St Luke 19:41-48/Jeremiah 7:1-11/Romans 9:30-10:4
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Our Lord comes to the holy city, to Jerushalom, the City of Peace, in the way of all the prophets. He comes preaching repentance; of dying to your sin, rending your hearts, amending your ways and your deeds. For this is the path to peace, what makes for peace. Christ comes in the way of Jeremiah, who wept over the destruction of the first Temple, for the hearts of men were hardened and calloused, their ears were shut and eyes darkened to the works of the Lord. They still are. The coming visitation of the Lord upon Jerusalem will be similar to that upon Sodom and Gomorrah. His tears are in anger and rage over their irreversible pride and rejection.
And yet they are still tears. Jesus weeps. That is, God weeps; He cries. His heart is in anguish over the unbelief of men, over our hypocrisy and injustice. He weeps over what is about to occur. He has known all along that He goes to non-acceptance. For Jerusalem has stoned the prophets and killed those sent to her. Now the Father sends the Son, but they shall seize Him and take Him outside the city and kill Him, too.
And this is portent of what is to follow. Jerusalem’s rejection of Christ, who is the Stone of stumbling, foreshadows God’s rejection of Jerusalem. 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. For their rejection of Christ the Lord has rejected them. If you harden your heart to the Word of the Lord, the sad irony is that He will further harden it for you.
And as the crucifixion of Jesus is a portent of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, so the destruction of Jerusalem is a portent of the Last Day, when the Lord shall unleash the four angels prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year. And they shall wreck havoc and terror upon mankind, those who have rejected the visitation of the Lord.
And yet our Lord’s visitation here, as He weeps over Jerusalem, is not one of judgment, but of grace. He comes to bring peace. Peace on earth and peace in heaven. He comes to reconcile men to the Father, to make them His again, by His Sacrifice of Peace.
The word used for visitation is a variation on the word for bishop, episcopes. St Peter writes, For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls (1 Peter 2:25). This is the visitation of an overseer, not an avenger. It is the presence of the Good Shepherd, not the wolf. This is the gracious visitation of God who once spoke to men of old by the prophets, who sent them to call us back to Himself. And now, as a Shepherd seeks out His lost sheep, God has visited and spoken to us by His Son.
Given how the world is, it is not surprising then how Jesus is received. His Word is heard as harsh and dictating. The devil has had his way with us, made us his playthings and warped our consciences to recoil at the voice of our Good Shepherd. Yet still He comes. God will not let the devil win. He visits His creation physically. He takes up flesh, becomes Man, by way of the Virgin. He joins Himself to fallen creation as a Man. He gets blisters and callouses, scraped knees and the flu. He knows what it is to have your bowels turn to water, to be stung by a bee, to suffer a migraine. He is subject to all the trials and hardships that the ruler of this world inflicts upon his subjects and worse. He knows what it is to be abandoned, betrayed, mocked, ridiculed, and slandered. He knows what it is to be tortured and killed. Nothing has befallen you that is not common to man, so nothing has befallen you that the Lord Himself has not also suffered and endured.
He comes as a Visitor, among His own, with no place to lay His head. For He is hidden from the world. He is viewed as a harmless, naïve fool, someone easily killed. He does not even fight back. He turns the other cheek and gives His back to the smiter. The world refuses His visitation, His gentle shepherding, because He is not the kind of God they want. He rides into shouts of “Hosanna,” but He goes not to the throne to reign, but to the altar to die.
Jesus goes to the Temple as our Peace, to make way for peace. One week before the Resurrection, six days before His crucifixion, five days before He institutes His Holy Supper, four days before His betrayal, He drives out those who set up a market in the Temple. He overturns the tables, knocks over the seats of the pigeon sellers, fashions a whip of cords and drives them out saying, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have mad it a den of robbers. This is the judgment aspect of His visitation. And Those who reject the Lord are put where they belong – outside His house.
