A Sermon for Dayspring Baptist Church By Chris Fillingham “The Tears of Christ” Luke 19:41-44 March 28, 2021

Luke is a masterful artist in the way he puts together his gospel. And this morning, we have a front row seat to some of that artistry. But like many artists, I don’t always recognize how masterful they are until someone points out some of the magnificent subtlety.

And what Luke does here, in what we heard this morning, is subtle and he’s the only gospel writer who does it. So, I want to make sure we don’t miss it because it’s easy to miss. In fact, I always missed it until it was pointed out to me just a couple of years ago.

For starters, Luke tweaks what the crowds are shouting as Jesus is riding into town. It’s there in 19:38 if you want to take a look. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” they shout… and that sounds pretty familiar, right? That’s what we’re used to hearing on Palm Sunday.

But did you catch what comes next? “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.” That’s a little different for Palm Sunday.

But it is familiar. It sounds a whole lot like something else that only Luke writes about.

In Luke Chapter 2, a choir of angels appears to a group of shepherds announcing the birth of their Savior, and the angels sing, “Glory… in the highest heavens and peace on earth…”

And remember, Luke is the only one to write about the angels singing at Jesus’ birth, and he’s the only one to put a similar song in the mouth of the crowd.

Which means… there’s something going on here. Luke is making a connection for us. As Jesus enters into Jerusalem, Luke is pointing back… to that mysterious moment when Jesus enters into our world. Something about what is happening now, here, on Palm Sunday, is paralleled to what happened in Bethlehem that mysterious Christmas night.

Bethlehem and Jerusalem are connected.

In fact, that’s not the only way Luke connects the two. Here at this moment, as the crowd is preparing the way for Jesus… as he enters into Jerusalem, Luke includes something else unique to his version of the story… something that points back to the birth of John the Baptist… who was to prepare the way of the Messiah.

***** Let me explain.

Jesus is parading into Jerusalem and we’re used to picturing it as a bit of a party, right? Maybe there are kids dancing around. 1 The disciples are beaming. It’s an exciting day. The crowds are full of excitement, too.

After all, these are probably people that have encountered something profound in Jesus. And you probably know quite a few of the people in this crowd. You’ve heard their stories. So, I imagine Zacchaeus is in the crowd… trying to stay up close so he can see. Or who knows? Maybe he’s riding on one of the disciple’s shoulders.

And in the crowd, you have Blind Bartimaeus who is now “seeing Bartimaeus” which doesn’t have nearly as nice a ring to it, but Bartimaeus is dancing down the road with the rest of them. Shoot, after today they might start calling him Bouncing Bartimaeus.

And Luke tells us that the crowd is full of women disciples that have been supporting Jesus, women who were finally given dignity and hope by the way Jesus treated them. So you’ve got Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Mary of Bethany, and their brother, Lazarus.

Maybe Jairus, his wife, and daughter are in the crowd. Maybe the bent over woman who now stands up straight is with them, too.

I don’t know. What I do know is that at the end of Luke 9, Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem” and he’s been heading this way for 10 chapters now.

And the crowd has been growing. And here they are, celebrating, excited. But as Jerusalem comes into view over the horizon, and the celebration continues, Jesus’ demeanor begins to change.

I imagine no one noticed, being that they are all caught up in the excitement. But if you were there…and you had taken the time to look deeply into Jesus’ face… maybe you would have seen it, his eyes welling up… and tears collecting in the corners. One tear drips down his cheek… then another.

As they approached the city, and Jesus watched Jerusalem grow on the horizon, “he wept,” Luke says. ***** It’s a bit out of place, isn’t it? I imagine it would have felt that way for the crowd, too. At first, they might have thought those were tears of joy as they’re getting closer to Jerusalem, the beloved city. But there’s no joy in these tears.

A few of them might have been inclined to think those tears were about the suffering Jesus said was going to happen when he got to Jerusalem. After all, he’s already told them three times what was going to take place. But tears on this man’s face, the tears of Jesus, are not of self-pity either… or tears of fear, or tears of despair. Not today anyway.

These… are the tears… of a heart that is breaking for the one you love.

2 You know those kinds of tears, don’t you? They are the tears that well up within you when you begin to see someone else’s deep suffering. The tears of Jesus…. are the tears of a parent when they watch their children struggle… or make choices that they know will lead to pain for their child. They are the tears of a friend, sitting in the living room, hearing about the affair that just came to light.

They are the tears of a sister who watches bitterness grow between her brothers. They are the tears that you have shed, and I have shed over those we love, and the tears we’ve shed on occasion over the suffering in our world.

The tears… coming down Jesus’ cheeks are the tears of a God whose love runs so deep, that God’s heart breaks, by all the ways we are closed off to that love, and all the ways fear blinds us to that love, and all the ways we are unwilling… or just unable to trust that love.

