Bible Text: Luke 19:41-48 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard | Series: Trinity 10 | Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” With these words the Lord proclaimed his name to Moses in Exodus 34. And today’s Gospel reading is one of the best images we have depicting this name and character of the Lord.
Today’s Gospel reading takes place during Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The crowds are leading on and following behind, strewing fronds and garments in the road, waving palms, and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And as the crowd is doing these things, Jesus sits on the donkey and weeps. He weeps when he sees the city Jerusalem, because he foresees her destruction.
Jesus sees what the historian and eyewitness Josephus would later document in his book The Jewish War. Jesus sees almost 40 years into the future, the year 70AD. He sees the Roman commander Titus besieging Jerusalem. Sieges are nasty business. During a siege the enemy army surrounds a city, trapping the people inside. No one can escape without being captured or killed, and no one can bring in food. Titus began his siege during the Passover, when Jews from all over the known world congregated to Jerusalem. The city was packed with people, many more than usual; Josephus estimates the number to have been around 1.1 million. And they were all shut up together.
The Jewish leaders at this time (Josephus calls them “tyrants”) had no intention to surrender, no matter how bad things got. And so the siege went on for months. Some took to robbing other people’s homes for food. Some tried to escape the city and were killed. The leaders of the factions made stockpiles for themselves and their followers. As the siege wore on, the situation became more desperate. The homes were full of dead families. The bodies of the aged littered the streets. Children and youth wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, bloated from the famine, dropping dead as they drifted along. The robbers who survived turned mad: plundering the same houses two or three times a day, searching the bodies of the dead for food, and chewing on leather pieces from their shoes and shields.
Jesus sees all of this before it happens. He sees the Roman army breaching the city. He sees the temple burning. He sees some people being put to death, others being sold into slavery. And finally Jesus sees all of the city, except for a few pillars and part of the wall, leveled to the ground. Jesus sees all of this, and he weeps.
And Jesus says exactly why it would happen: “because you did not know the time of your visitation.” The Jews said that they were awaiting the Christ. Yet when the Christ came and visited his people, most refused to recognize him. Jesus said to them in John 5, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
Jesus was fulfilling prophecies that the Jews had been hearing their whole lives. Miracles surrounded his birth and the birth of his forerunner, John the Baptist. The Father spoke from heaven on more than one occasion identifying Jesus as his Son. And Jesus himself performed signs that testified to his identity as the Christ. Jesus did nothing in a corner. He showed himself to all, because he wants to save all. And yet most rejected him. As the Lord says in Isaiah 65, “I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people.” Or as Jesus laments over Jerusalem in Matthew 23, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
We learn in today’s reading that God is no universalist, meaning not all will be saved. Certainly he desires all to be saved. The Word of God is for all and Jesus died for all. But if people reject God’s Word and his Christ, there is no other word that saves; there is no other mediator between God and men. If, like the Jews, we learn to despise God’s Word and make a christ according to our own fancy while denying the real Christ, we can expect to receive the same judgment they did.
The destruction of Jerusalem serves as a warning to us. It keeps us mindful of what’s at stake when it comes to hearing God’s Word. The Word of God is not advice. You don’t balance it against your experience or reason or feelings. You don’t seek a second opinion. The Word of God is perfect. The Word of God is truth and life. Therefore, if you want life, then listen to the Word of God, even when it hurts, knowing that it’s the Word of one who desires your salvation. And take Christ as he is, not as the flesh wants him to be, because who he is is your Savior.
So we see the Lord’s justice in today’s reading: “he will by no means clear the guilty.” But we also see the Lord’s steadfast love and mercy. It is an act of love that Jesus gives warning to Jerusalem in today’s reading. The destruction that he foresaw he did not keep to himself, but declared out loud so that people would realize the end to which they were heading and turn from the way of disobedience.
Likewise when Jesus “entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold,” he was showing his desire for the salvation of man. The greatest danger for us in this life is a false teacher. False teachers often sound persuasive, and present themselves as authoritative and set themselves up within the Church herself. It’s necessary that we know the Scriptures so that we can recognize falsehood when we hear it.
Now certainly there will be false teachers from now until the Last Day, and even more as that day draws near. But we see in today’s reading that Jesus ensures that his Word has a place where it can be heard in its truth and purity. He does not give his people over to false teachers and perverters of right worship. Rather he shames such scoundrels publicly and preserves the truth.
Then it says, “And he was teaching daily in the temple.” We might think at this point of a parable Jesus once told, recorded in Luke 13, the parable of the unfruitful fig tree. “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
The fig tree is Jerusalem, and the heavenly Father is the gardener. The Father looks at Jerusalem and says, “For three years now my Son has been ministering to this people, and they still are not bearing the fruit of faith. If they won’t believe, then they can die in their sin, and I’ll take my Word elsewhere.” And Jesus, the vinedresser, intercedes. Jesus intercedes for those whom he knows are going to kill him. He intercedes for men who at that moment were plotting his death. He intercedes for the Pharisees and scribes on whom he had already pronounced woe and doom, knowing that they were heading toward woe and doom, and that they refused to be saved and would not be saved. Jesus says, “Give me time to try to save them anyway.”
As heart-wrenching as the destruction of Jerusalem may be, the compassion of Jesus toward those who would be destroyed is entirely heart-warming. Someone might say, “It’s a lost cause Jesus. Give it up. Jerusalem won’t be saved.” To which Jesus says, “Give me more time. Let me go into the city. Let me bring the pure Word of God right into the temple. Let me go to an extreme to which I have not yet gone: let me lay down my life for these people. I know that for most of them my blood will be spilled in vain, but let me spill it anyway. I love them. I don’t want them to die. I would rather die for them instead.” If Jesus has such love and compassion for those who would ultimately be damned, then certainly we who are being saved can take heart that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
And so today we find Jesus riding straight for the city that would kill him. We find him fertilizing the fig tree, teaching his Word. We find him within a few days of his death, never once mourning for himself or begrudging us his life, but showing more concern for us than for himself. The Day of Judgment came on Good Friday, and Jesus stood in the breach. He suffered the wrath of God while those who deserved it stood by mocking him.
And Jesus didn’t just shed his blood for those who would believe. Jesus did not hang on the cross calculating how many would have faith and how many would persist in unbelief. Jesus did not measure out his blood with an eyedropper so that he didn’t give any more than was necessary and didn’t waste any. No! He shed his blood generously. Some would say he shed his blood wastefully, since he shed it for many who wouldn’t ultimately benefit from it. But that shouldn’t make us think that Jesus shed his blood wastefully. It’s better to say that Jesus shed his blood lovingly. He shed his blood with no regard for anything in us – not faith, not unbelief, not love, not hate. But he shed his blood for all because he loves all.