"Weeping leads to Action" - a sermon on Luke 19:41-48

1. Jesus Weeping (Luke 19:41-44) What a scene! Jesus is coming down the path from the Mount of Olives approaching Jerusalem and sees the city before him. And he cheered!?! No ... he didn’t ... he wept! Why did Jesus weep over Jerusalem?? We need to explore this. The famous time we hear of Jesus weeping was at the death of Lazarus in John’s Gospel – the shortest verse in the Bible – John 11:35. There we read that Jesus was “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” leading to his tears; that was at the death of a friend. This time when Jesus weeps, it’s in the face of the potential death of a whole city including its temple. We read that Jesus wept because there was a lack of understanding (or recognition or acceptance) of the things that made for peace (v.42a). What does this mean? “Peace” is a need set deep within each human being. The need to feel at “peace” is a human necessity. Without peace there is only turmoil, just like without light there is only darkness. We need peace with God so that the spiritual void within us becomes filled through having a relationship with our loving Creator. We need peace within ourselves, so that we can sleep well at night and properly and freely pursue the purposes for which we were born. We need peace with each other and all of our neighbours so that there would be some chance of harmonious dealings in our community and fairness and justice in society. We need both forgiveness and a forgiving attitude to be at peace. This was lacking in the Jerusalem. Yet all of this peace that Jerusalem needed that day was available in the Divine gift of Jesus ... but this had been missed completely. In most people’s minds, Jesus would have been alright if he had just overthrown the Romans and made life more bearable, but not if he expected individuals to actually ‘repent’ and change their ways. The system was the problem, or so they thought, not them! But who is it that makes and maintains the systems! “If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace!” We could simply just blame the crowd or the population of Jerusalem at the time, and we could certainly point the finger at the religious leadership of the time (which should have known better), but we then might just miss something. For the lesson is made dramatically clear. There are consequences when the things that make for peace are ignored. Jesus drew on Jerusalem’s previous misadventures and destruction six centuries earlier to predict a similar fate reoccurring. We know that Jerusalem remained unrepentant and vulnerable and was destroyed (including the temple) by the Romans some 41 years after Jesus spoke these words. In this case, the consequences of disbelief were extreme. The answer, the solution, that should have been addressed, was to give attention to “the things that [actually] make for peace”. But we go on to read that this was “hidden” from their eyes (v.42b). How were things hidden from their eyes? How are things hidden from our eyes?? How could I miss something that was right in front of me??? Well I guess my eyes can be closed and blissfully oblivious of what’s ahead of me ... or I can put a cover over my eyes so I don’t have to face it ... or I can be looking in the wrong direction ... or my vision can be blocked by something else that stands between me and what lies a bit beyond. What could that be? In the Pharisees case, it was the power and privilege that they had that they didn’t want to give up. We might think self-protection and reducing risk is a good idea, but it won’t necessarily bring the results we would hope for. It is also possible for us to fill our lives with so many other things that we miss ‘seeing’ the most important thing. Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept. Are we sufficiently drawn to tears at the state of our society and the lives of those around us? For the sake of the welfare of the places in which we live, there needs to be an emphasis on Godly, harmonious, just and generous living – all the things that make for peace – beginning with those of us who have already seen the light! Otherwise civic life will crumble around us, and Jesus will weep once again. 2. Praising God or something else (Luke 19:35-40) Five days before his crucifixion Jesus rode toward Jerusalem to a far deal of acclaim. You would think that this would make Jesus happy, and make him think that he had achieved some success. Yet Jesus knew that what these people wanted (and were cheering about) was not what Jesus was offering. They wanted to be rid of the Romans and return to an independent nation – the ‘good old days’ if you like (without addressing spiritual change). They wanted preferential treatment going forward (again without addressing spiritual change). They wanted Jesus to be their own parochial national ‘Messiah’ ... that’s what they were shouting for (they were not shouting for the suffering servant Son of God)! The ‘Palm Sunday’ text (just before today’s reading) is often read in isolation as an affirmation of Jesus, when in reality and in context it’s part of the mass rejection of who Jesus really was and is. Jesus had tried to tell and show the crowds what he was all about – a suffering servant who worked from the bottom of society up, but generally speaking people were too fixed in their minds to see it. Jesus shunned fame as a healer and called for silence about this – such healing was for those who had already begun to show faith. Jesus sought committed disciples not political office. Wouldn’t you weep too ... if you were so misunderstood! And anyway Jesus knew how fickle people could be – favouring one thing one day, and something very different another day – one day “Hosanna – Praise the Lord”, the next “Crucify Him”; how people could seem very good with the right words, but actually live in quite contrasting ways – “Hosanna” as long as this makes my life easier and more comfortable, otherwise “Crucify Him”. People can get excited in a moment of apparent significance, but they don’t often follow through. Fortunately though a few people were genuine that day, and later became the beginnings of the ongoing Jesus movement. 3. Action at the temple (Luke 19:45-48) Perhaps Jesus could best judge the real level of spiritual health of the city by looking at the temple. This was the place where people of all nations and backgrounds were supposed to be able to connect with and worship God. But what was happening here? This was a central place for people to commune with God, but instead of providing refuge for the spiritual pilgrim it was preoccupied with the self-interest of the powerful elite (who profited from the commercial arrangements carried out there). The outer area of the temple was the only area where non-Jews were allowed to pray, but this area was taken up by ruthless business types ... selling animals for the required sacrifice at highly inflated prices, or cheating people in exchanging money from one currency to another. To not see God in the life and ministry of Jesus was culpable ‘blindness’ – they should have been able to ‘see’. No wonder Jesus wept; but he still didn’t weep in judgement so much as in compassion. And Jesus doesn’t weep for himself, even though his torturous death is pending in just a few days. But I reckon there might be some tears at the prospect of his sacrifice being in vain!?! The reality of the consequences of disbelief weighed heavily on Jesus. There was so much misery ahead. Things could be so much better ... if people knew the things that make for peace. Jesus was lamenting lost opportunity (Morris). People were missing out on this whole “visitation from God”. Specifically, at this time, they were missing a real ‘God moment’! What a tragedy. God is made available, even in human form, and people still miss out. There was so much to appreciate – God had not forgotten them, far from it. Here were tears of sadness, tears of frustration, and tears of regret. We would surely wonder that if Jesus came down from Mount Dandenong or from the top of the Westgate Bridge and approached the neighbourhoods of Melbourne, what his emotions might be. And then as Jesus approached the churches, the places of supposed restoration and transformation, what he would be thinking. It‘s like back in the 1990’s when Jeff Kennett famously referred to Crown Casino as representing “the true spirit of Victoria”. God help us! If that’s true, we certainly need redeeming. Jesus weeps over those people who just can’t seem to help themselves and break their various addictions; like those who can’t stop gambling themselves and their families into ruin over and over again. Yes they are responsible, but where there is addiction, we are responsible for helping where we can. Some people may refer to legislation to restrict a person’s capacity to lose at gambling as being the ‘nanny state’, but it is clear from the Bible that we are our brother and sister’s keeper – especially where there is real vulnerability. And we all suffer together as Jerusalem or any other city crumbles. [First I loved Brendon Fevola for his unique talent; then I felt cheated as he wasted this great ability through outrageous behaviour and letting my team so badly down; now I feel sorry for this train-wreck happening before my eyes and scream out for someone please to help him.] Jesus followed up his weeping with action. Jesus could not abide the misuse of the temple. Even though it was likely that the traders and charlatans would return again by next week, Jesus would take strong prophetic action. He called upon the witness of Isaiah and Jeremiah and swept the temple clean – “My house shall be a house of prayer – but you have made it a den of robbers”. There is more details in the other gospels about Jesus’ ‘housekeeping’ activity in the temple, with Luke wanting most to emphasise that Jesus cleared the temple to allow for him to teach there about the true nature of God (in response to so much misunderstanding) – as if to say, ‘I’ll keep trying to the end to make them appreciate this visitation from God’. Jesus taught people about God and God’s love and God’s ways until he was arrested. The people were “spellbound” for a time, but eventually many caved into the darkness. As mentioned earlier, there would be a remnant though, who would become excited at the news of Jesus’ resurrection and be the catalyst for a new movement that eventually came to be known as Christianity. The church of today needs to be a house of prayer that leads to an understanding of God’s truth, the development of mature faith, the nurturing and building of good relationships, and a missional engagement with the surrounding society. The church needs to be a place of faith, love, peace and hope. Unfortunately the temple in Jerusalem had become a place of self-interest and material appeasement. Thus the city itself was a mess; and Jesus wept. We, as we gather together, are experiencing a visitation from God. We need to start with our personal response to Jesus, our own inner cleansing, and our openness to be guided by God’s Holy Spirit. We need to guard our personal behaviour and business dealings. Our society (largely without knowing it) is depending upon us. Jesus lived, taught, healed, loved people, revealed God, died for our sins, rose again – and people are still missing out on this “visitation from God”.