These are the tears of Jesus on this day. His tears… well up from the deep and profound love that God has for the world…

Luke says that Jesus weeps as he watches Jerusalem come into focus, not for himself, but for just how lost and self-destructive we all are. “If only you knew--- on this of all days -- the things that lead to peace,” Jesus says. “But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

And this is where Luke once again ties Jerusalem back to Bethlehem. The words Jesus speaks now with a broken heart… are a kind of ironic allusion to the words John the Baptist’s daddy sang with a joyful heart. ***** Do you remember that story? It’s the passage our Church’s name comes from. Zachariah is mute because he didn’t believe the angel when the angel told him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a baby. He couldn’t talk, until…. their baby was born, and Zachariah wrote down, “His name is John.” At that moment, his tongue was loosened, and he began to sing with joy over his baby:

“And you, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dayspring from on high will break upon us, [visit us] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

That’s what John the Baptist’s daddy sang at his birth… just weeks before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

But now, some 33 years later, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem… because the things that lead to peace… “the way of peace” has been hidden from their eyes. And why is it hidden? “Because you didn’t recognize the time of your visitation from God.” That’s the key.

3 That word “visitation” is the very same Greek word that Luke used… way back at the very beginning of his gospel… as John’s daddy is singing.

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dayspring from on high will “visit” us, will “break upon us.” It’s the same Greek word Jesus uses when he says that the people do not recognize the visitation of God, the presence of God breaking upon them.

You see the irony in this allusion? Here in this Palm Sunday moment, as Jesus rides toward Jerusalem, the dayspring is rising upon them. The visitation of our God is coming… the dayspring… that is to guide our feet into the way of peace.

But Jerusalem doesn’t recognize this visitation, “on this of all days.” Jesus says they don’t recognize “the light that is rising upon them, that can lead us, to the path of peace.”

And as he begins to recognize all that they will miss… and all the pain that will come because of it… tears begin to fall down.

You see, these… are the tears… of a heart that is breaking for the one you love. These are the tears of a God… whose heart breaks for a world that does not know the way that leads to peace. ***** It’s a different picture of God than we often imagine, isn’t it? This isn’t an angry God. This isn’t a God who is deeply disappointed in you because you let God down.

This is a broken-hearted God… because of all the destructive things we bring into our lives… simply because we are unwilling… or unable to see the divine grace that is visiting us… like the morning sun.

When we fail to see it, when we don’t recognize it… it will lead to destruction. It did in Jesus’ time, and it did a few decades later when Luke was writing down this story.

You see, when Jesus starts talking about the destruction that Jerusalem will experience… he’s actually talking on multiple levels here.

On the one hand, Luke is remembering Jesus’ words and the way they pointed to an actual/literal siege… that happened about 35 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. By the time Luke is writing this down… Jerusalem was actually destroyed. The Jewish people tried to break free of Rome to find peace, but “they don’t recognize what brings real peace.” And their political revolution only led to Rome… marching in and destroying the city.

So, on a certain level, Jesus is weeping for this literal destruction that he can see will surely come (and Luke reminds us… does come decades later).

4 But on another level, Jesus is weeping because he knows the destruction that will come that very week. The religious leaders will get nervous. They know that if Rome starts to feel threatened by a popular uprising happening with Jesus, they will come in and destroy what little stability the Jewish people have left. And so, the only way to “keep the peace” is to get rid of Jesus.

The High Priest will say as much. “Don’t you see that it is better that one man die for his people, than the entire nation be destroyed?” he will ask.

So, they will make a decision to do what is politically expedient, in order to “keep the peace.” And things get set in motion that will lead the crowds of people to shout, “Crucify Him, we have no king but Caesar.”

The religious leaders were just trying to keep the peace, but they were leading the people to their own profound condemnation… in which they not only reject Jesus as their King, they will reject Jesus’ way, as their kingdom.

They do not see that the divine grace is visiting them. Their eyes are blind by the darkness of powers… and it leads to their destruction. ***** You see, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on this day… his heart breaks and he begins to weep… not for himself… but he’s weeping for all those led to trust in political expediency,

and for all those led to trust in the myth of redemptive violence… The myth that says violence will can create peace… “We’ll kill a few to create calm and peace,” the myth says.

And Jesus weeps… for all those who would rather trust what is, than take a chance on a way that God is calling us toward…

This is what the tears of Christ are about.

The profound love of God is rising upon them as Jesus rides into Jerusalem…. but they are blind to it… and so tears begin to fill his eyes… because… well…. there is nothing more gut wrenching than your child, whom you love deeply, not knowing, or seeing, or embracing… the profound love you have for them.

All this is wrapped up in this part of the story that only Luke tells us about. Jesus is weeping for what is and for what will be… and in this moment, we’re discovering that this is exactly what the divine heart is like.

***** Here on this Palm Sunday ---yes, we wave branches with joy. But still… the Divine Heart weeps for us… for the anxieties we wake up with each day, and the fears that manipulate us, 5 and the loneliness that grips us and keeps us from recognizing… the Love that is visiting us, the Grace that is breaking upon our life… even now.

God weeps for all that keeps us from recognizing that the Dayspring from on high is shining…. on you.

***** So, open your eyes this day… and this Holy Week. Look deeply into the face of Jesus… into those piercing, commanding, compassionate, tear- stained eyes. And begin to discover… that Divine Grace is breaking upon you… it is today, and it has been this week, and it will be in the coming days.

And if you see it, if you can glimpse the heart of God toward you… if you can glimpse the Divine Grace breaking upon you… trust it enough… to shape your life around it. Trust it enough that even on the days you cannot see it… you will still choose to follow Jesus’ inside out, upside down, way of peace.

Amen.

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