would look for peace in the promised visitation of God.

 

Some thirty years later, Jesus should have found the temple full of people singing the song of Simeon, as we sing it after receiving the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins (LSB, 165). On this visit Jesus could hardly get through the outer courtyard. There were lots of people there, but none praying for peace, none looking for the LORD, none who recognized His visitation.

 

The people, there in the courtyard were paying heed to profits, but not the prophesying prophets. They were focused on profiteering profits. Jesus, defending His house by driving out those who sold, said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:46). Jesus quoted the prophets that the profiteers had forgotten. And He referred to the temple as His house, that should be a house of prayer where people could expect the visitation of the LORD in answer to their prayers.

 

What brought tears to Jesus’ eyes as He looked upon the city, drove Him to action when He entered the temple. He drove out those who bought and sold in the temple and He began to teach daily about the salvation that He had come to bring. He wanted to reestablish His house as a house of prayer and to instill in His people that where the LORD promised to be, there His faithful people could pray for the peace that they so desperately need, and expect to be heard and answered.

 

Even though the temple was later destroyed, the LORD continues to visit His people in the person of Jesus Christ. Though Jesus was crucified, raised from the dead and has ascended into heaven, He still teaches daily through His Word and He comes to His people, body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. He still comes to bring peace in answer to desperate prayers for forgiveness and grace. Where two or three are gathered together in His name, the name into which they are baptized, there He is in the midst of them to be the answer to their prayers for peace.

 

So there is no doubt that He has come to you today. And His desire is that you have come to His house for that reason. Don’t be the cause of His tears today? Know that this is the day of the LORD’s visitation for you? The crowds joining with the disciples as He entered Jerusalem proved to be the source of His tears. Have you taken seriously this house of prayer and come with the intention to petition Him for forgiveness and grace, to live your whole life as one who takes seriously the LORD’s promise that He is coming for a final visitation? Or will you continue as trying to live in the basement of a building whose day of demolition has been foretold?

 

The destruction of this world will come. It will occur on the day of the LORD’s visitation when Jesus returns in power and glory. He will rid the entire world of all evil, like He threw the merchants out of the temple courts. It will come on a day you do not expect. But the advance warning has gone out. Don’t be caught unaware like when the Romans overthrew the city of Jerusalem, razing it to the ground, or when the heavy equipment levelled the old church building.

 

Jesus comes in visitation to you today, in answer to prayers for peace. He comes in His Word proclaimed and in His body and blood given and shed for you. If you have come here for other reasons, any manner of other profit, you need that driven out of you. You want to recognize the day of His visitation in grace so that you need not fear the day of His visitation in judgment. May the church, in whatever building she gathers, be a house of prayer for peace through the visitation of Jesus.