Prayer: Dear Christ, You are coming in Judgment of all who reject Your Name. Our hearts too, are not innocent of this sin. There have been times in our lives when we have rejected you too. Dear Christ, You have revealed yourself to us as THE Savior, and so we confess our sin to You alone: Forgive us of our unbelief, and be our protection in this city when the Last Judgment comes. Amen.
 
Text: St. Luke 19:41-48 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he burst into tears over it and said: “If you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s visitation to you.

Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer;’ but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
 

One modern method to hold down neighborhood crime is to form neighborhood crime-watches. Neighbors who participate in these crime-watches, take special care to watch out for each other's property, and call the police if they see any suspicious activity going on.  Whether statistics prove the effectiveness of these crime watch groups, I do not know. But the premise seems sound. Neighbors who watch out for each other’s welfare are certainly better than neighbors who close their window drapes, and close their eyes to each other! If we all took more time throughout this city watching out for our neighbors, what a protection against crime this would be!

Of course, the protection we are referring to here concerns only our bodily welfare and property. Who is going to protect our souls in this city when God’s judgment comes on the Last Day? Neighborhood crime-watches?

This much is sure: There is nothing we or our neighbor can do to protect our own souls from The Judgment. Why? Because we are the cause for the Judgment.   Jesus has come as the ONE and ONLY Savior of the world, and our natural reaction to him is this: to pull shut on him the drapes of our hearts, and turn to far more important things…like catching the next Survivor episode. The rejection of Jesus by people throughout the world is why God is sending The Judgment.  This Judgment is coming to San Antonio.  But even though it is our fault that the Judgment comes, Jesus wants us to know something. He is sad over The Judgment coming to this city and to all cities. He weeps over us! But more than just shedding a tear over us, he has come to save us from it. He tells us today, that He is our protection in this city when The Judgment comes!

Just as He comes to us today to protect us, he came to the Jews in Jerusalem long ago. As we pick up the account from Luke, chapter 19, verse 41, we find him about to enter Jerusalem on a donkey. Yes, It is Palm Sunday when he rides triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey to the cheers of the crowd! Jesus, entered the city on a donkey to signify to the Jews that he came as a king who brings PEACE. Yet, despite the fact that He would soon be hailed as the King of Peace, we now find him weeping over the city. Here lies a warning for each of us today.

Why? He weeps because, though he had a few disciples who believed in him, he knew most of the people did not. For most, they saw no need for the peace which Jesus brought as the forgiving Savior, they wanted a king to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem. They wanted their country back. When he entered Jerusalem on the donkey, yes, the people praised him as their king. But when it became apparent that He had no intention of kicking out the Romans from their homeland, the praise on their lips, a mere five days later, turned to shouts from their throats: “Crucify him! Crucify him” (Luke 23:21)! Jesus bursts into tears at the thought. “If you, even you, He now says, “had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41). Hidden from their eyes, their unbelief hid the Savior from their eyes.

Because the Jews would then hang the Savior of the world on the cross, refuse to repent over it and receive Him into their hearts by faith—and so have forgiveness of these sins in His name—God’s judgment was coming to this city of Jerusalem like it had never come before.

Of course, this isn't the first time Jerusalem faced God's judgment because of their rejection of Him. For instance, six hundred years earlier, God sent in the Babylonians to sack the city and carry the Jews into slavery. God used the Babylonians to bring the Jews to repentance over their unbelief. Seventy years later, he brought the Jews back to their city again. But now, a worse judgment was coming. “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize God's visitation to you” (Luke 19:43,44). Indeed, God had visited them: Christ was God's Son, born in human flesh. But they crucified him, as a worthless fraud!

Forty years after Jesus spoke these words, in 70 AD, an enemy did come. Jerusalem was encircled by an army. Food lines were cut off. The people began to starve. They ate the leather straps on their sandals for food. Some of them became cannibals. They were killed off, and the city—not one stone was left on another.  From a human perspective, it was the army of the Roman Empire which flattened Jerusalem. Their very human reason was this: Caesar grew tired of the Jewish attempts to rebel against him. But really, it was God who brought this judgment. “My people want nothing to do with my Son whom I sent to save them. Judgment must come." God was grieved, as we see in Jesus’ tears. He loved his people.

But that was then. What is the warning for us today, in this city of San Antonio? Judgment came to the Jews because their unrepentant hearts had rejected the Savior. They might have paid him lip service; but in their hearts, they said: "Who needs this Christ who forgives sins.” “My harmless sins aren’t so bad that they need forgiving. God won't really hold my sins against me.” Are we, citizens of San Antonio, any different than they? We daily try to convince ourselves that OUR sins are not that bad either. Our hearts try to convince us: “God won’t really hold my unbelief and doubts against me.”  And in part to show God that we’re really pretty nice people, we do things like join neighborhood crime-watches, give blood, or go to church simply to make a show. “Judgment on the Last Day? I don’t have to worry about that. That is for the real sinners out there.”

This sinful pride of the heart trips up Christians too. Our hearts give us the same argument--"That we don't need Christ"-- just phrased in a different way: “At one time, I really needed Christ. But I’ve gotten my life under control now. I treat people much better now. I trust God much more. It’s nice to know that Christ is still there for me if I fall. But forgiveness of sins? Mature believers like me have outgrown our need for that.” But the frequent un-Christian actions in our lives show our constant need forgiveness and protection from the Judgment.

For example, let's say we've come down with a cancer. As we know, no time is the right time for big problems like these. We say, "But God, I’ve just begun my retirement;" "But Lord, I've just bought my first home;" "I just got married;" "I just had my first child." When trouble invades our lives, it is not beyond any of us to doubt God's care, even if it is just for a moment. "God, I thought you promised to take care of all my problems." "God, You promised that you wouldn’t give me more than I can handle. Now I’m not so sure!” “God, if you really existed, you would have prevented this!” Doubts like these are sin. All sin, whether you’re a Christian or not, your sin and my sin, is deserving of eternal punishment. We ALL need protection in this city when the Judgment comes!

When the stars fall from the sky, when the sun grows dark, when the heavens roll up like a scroll, and everything in this world is laid bare, who is going to give us protection? We sure have heat in South Central Texas, but the heat of Judgment is coming. Do we, sinners of San Antonio, have any hope to be spared?

Jesus' tears which he shed over Jerusalem give us our answer. He shed these tears because he cared for His people; he had come to save them from Judgment. Now today, two thousand years later, he comes to you in this city to protect you from the Judgment. He cares for YOU too. This is why he does something very special for you right now, just as he has done in the past, and will do again in the future. What is it? He cuts through our spiritual blindness, the drapes we pull shut on him, so we can recognize him as our Savior and believe in him! He does this by bringing us his Word, a message of Good News! This Good News blots out the fear of Judgment, as Jesus promises: He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25). The power of this "Good News" in the Holy Spirit is the only thing which can make us see him and believe!

Jesus knows this, of course, and that is why we see him, in our reading, urgently bringing this Good News to blind souls. After he came into the city on the donkey, he went immediately into the Temple courts, and kicked out the thieving businessmen. After doing this, He sat down and began to teach. He taught the people, and they hung on his words. He taught even as he was surrounded by those who wanted him dead. As our Gospel lesson says,  "Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him" (Luke 19:47). Jesus knew what was at stake. The people needed to hear and believe the Gospel.

 What did he teach the people? Surely he taught them again what he had been teaching all throughout his ministry, in Judea, in Samaria, and around the Sea of Galilee. Remember what he said earlier: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace." He was referring to himself as the One who would bring them peace. This is what He taught the people! "I have come as the King of Peace to bring you peace with God. I will do this by being the scapegoat for all of your sins, all the times you doubted me in times of trouble, and the times you closed the drapes of your heart to me. As your scapegoat, God is going to pour out judgment over your sins on me, instead of you. This is your protection in the city! He is going to war against me instead of you! This is your protection in the city! You who believe, instead of being at war with God, you are now at peace through me. I am your protection in this city!" This, again, is what he taught the people!

Because Christ loves YOU today, despite your sins, and just as much as he loved the Jews back then, he teaches you the same urgency today as he did long ago! San Antonio, with its oak tree-lined neighborhoods, its growing population, its history, will be swept up in the Judgment. But the Word Christ teaches here at Faith Lutheran brings you peace with God and salvation instead, through His forgiving blood! The Judgment is coming, but fear not! It will "Passover" you who are in Christ! He protects you in this city! And though some day San Antonio will be no more; don't despair! Another city is waiting for you. It is a heavenly one! The heavenly Jerusalem! This heavenly Jerusalem, in which you shall live forever with God, shall never be destroyed!
 
Amen.

Pastor Matthew W. Crick
27 August 2000
Tenth Sunday After Trinity