Trinity 10

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    How do you, O Christian, how do you deal with the world around you? How do you handle, how do you respond to the world out there, where we are bombarding with ever growing and worsening accounts of wickedness and evil? What should be your reaction? In our Gospel lesson, we get a wonderful glimpse of Jesus, seeing how Jesus reacts to the sin in the world around Him, and we learn from Him how we react, how we live. Listen.

    When [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you had known on this day the things that make for peace!” So here we are – it's Palm Sunday, Jesus is riding into town, the shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David” are echoing all around Him, Palms waving. It's a giant party, everyone there is having the time of their life, but not Jesus. Jesus weeps. Jesus laments. While so many people think things are just hunky dory, while so many people celebrate, Jesus sees and knows that there is something catastrophically wrong. The people do not know the things that make for peace. They are celebrating rightly that Jesus is the Son of David, they're close... but they're just that bit off. They don't want a Jesus who is the Prince of Peace... they want a beat up the Romans Jesus, a kick some butt and take some names Jesus, a Jesus who will squash my enemies. And if we're being honest, we can understand. If we were living in Jerusalem, we'd probably want the Romans out too. Let's face it, we're no strangers to lamenting our political enemies and annoyances even today – and sometimes necessarily so. But beyond all that political fighting back then, even dare I say beyond our political posturing today, Jesus saw something deeper. People did not know, did not want, didn't care about the things that make for peace.

    There's a pun here, that we miss. The name “Jerusalem” literally means “Abode of Peace” - salam, salem, shalom – they all mean peace. The heart of Judea was Jerusalem, the abode of peace, the place where God's temple was present, where God would be present, where the Sacrifices that would atone for sin would happen, where peace, true peace, peace between God and man, peace amongst forgiven sinners, where that peace would be. It was to be the place of reconcilation and forgiveness and restoration. And no one cared. Not really. Jerusalem had become just a center of human power, where the focus was on which faction was in charge, who got to run things, who got run over. And it fell into a giant squabble, where when Jesus hears these cries of “Hosanna” He isn't hearing calls for peace but rather calls for “make us win, make us rich, crush our enemies.”

    When you look out on the world, what do you see? You see a world where no one could give two cents about peace. Where no one talks about getting along, where there is to be no forgiveness, no mercy, no charitable takes. Everywhere it's people fighting for power over whatever petty fiefdom they rule, and more over, they all want you involved, they want you to either take their side or be destroyed. There is that simmering rage, stoked constantly by those around us, by the news, by everyone to be angry, to pick sides, and to get ready to defeat the “bad guys.” You see things that made Jesus weep. And you know what – it's okay to weep yourself. It's okay to feel sorrow and wonder and befuddlement over what is going on in the world today. Because you're seeing what happens when people don't care about peace, when people don't want to live in peace with their neighbor but rather want to rule over them and defeat them and dominate them. And it's okay to weep over that.

    And Jesus does something interesting. When faced with all these factions, Jesus doesn't join any of them. The rest of holy week all the movers and shakers of Jersualem try to get Jesus on their side... and He doesn't join any of them. Because they don't want peace, they aren't focused on what He wants. No, I'm not going to join in your fight, I'm focused on peace. Now, this doesn't mean that Jesus becomes some weak willed pacifist who just curls in a ball – far from it! And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers.” Oh, Jesus will fight. And He will fight decisively. We can even say that we see Jesus angry here – it's not necessarily wrong to be angry – scripture tells us, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” There are times when sin must be confronted and dealt with – just like Jesus with the money changers. But what does Jesus do here? He drives out the moneychangers... but Jesus doesn't follow them home and burn down their houses. Jesus doesn't turn into Conan the Barbarian and start cleaving people in twain. And we don't hear about Jesus hounding them any other day during Holy Week. Jesus' action was simple – it was a one time thing to stop the problem at hand, and then it was done. It didn't become a crusade, it didn't become a standard operating procedure or a witchhunt – He stopped the problem at hand and was done. By the time the sun went down, there was no more anger to be found.

    There are things we are right to be angry with. There are things in the world that we are right to fight against. But again, that fight is always to be an in the moment thing, a fix it and be done thing. The goal is not to be fighting, the goal is peace. The goal isn't to crush the moneylenders, it's for the temple to be a house of prayer. And Jesus will confront many others over the course of Holy Week – the Priests, the Pharisees, the Saducees – but it's never where the goal is to be continually angry at them and destroying them – it's to get rid of the things that get in the way of peace. The things – not the people. And the contrast to Jesus' simple fix the problem approach is shown at the end of the text – The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him.... A note about that phrase “were seeking” - it implies that they were continually seeking, that they kept seeking over and over. The sun was setting on their anger and they rose in anger, and because of that they utterly ignore peace and engage in great wickedness... they plot to murder God Himself. And they feel good about doing it. That's the danger that we sinful men have when it comes to anger – instead of anger being the momentary response to wickedness where we deal with the problem and are done, we can cling to anger and nurse it, stoke it, whip it into a frenzy, and then unleash it's foulness and death and destruction.

    So then, what are we to do? When we are surrounded by so much wickedness in the world, when there are things that try to stoke our anger, when there are problems that we cannot fix, what do we do? Well, Jesus' repeated approach, His daily approach, shows us. “And He was teaching daily in the temple.” This is really the same thing as, “Would that you, even you, had known the things that make for peace!” Because where do you think you know, where do you think you learn, where do you think you receive the Peace that surpasses all human understanding except in Jesus and His Word? It is precisely in God's Word, as the Holy Spirit uses both the Law and the Gospel upon us, that we are lead into and given peace. When the world around us is odd and off and wrong and we're lead to sorrow, God's Word speaks to this – His law reminds us that we are not alone in seeing these messed up things, we aren't crazy for not wanting to go along with the world in its twisted games. We often speak about the Law being a mirror that shows us our sin, but one of my professors at Seminary, Dr. Fickensher, liked to also speak about the Law being the “mirror of existence” - where the Law shows and helps us to understand the reality of sin in the world. The Scriptures over and over show that while the wickedness we see might be new to us, the Lord has noticed it well before us and knows how to handle it. And He handles it – the Lord is the One who fixes things in the world.

    And so in the Word we are made to look at Jesus. We don't follow the world, we follow Jesus. We don't play the world's games, we don't dance to the tunes they call out; we follow Jesus. And – I was going to say, “We let Jesus” take care of things, but that almost sounds like we're in charge of Jesus – how about we say, “We sit back and watch as Jesus takes care of things.” Because that is what Jesus is doing – always. Jesus is in charge and in control, and He is taking care of things, all things, working for your good at all times, even if you don't understand what He is doing. No one in our Gospel text understood what Jesus was doing that holy week – the crowds with their palms, the moneychangers, the priests, even the disciples – they didn't understand. But Jesus knew; He was beelining to the Cross and preparing everyone for the salvation He would win with His death and resurrection.

    And that's the same thing He is doing now. He sees sin, He curbs wickedness (so much wickedness that we don't even know about is casually and quietly cut down by our Lord), and over all and through it all, He teaches, He proclaims His forgiveness, His victory over sin and death, the truth that however crazy, however strange the world might get – it doesn't stop Jesus from going to the cross and being the Savior. It doesn't stop Jesus from coming and being your Savior. You're baptized – that's a done and dusted fact, and Satan can't do a thing about that. And in His Word Jesus reminds you of this over and over, so you can have peace. What did we hear right after Easter - “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This is true. The sorrow that you face, the messed up things that legitimately and rightly make you angry – they are no surprise to Jesus. And He knows how the world will try to drench you in sorrow and rile up your anger. But He has overcome the world, and He has won you life and salvation and forgiveness and peace. Listen to Him, and live in His peace. Jesus handles the world for you. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +