Jesus has compassion to save you.

 

Sermon for Trinity 10, August 21, 2022

Grace to you, and peace.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Amen.

Luke 19:41–48  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.”  ⁴⁵Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling things there.  ⁴⁶He told them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”  ⁴⁷Every day he was teaching in the temple courts, but the chief priests, the experts in the law, and the leaders of the people continued to look for a way to put him to death.  ⁴⁸They could not find any way to do it, because all the people were clinging to him and listening. (EHV)

Jesus has compassion to save you.

Dear friends in Christ,

            Election season has come upon us again, and for the next couple months, numerous candidates will be competing to convince us how much they care about ordinary people, and how they will help us, if only we will give them our vote.  Unfortunately, experience teaches that many of those candidates are far more concerned about their own agendas than the electorate, and even the most dedicated among them usually find out that helping the citizens is not so easily accomplished.  Competing interests make it impossible to help everyone, because most of the authorities and the governed, as well, have little interest in helping those they view as outsiders to their own interests.

Now that I have potentially offended almost every person in our country, let me tell you about one Man who truly had compassion to help His people.  Jesus is reported as weeping passionately on two occasions.  The first time was when He wept for the pain His dear friends experienced at the death of their brother.  Jesus was moved emotionally at seeing the pain death inflicted upon those He loved.

Then, in our Gospel reading of the day, we see the second time Jesus wept with great emotion.  As He entered the city of Jerusalem to the cheers and praise of the crowds on what we call Palm Sunday, He paused for a moment overlooking the city, and it is in that pause that we see how Jesus truly felt about His people.  Now, most people have compassion for their family members, friends, and close neighbors, but in this moment, we see God’s compassion for even His enemies, and it shows us without a doubt that Jesus has compassion to save you.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Luke reported, “As [Jesus] came near, he saw the city and wept over it.  He 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.’”  Why was Jesus weeping as He observed Jerusalem?  Oh, some might imagine that Jesus was sorrowful because He knew that week would end in His painful death.  Yet, Jesus wasn’t afraid to fulfill His Father’s plans; He knew that He had come into the world to give His life so that others might live.  Jesus certainly doesn’t weep because the people would reject Him as the king of their country, because Jesus would soon tell Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36)

Instead, Jesus was weeping in such great agony for the loss of those souls who rejected Him as God’s answer to sin and death.  Like all other people in the history of the world, those Jews were looking for peace with God.  At the same time, because their leaders no longer understood God’s plan to send a Savior, many of them rejected the culmination of all God’s prophecies.  Through Ezekiel, God had pleaded with Israel, “Do I really find any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord God. “Don’t I want him to turn from his ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23)  Thus, we learn that Jesus has compassion to save you.

For three years, Jesus had proclaimed to the people that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  For three years, He testified to the peace and safety He was bringing to the world, yet at the end of all His miracles, gentleness, and kindness, all His explanations of the prophets, and His clear testimony of God’s will to save, the greatest thought of the leaders of Jerusalem was to kill this Man who they feared would upset their apple cart.  In other words, they were afraid Jesus would upset their relationship with their Roman rulers.

The leaders of Israel hated Jesus for pointing out their hypocrisy.  They hated the fact that God’s Son, who they refused to recognize, was walking in their midst bringing the love of God to earth.  Frankly, the only reason anyone doesn’t believe in Jesus is because of a stubborn refusal to see Jesus as He is, but that refusal to accept Jesus as the Son of God and Redeemer of the world leads to certain everlasting destruction in hell.

Jesus then foretold in great detail the destruction of Jerusalem which was coming as a consequence of their rejecting Him.  We know from historical records that Jerusalem fell exactly as Jesus prophesied.  About four decades later, the Roman armies set up a horrible siege around Jerusalem that ended only when no one inside the walls of that great city could resist any longer.  Then, with hundreds of thousands dead, and any survivors led off into cruel slavery, Rome leveled the city, burning it down, and tearing down even God’s temple until not one stone remained on top another.  Jerusalem’s destruction was complete.

