Will God really dwell with man on the earth? Truly, the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you! How much less this house which I have built! But turn your face toward the prayer of your servant and to his plea for mercy. O LORD my God, listen to the cry and to the prayer that your servant offers before you.
Let your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward the place where you have promised to set your Name and to listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
When you hear your servant’s pleas for mercy and those of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, then hear in your dwelling place in heaven—hear and forgive.
That’s the prayer that King Solomon offered at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, in 2 Chronicles 6. That temple was an amazing human accomplishment. But that’s not what Solomon talked about. He was in awe that God would come to dwell with people. This temple in this city would be God’s house, the place of his visitation, the place where he comes to be their help.
This city of Jerusalem was the beautiful and magnificent city that Jesus was riding towards in our gospel for today in Luke 19. This lesson is a part of the Palm Sunday account. It was certainly not the first time that Jesus and his disciples visited Jerusalem, but it would have been a striking sight every time. The city itself was an impregnable fortress on a mountain, with massive walls all around it. The huge temple complex was at one end of it. This was the second temple building after the first one was destroyed, but this one was five centuries old and had been recently expanded, so that many scholars have said that it would be worthy to be called one of the wonders of the ancient world.
But on this day how did Jesus respond to the sight of this glorious city? He wept. Here’s what Luke tells us:
41As he came near, he saw the city and wept over it. 42He said, “If you, yes you, had only known on this day the things that would bring peace to you. But now, it is hidden from your eyes. 43In fact, the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44Within your walls, they will dash you and your children to the ground. And within your walls, they will not leave one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time when God came to help you.”
Jesus’ words here are a sad commentary on the city of Jerusalem and on, really, all of Israel. Just read through your Bible! Start in the Old Testament with the Exodus from Egypt. How did the people treat Moses? They complained, “Why did you bring us out of slavery? We hate this disgusting food. There’s not enough water. We’re going to die in this wilderness!” And of course God said, “It’s not you, Moses. It’s me they’re grumbling against.”
Or look at the prophet Elijah. In spite of all his work, in spite of the miraculous signs he performed, he had to flee for his life and he prayed to God, “There’s nobody left, God. I’m the only one. And they’re trying to kill me too!”
At the time of Babylon’s conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple there were prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. When God called them he told them, “Go and preach my word to my people, even though they won’t listen to you.”
They did not know the things that would bring peace to them. Not because they weren’t told. Because they wouldn’t listen. God was here, dwelling among them, and they refused to hear what God had to say. Of course Jesus’ lament wasn’t just looking backwards. Even more than that it was looking at the city as it was then and what would be coming to it. Jesus was looking ahead, in his divine knowledge of all things, and he described what would happen about 40 years later. In the year 70 the Roman army would come in and destroy Jerusalem completely. Those great walls would be torn down. The beautiful temple would be completely destroyed. Many people would be killed.
More than that even, the destruction of Jerusalem serves as a picture of the judgment that is coming on the whole world. It’s easy for us to open our Bibles and look at how Jerusalem suffered because of their unbelief and say, “How could they, when they had God’s word, and God’s prophets, and God’s dwelling right there?” But then is the time and place in which we live any different? Is God’s pure and holy word less available to us in our generation? Are Bibles hard to come by? Is there a lack of churches? Is there a shortage of pastors, and sermons, and Bible studies, and books to explain these things to us? We do need more pastors and teachers, but by and large which problem in our country is bigger, empty pulpits, or empty pews?
And all this we do to our own harm. Jesus says, “If only you had known the things that would bring peace to you.” Satan’s temptation is that if we do things our own way then “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” But the reality is that we can’t ever be like God. We can’t usurp his throne. And by directing our lives away from God we will know evil, all the evil that we will fill our lives with when we could instead be knowing God’s peace.
In the days of Jesus’ ministry the people turned the temple into a marketplace. It was a far cry from the awe King Solomon expressed in his prayer so many years before. They filled the courtyards with all sorts of business, buying, selling, changing money. Jesus drove them all out in righteous anger. It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”
And yet, for as much as this whole text is a sad commentary on Jerusalem, and on Israel, and on all the world that has put everything else ahead of God’s word, it’s even more a commentary on who our God is. As Jesus came near, he saw the city and wept over it. Jesus knew this city. He knew it better than anyone, because as true God he was the one who had sent all those prophets, every one of them. He was the one who had told them, “Faithfully proclaim my word, though my people will not listen.” And on this day he knew full well that his ride into Jerusalem was marking the beginning of the week that would end with his death on the cross.
Yet he wasn’t weeping for himself. He was weeping for them, for the people who did not know, who refused to know the peace he brings. Solomon had once prayed in awe that God would dwell among man, that he would call the temple his house. But Jesus was God made man, who had come to save mankind from their sins. Yet the world did not know him, and his own people did not receive him.
Yet still he pressed on. Jesus was not only compassionate. He was also determined. Determined to die. Determined to pay for the sins of the world. Determined to redeem you and me. Why would Jesus ride into that city, which puts to death his prophets, which hates God and turns his house into a den of robbers? Why would he come for me, when in my heart I have so often valued anything and everything above him and above his holy Word? There is nothing in me worth saving, nothing I have done to deserve this. The only thing I can do is stand in awe of his grace. Jesus had every reason to turn around and go the other way. He had every reason to drive us out of his presence in all his wrath. But in his compassion and in his determination Jesus fixed his eyes on the cross for us.
And so in those days, just as today, there were people who, being called by the gospel, clung to Jesus to hear his word. This was the only thing preventing Jesus enemies from carrying out their plan to kill him. But those enemies don’t realize that it’s the only thing preventing Jesus from coming in Judgment to destroy this whole world. For the sake of his people, our God allows this world to continue. He has always preserved a remnant. In the days of Moses the Levites rallied around him when the people worshipped the golden calf. In the days of Elijah God told him there are yet 7,000 who have not bowed down to Baal. After the destruction at the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel that remnant of the people returned from exile and rebuilt the temple to await the Messiah, the day when God came to help.
Today God still visits us. He still comes to help us. He meets us here in this church, in this holy house. He comes to us in Word and Sacrament. These things are not just reminders of someone who lived long ago and far away. No, Jesus himself is present, the Living Lord who gives Life, the Prince of Peace who brings us his peace.
Cling to Jesus, and listen to him. He hears your cries for mercy. He forgives your sins. Recognize the time. Now is the time, the time when God comes to help you. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson