Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 15 – April 1990

 

And Jesus Wept

 

Sermon by Rev. M. C. De Graaf on Luke 19:41,41

Reading: Psalm 48, 122; Luke 19:28-48

Singing: 233, 240, 349, 348, 308

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I guess at one time or other, on our travels, we’ve all seen places on this earth that we could describe as being truly “breath-taking” or perhaps even “awe-inspiring”…!  Maybe we we’ve seen the Alps in Europe or in New Zealand, or a Fjord or perhaps something like the Grand Canyon or maybe even the view from Echo Point in Katoomba…!  As you look out from these spectacular places you are really made to stop and think…!  You feel so small or perhaps even so overwhelmed.  Other places on this earth, of course, make us stop and think for other reasons.  We can also be over-awed and pensive when we walk into a large cathedral or into a building or place filled with history either good or bad.  Many European towns are like that or even a spot like the Rocks here in Sydney.  If you are a bit sensitive, as you walk around you can’t help but think about the early inhabitants of that place and what it must have been like to live there nearly two hundred years ago.  The buildings were built by real convicts; the streets were designed for horse and carriage.  Long before the first Manly ferry, you can easily imagine the sailing ships at rest in Sydney Cove.  As I’ve said the place is filled with history.

1.  For the Jew, of course, no place was more filled with history, more significant, and more awe-inspiring than the city we read about in our text today, the city of Jerusalem!!  It was the centre of their nation and their lives – politically, historically and religiously.  Every year, if they could, they would make the pilgrimage to that city.  Jews would come from all over the world to be involved in the religious festivals that were held within its walls.  In the psalms we already get a bit of a feel for how these pilgrims must have felt as they approached that significant, holy, awe-inspiring city.  For instance, we read before from Psalm 48 which ends with that call to the people to see just how much God really has blessed that city: “look at her walls, count her towers so that you can describe just how wonderful she is to the next generation”.  Psalm 122 had a similar theme and a similar enthusiasm for the city.  As I said, for the Jew no single place was more awe-inspiring, or more significant than this city.  Realising this we can’t help but feel that for the Jews, what Jesus does in our text when He sees the city, must have seemed rather odd and out of place.

There is no question of course that what we see here in Luke 19 is in many ways a real climax for the public, popular ministry of Jesus.  For the last few chapters each of the Gospels makes a special point of really emphasizing the fact that Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem.  And even if you don’t know the story, you can’t help but see that something significant is going to happen in that holy city.  It seems that those who were with Him also, somehow, came to feel this.

*  In Mark you see that story about James and John and their request to have a special seat when Jesus comes to power.

*  And here in Luke 19 you see the crowds gather, the children sing out, and Jesus, like King David, rides upon a donkey into the city.

There is obviously great enthusiasm, the palm branches are ripped off, cloaks are laid out on the ground, and there is praise and shouting: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  Today we would say that the ground swell of public opinion was so obviously with him it must have seemed as if the city was just sitting there, waiting to be taken, waiting to welcome its new king!

And how does Jesus react to all this enthusiasm and to the sight of this city?  Our text says “He wept” – and don’t get it wrong, the Greek word which is used means real weeping not just a tear or two or a quiet sob.  The sight of the city makes Him cry out with very real and deep grief!

2.  And again don’t get it wrong; the grief is not for himself.  Though you do see in the next chapter that He is afraid of the cross and tears will be shed because He has to go that way.  The tears here are different.  They are for Jerusalem, and more importantly they are for those who dwell within the walls of that city.  They were tears for the hundreds of homes where mothers and fathers worked.  His tears were for the children who played or went to school, for the beggars, for the soldiers.  He shed tears because He saw the future for that city and for all who lived within its walls.  He saw the incredible destruction that was coming and the suffering that they would need to undergo.  In less than forty years the Romans would come and take brick from brick.  It would be possible to run a plough through the middle of it.

On a deeper level of course, the tears of Jesus come because He knows that despite the cheering, despite the great enthusiasm the people are, in the end, going to reject Him and His message.  The same people cheering now at His arrival would soon be calling for his crucifixion.  The same people now calling Him their king, would reject His disciples and refuse to believe the Good News when it comes.

The Scriptures make it clear that the destruction of that city is intimately related to the rejection of that king.  What they would do is push away the king of life and, as is true for all of us, that has consequences, both now and in the life to come.

Jesus says in verse 42: “If only you had known…”  They cried out for peace, they wanted it desperately.  But they searched for it in the wrong place.  They didn’t see that it was their hearts that needed changing.

Despite Zaccheus, despite the parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee, despite the coming of the Rich Ruler – despite a whole three years of ministry, the people still could not understand what His message was about.  They still thought that maybe He would be an earthly king like David, they still looked for earthly wealth, earthly comfort and earthly power.  The whole Sermon on the Mount seems to have been forgotten.  They could not see that the way of peace was the way of humility, of justice, of love.  The way of the Lamb who would be silent before His accusers!  Their dependence was still on power, on the law, on their own so-called ability to save themselves.

So Jesus weeps… and He goes down into the city, the city from which in five days He would be dragged, unresisting to Calvary.

3.  But of course, this is not the end of the story.  The tears of Jesus are not tears of final frustration, or complete defeat.  They are not the very human tears of someone who feels that all is hopeless, that nothing more can be done!!  Though many tears would still need to be shed, they are most certainly not the final truth in the Gospel.  In seven days the tears of Mary Magdalene will dissolve when she turns and sees her Master standing near the grave in which they had placed Him!!  In seven days a new page will turn in the history of the world.  In seven days Jerusalem would be awe-inspiring for yet another reason, the most incredible and powerful reason ever!!

In many ways of course, this event would not in the short term prove to be particularly spectacular.  The peasant tilling his field in Bethany on the edge of the city, or the Emperor in Rome wouldn’t hear about it for a long time.  And in the history of the world only a relative few would truly respond in faith.  Still only a relative few would see him for who He really is.

And yet at last, for that relative few, hope has come.  And though they may have misunderstood, those people on that Hill near Jerusalem really did have every reason to praise God the way they did.

He may have been a king different from anything they had ever expected.  But He was a king.  More than that, He was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  He most certainly deserved their worship and their praise.  He deserves and quite rightly, demands, whole lives dedicated to his service.  Whole lives which are filled with His kingship and with the pursuit of His Kingdom.

On that hill overlooking Jerusalem the Prince of Peace had come to bring His kingdom to fruition.  The Jews wanted the kind of peace that the world always looks for.  But He came with something deeper, something more fundamental.  It’s good for us to think about that, good for us to see the contrast.  Because all too often we too can get caught up looking for the wrong kind of peace.  We too can overlook the passages which speak of carrying our cross, and serving in love.  We prefer to read about heaven and mansions of gold, while the world around us goes to hell and God weeps over Sydney, and Melbourne, and New York, and still, yes, Jerusalem.

I pray and hope that as you reflect on Easter and the death and resurrection of our Lord you too will weep for the Jerusalems of our age.  And may we seek in all that we do to show this world the wonder of what He has done; the wonder of the kingdom which is to come.

We are to reflect the kingdom already now in all that we do.  The kingdom in which at last “there shall be no more hunger, neither any thirst… for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them into living waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes…!”

AMEN