This is, likewise, a graphic picture foretelling the fate of all who reject Jesus.  The prophesy shows visibly that for those who refuse to believe the gracious salvation God has won for us in Christ, the end is destruction in the everlasting fires of hell.  There will be no escape when Judgement Day comes.  When the angels surround the souls of humanity on that final day, no unbeliever will avoid God’s just judgment.  “They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!” (Hosea 10:8)  Yet, there will be no place to hide and no defense for those who rejected Jesus.

At the same time, that is not God’s desire for you or anyone else.  Again, the Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write to young Timothy, “God our Savior,… wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:3-6)  John the Baptist testified, “Look!  The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)  Jesus testified that He is the fulfillment of God’s plan to send a Savior.  God the Father testified from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5)  The fact that Jesus’ whole life was fulfilling what the prophets had been given to foretell is testimony to the truth that we should believe in Jesus as our Savior.

Jesus spent the next few days giving those who rejected Him one more chance to turn from their wickedness and receive God’s forgiveness.  He drove out of the temple those who were misusing God’s dwelling place on earth for their own profit instead of interceding for the souls of those grieving for their sins.  Jesus continued to teach those who would listen.  He did His best to prepare His disciples for what lay ahead.  All the while, the Jewish leadership plotted to kill their greatest Friend.

The question might well be asked of us, how do we reject Jesus in our daily lives?  Do we turn from His word in disgust when it doesn’t fit our pleasure?  Do we puff up in pride at the thought of all the good things we think we do?  Do we compare ourselves favorably to others expecting God will do the same?  That would be imitating those priests and scribes who rejected Jesus.  Yet, left to that foolish thinking, our end would also be destruction.

However, Jesus has compassion to save you.  Jesus’ compassion for your eternal well being led Him through that week of trial and testing.  It led Him to fulfill every last detail of what the prophets had foretold about the Savior.  It led Jesus to the cross where, carrying every sin of the world and charged with the guilt of the whole human race, Jesus suffered death so that you and I might live in heaven forever.

Our great Savior had lived in complete harmony with God’s will every day of His life, and for His faithfulness, His own people rewarded Jesus with cruel death.  A lessor man would probably seek revenge on those who mistreated and abused him.  Jesus, on the other hand, pleaded for mercy, mercy for those wicked leaders who schemed Jesus’ arrest, conviction, and cruel crucifixion—mercy for those soldiers who so mercilessly beat and mocked Jesus and nailed Him to the cross—mercy for His disciples who abandoned Him in His moment of ultimate betrayal—mercy for you and me for every sin we might ever commit—mercy for those of us who feel our guilt.  Jesus died on that cross after suffering the rejection of His Father in heaven, the pain of hell you and I and all people deserved.  Jesus suffered it all so that God could count us forgiven and holy.

Finally, to show the world the great compassion God has for sinners, He raised Jesus from the dead triumphant over sin, death, and the devil, and because Jesus has compassion to save you, He has been sending out His servants, ever since, to testify to the reality that Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that we too might live and never die.

Before He died that cruel death, Jesus testified to His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.  If it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.” (John 14:2-3)  Though His own people rejected Him, Jesus carried out God’s plan to bring salvation for all people.  His good news message of salvation by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone has been going out to the world since that glorious Easter morning when Jesus rose from the grave.  By the proclamation of the Gospel, and with His holy body and blood in the bread and wine of His Supper, Jesus testifies to the world that the sins of those who believe in Him are forgiven, and we have peace with God.

Dear friends, by the cleansing water of baptism, Jesus opened your eyes so that you too may know of His love for you and the offering He made to God to release you from the devil’s hold.  Today, and every day, God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, promises, “This is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.  And I will raise him up on the Last Day.” (John 6:40) 

That evening, on the hill overlooking Jerusalem, Jesus wept on account of those who rejected Him.  However, “In view of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of God’s throne.” (Hebrews 12:2)  You see this truth in every moment of His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has compassion to save you.  Amen.

The one who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints.  Amen.