But He stays. Jesus remains in the Temple. The true Sacrifice. The final, once-for-all Peace Offering made to the Father on behalf of sinners. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He is the New Temple, in whose shed blood all nations find rest and peace. Righteousness comes not according to the Law, by the sacrifice of goats and lambs and pigeons. Righteousness comes through faith in Christ, who is the end of the Law.
For the Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Bishop dies for His Church. He who drove out the robbers is crucified between them, as the Temple of His Body is torn down in anger and rejection. Behold the glorious visitation of God in the bruised and bloodied and broken Body of His Son!
These are the things that make for peace. This is the time of our visitation. Do not close your ears or harden your hearts to the preaching of His Word of repentance. For the Law always precedes the Gospel. Good Friday precedes Easter. Death precedes life. Judgment precedes grace, and confession or repentance precedes the absolution or forgiveness.
First comes judgment and weeping. Then comes grace. The Lord must first clear the temple of your flesh before He can reside there Himself. This is His visitation. He will not share you with another. He calls you to leave your wicked ways and live. He calls you to Himself, to the true Temple, that you may find your peace and your rest in Him.
This is His grace that overcomes the judgment. He has made peace between God and man in Himself. Baptized into Christ, sharing in His death, you have life. Thus do you become hearers of the Word, you become catechumens, as those in the Temple who were hanging on His Word.
And this is the Word of Christ: You are righteous with His own righteousness. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. You shall abide in the house of the Lord. For it is indeed a house of prayer for all nations, where Christ our Great High Priest lifts His nail scarred hands in petition to the Father on your behalf, interceding for you, strengthening and upholding you, keeping you firm in His Word and faith.
And here is His visitation once more for your pardon and peace – His holy Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. These things are indeed hidden, revealed only to the eyes and ears of faith.
Behold the days will come, beloved, when our enemies shall surround us. Yet according to the Word of the Lord you shall run against a troop, by our God you shall leap over a wall. The Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. And at the Last, His final visitation shall not be for your judgment, but for your good. For the Lamb shall be your Shepherd, your Bishop, and He will guide you to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.
In the Name of the Father and X of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Our Lord comes to the holy city, to Jerushalom, the City of Peace, in the way of all the prophets. He comes preaching repentance; of dying to your sin, rending your hearts, amending your ways and your deeds. For this is the path to peace, what makes for peace. Christ comes in the way of Jeremiah, who wept over the destruction of the first Temple, for the hearts of men were hardened and calloused, their ears were shut and eyes darkened to the works of the Lord. They still are. The coming visitation of the Lord upon Jerusalem will be similar to that upon Sodom and Gomorrah. His tears are in anger and rage over their irreversible pride and rejection.
And yet they are still tears. Jesus weeps. That is, God weeps; He cries. His heart is in anguish over the unbelief of men, over our hypocrisy and injustice. He weeps over what is about to occur. He has known all along that He goes to non-acceptance. For Jerusalem has stoned the prophets and killed those sent to her. Now the Father sends the Son, but they shall seize Him and take Him outside the city and kill Him, too.
And this is portent of what is to follow. Jerusalem’s rejection of Christ, who is the Stone of stumbling, foreshadows God’s rejection of Jerusalem. 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. For their rejection of Christ the Lord has rejected them. If you harden your heart to the Word of the Lord, the sad irony is that He will further harden it for you.
And as the crucifixion of Jesus is a portent of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, so the destruction of Jerusalem is a portent of the Last Day, when the Lord shall unleash the four angels prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year. And they shall wreck havoc and terror upon mankind, those who have rejected the visitation of the Lord.
And yet our Lord’s visitation here, as He weeps over Jerusalem, is not one of judgment, but of grace. He comes to bring peace. Peace on earth and peace in heaven. He comes to reconcile men to the Father, to make them His again, by His Sacrifice of Peace.
The word used for visitation is a variation on the word for bishop, episcopes. St Peter writes, For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls (1 Peter 2:25). This is the visitation of an overseer, not an avenger. It is the presence of the Good Shepherd, not the wolf. This is the gracious visitation of God who once spoke to men of old by the prophets, who sent them to call us back to Himself. And now, as a Shepherd seeks out His lost sheep, God has visited and spoken to us by His Son.
