Sermon on Luke 13:34 – Does It Make You Want to Cry? “O Jerusalem
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Sermon on Luke 13:34 – Does It Make You Want to Cry? Behind the altar in the front of this church, there’s a huge window overlooking the city of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen It commemorates the view and the love of our Savior for the people of gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Jerusalem. Time and time again he wanted to gather them into his arms. Time and time again he sent prophet after prophet to share his Word with Jerusalem, the apple of the eye for God’s Old Testament people. them. We heard how God’s people rejected the prophets like the prophet Jeremiah in our first lesson today. They stoned and killed those prophets and Of Jerusalem, the psalmist writes, Praise be to the Lord from Zion, to him it wouldn’t be long before they would do the same to him. who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. Psalm 135:21 It would lead him to say, “Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, Even while living in captivity in Babylon, of Jerusalem, it was written, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my name of the Lord.’” tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Psalm 137: 5,6 Words that would find their fulfillment years after Jesus died and rose again when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. Words that would also find Throughout the Old Testament, we see God’s love for his people, sometimes their fulfillment on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a referred to as Jerusalem. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak donkey. tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the His Palm Sunday ride began at the top of the Mount of Olives in a small Lord’s hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 40: 1, 2 village called Bethany or Bethphage. This is the village where Mary and Martha lived. Jerusalem was beautiful to God and beautiful to God’s people because this is where the Temple was located. God was truly with his people! As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives…the crowds that went ahead of him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the Lord appeared to him highest!” Matthew 21:1ff. a second time. The Lord said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, Here’s a picture of the road that leads down the Mount of Olives into the city by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be of Jerusalem. This gate is known as the East Gate or the Golden Gate. It’s the there.” I Kings 9: 1 – 3 gate many believe that Jesus rode through on Palm Sunday. Outside the city of Jerusalem, there’s a hill called the Mount of Olives. Today this gate is under Muslim control. To spite the Jews, the gate has been sealed and tombs have been placed in front of it. The Jews are still waiting It was from here that Jesus would ascend into heaven. for the Messiah to come. When he comes, they believe he will pass through this gate into Jerusalem. Little do they believe that the Messiah has already Halfway down the Mount of Olives, you’ll notice a small church called, come and has already passed through this gate. Little do the Muslims know “The Sanctuary of the Dominus Flevit” from the Latin meaning, that in an effort to prevent the Jewish prophecy from being fulfilled, they “The Lord Wept.” have fulfilled a prophecy in a way. A prophecy recorded in the book of Ezekiel, “Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, The church was designed in the shape of a teardrop to symbolize the tears the one facing east, and it was shut. The Lord said to me, ‘This gate is to shed by Jesus over the city of Jerusalem. remain shut. It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is to remain shut because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it.’” Ezekiel 44: 1, 2 Holy Week begins with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Pilgrims from around the world come to pray at the stone in front of this church. On Thursday, he sent two disciples to prepare the Passover in a large upper room. “He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make In his active obedience, Jesus lived a perfect life according to God’s law. In preparations for us there.” They left and found things just as Jesus had told his passive obedience, he suffered and died for our sins against it. It would them. So they prepared the Passover. Luke 22:12f.f all begin with a kiss. What was supposed to be a sign of friendship became the sign by which Judas betrayed Jesus. In that upper room, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples. In that upper room, he would institute a new meal for Christians to eat and drink. “Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.” Matthew 26:57. The Lord’s Supper in which he gives us his body and blood in, with and under the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. From the Mount of Olives, Jesus was led back to Jerusalem to the house of Jesus invites us to celebrate this meal regularly and often as we look forward Caiaphas the High Priest. The house is no longer there. In its place is a to celebrating it anew with him in heaven. church called St. Peter in Gallicantu. Gallicantu means, “The Rooster’s Crow.” “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God. When they had sung a It was here that the Servant of the Lord was lowered into a pit while his hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Mark 14:25,26 sentence was decided by the Sanhedrin. At the base of the Mount of Olives you’ll notice a large grove of olive trees The darkness of this pit is reflected in the words of Psalm 88, the closing and a garden called Gethsemane. reading for our Maundy Thursday service. Gethsemane means “oil press.” John tells us that Judas knew the place, “For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. I am because Jesus often met there with his disciples. counted among those who go down to the pit…you have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths…you have taken my companions and loved ones In the Garden of Gethsemane, you’ll find the Church of All Nations, also from me; the darkness is my closest friend.” Selected verses from Psalm 88 known as The Basilica of the Agony. Meanwhile, above and outside, Peter’s feet were held to the fire as he Above the entrance to the church are written the words, “Sustinete hic et warmed himself by a fire. vigilate mecum” which means, “stay here and keep watch with me.” “You also were with Jesus of Galilee…This fellow was with Jesus of Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and said to Nazareth…surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.” them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray…my soul is overwhelmed with Then he began to call down curses on himself and swore to them, “I don’t sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Matthew 26:69,71,73, 74. 26:36ff A statue of Peter with the words, “I don’t know the man” written below. Inside the church it’s very dark to symbolize the darkness Jesus and his disciples experienced on that “dark and doleful night” as a hymn puts it. A statue of a rooster to commemorate the predicted crow. “Go to dark Gethsemane” as another hymn puts it. Back and forth to Pilate and Herod, we’re told that they became friends at the Falling to his knees in prayer, Jesus asked his Heavenly Father to take the expense of Jesus. cup from him if possible, “yet not my will, but yours be done.” “When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s A Mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher captures the events of that seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (Greek - Lithostrotos), which in first Good Friday.