Given how the world is, it is not surprising then how Jesus is received. His Word is heard as harsh and dictating. The devil has had his way with us, made us his playthings and warped our consciences to recoil at the voice of our Good Shepherd. Yet still He comes. God will not let the devil win. He visits His creation physically. He takes up flesh, becomes Man, by way of the Virgin. He joins Himself to fallen creation as a Man. He gets blisters and callouses, scraped knees and the flu. He knows what it is to have your bowels turn to water, to be stung by a bee, to suffer a migraine. He is subject to all the trials and hardships that the ruler of this world inflicts upon his subjects and worse. He knows what it is to be abandoned, betrayed, mocked, ridiculed, and slandered. He knows what it is to be tortured and killed. Nothing has befallen you that is not common to man, so nothing has befallen you that the Lord Himself has not also suffered and endured.
He comes as a Visitor, among His own, with no place to lay His head. For He is hidden from the world. He is viewed as a harmless, naïve fool, someone easily killed. He does not even fight back. He turns the other cheek and gives His back to the smiter. The world refuses His visitation, His gentle shepherding, because He is not the kind of God they want. He rides into shouts of “Hosanna,” but He goes not to the throne to reign, but to the altar to die.
Jesus goes to the Temple as our Peace, to make way for peace. One week before the Resurrection, six days before His crucifixion, five days before He institutes His Holy Supper, four days before His betrayal, He drives out those who set up a market in the Temple. He overturns the tables, knocks over the seats of the pigeon sellers, fashions a whip of cords and drives them out saying, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have mad it a den of robbers. This is the judgment aspect of His visitation. And Those who reject the Lord are put where they belong – outside His house.
But He stays. Jesus remains in the Temple. The true Sacrifice. The final, once-for-all Peace Offering made to the Father on behalf of sinners. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He is the New Temple, in whose shed blood all nations find rest and peace. Righteousness comes not according to the Law, by the sacrifice of goats and lambs and pigeons. Righteousness comes through faith in Christ, who is the end of the Law.
For the Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The Bishop dies for His Church. He who drove out the robbers is crucified between them, as the Temple of His Body is torn down in anger and rejection. Behold the glorious visitation of God in the bruised and bloodied and broken Body of His Son!
These are the things that make for peace. This is the time of our visitation. Do not close your ears or harden your hearts to the preaching of His Word of repentance. For the Law always precedes the Gospel. Good Friday precedes Easter. Death precedes life. Judgment precedes grace, and confession or repentance precedes the absolution or forgiveness.
First comes judgment and weeping. Then comes grace. The Lord must first clear the temple of your flesh before He can reside there Himself. This is His visitation. He will not share you with another. He calls you to leave your wicked ways and live. He calls you to Himself, to the true Temple, that you may find your peace and your rest in Him.
This is His grace that overcomes the judgment. He has made peace between God and man in Himself. Baptized into Christ, sharing in His death, you have life. Thus do you become hearers of the Word, you become catechumens, as those in the Temple who were hanging on His Word.
And this is the Word of Christ: You are righteous with His own righteousness. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. You shall abide in the house of the Lord. For it is indeed a house of prayer for all nations, where Christ our Great High Priest lifts His nail scarred hands in petition to the Father on your behalf, interceding for you, strengthening and upholding you, keeping you firm in His Word and faith.
And here is His visitation once more for your pardon and peace – His holy Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. These things are indeed hidden, revealed only to the eyes and ears of faith.
Behold the days will come, beloved, when our enemies shall surround us. Yet according to the Word of the Lord you shall run against a troop, by our God you shall leap over a wall. The Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. And at the Last, His final visitation shall not be for your judgment, but for your good. For the Lamb shall be your Shepherd, your Bishop, and He will guide you to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.
In the Name of the Father and X of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed