08/24/2025

10th Sunday after Trinity

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

“Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, They refuse to return. I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle. Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgement of the Lord.”

Thus the prophet Jeremiah lamented Jerusalem’s unbelief. Jesus too weeps at this sad truth. When He entered Jerusalem, some greeted Him with loud Hosannas, but others in cold hostility refused His visitation. That wasn’t new. Again and again the Lord’s people of the Old Testament turned away from the Lord and despised His grace. Time and again the Lord chastened them and they repented for a time, but again and again they fell away. But when Jesus enters Jerusalem on that week of His crucifixion, He weeps because the days of God’s forbearance are over, and the time of God’s judgement is come.

God indeed gave a time of final grace after Jesus’ resurrection. For forty years the Gospel was preached in Jerusalem. Some believed, but most hardened their hearts to the Gospel. In 70 AD, forty years after our Lord’s crucifixion, the Jews rebelled against the Romans. Jesus’ prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction came to pass. The Romans built an embankment around Jerusalem, surrounded it and enclosed it on every side, and then in August, after a long siege, they broke through and leveled Jerusalem to the ground. Not one stone of the temple was left upon another. God poured out His wrath over Jerusalem’s stubborn unbelief. They rejected His Son’s gracious visitation and so God justly visited on them His righteous wrath.

Today, we meditate on Jerusalem’s tragic unbelief. We’ll consider I) why it was so tragic, and II) how it serves as a warning to us. 

Let us pray: Holy Lord, you justly punish us for our iniquities, the chief of which is stubborn unbelief. Yet in the midst of wrath, we pray that you would remember mercy. Grant that the examples of your judgement over unbelief in the Scriptures lead us to repent, that we might know the things that make for our peace and would rejoice to know the day of your Son’s gracious visitation. In His holy name we pray, Amen.

I

Jerusalem’s unbelief is so tragic because it was so avoidable. Of all people, the Jews of Jesus’ day were without excuse to reject Him as the Messiah. Their fathers were the Patriarchs of old—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to whom were committed gracious promises. The Lord sent Moses to their fathers and committed to them the oracles of God. They had God’s written word of the Old Testament. Their king Solomon had built the great temple in which the service of God took place in their midst. In their land holy men walked and to their people God’s prophets prophesied.

Two things stand out in their great heritage—God’s word and the temple worship declared the things that made for peace, and God’s word and the temple worship prophesied that God would one day come and visit His people with salvation. The Law revealed that God’s people did not live in peace with Him but in enmity against Him because of sin. But the sacrifices revealed that God makes peace with His people by atoning for their sins. The Law, the temple, the prophets, all spoke of the time when God’s Messiah would come to visit His people and make peace forever between God and men—yes, with the Gentiles also, and establish a new covenant with His people and live with them in their midst forever.

But, as Jesus says in our Gospel, they did not know the things that made for their peace, and they did not know the time of their visitation. Why? Because they became spiritually proud and presumptuous. The Jews forgot that they were sinners who were not at peace with God. They thought, “we’re God’s chosen people. We’re not like the Gentiles. Aren’t we so great?” On the one side, the Pharisees grew proud of their own works. They forgot they were sinners who could not please God in anything they did and thought that their showy deeds made peace between them and God. Since they were pleasing to God through their works, they had no need to seek the things that made for their peace—atoning blood and sacrifice before the holy God. On the other hand, there were the Sadducees. They grew proud and thought that as long as they kept the temple sacrifices going just as commanded, all was well. They could believe and think what they wanted to in their hearts—but God would be happy if they followed the instructions for worship down to the last detail. After all, wasn’t that what He commanded?

They did not think they were sinners at enmity with God. They had no thought for the things that made for peace, and so they didn’t look forward to the day of the Messiah’s gracious visitation when He came to win peace. That’s why they were angered by Jesus. Jesus came preaching repentance. They didn’t like that because they didn’t think they needed to repent. Jesus also came offering forgiveness, even to the worst of the worst, the tax collectors and sinners. That angered them because they thought salvation was a matter of works. They despised His miracles and healings, because they didn’t want a gracious God come to deliver His people. They wanted a God who would be just as impressed by them as they were of themselves. Such was their pride, and so they didn’t see what was before their eyes—God’s Son entering Jerusalem to make peace between God and men.

Jesus weeps at their unbelief, but He also begins God’s judgement over Israel. He drove out the money changers and those who sold sacrifices. He said they had made His Father’s house a den of thieves. By this sign Jesus declares two things. First, He shows Jerusalem that God is not pleased with their unfaithful worship. Second, when the animals are driven out, only Jesus remains and He preaches to them. By this Jesus shows that, though they do not receive Him, He alone makes for peace. All the sacrifices and rituals of the temple point forward to the shedding of His blood. No animal need be bought at an exorbitant price because He will offer His life freely to make peace once and for all. The temple worship is over because the Son of God is come to seal a new testament in His blood to people of every nation and tongue, Jew and Gentile. He comes to win peace with God in the pardon of sins purchased by His blood poured out on the cross. For every person, faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation. The proud trust of the Israelites that they were God’s people will not do. The conceited trust of the Pharisees in their own works is vain. But to confess that Jesus is Lord is salvation. If they will not believe, then God will go to others. The chief priests, and scribes and elders plotted to destroy Jesus, but others heard Him gladly. After Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD according to Jesus’ prophecy, God’s word was heard by Gentile peoples from all over the world. They received the proclamation of Christ’s cross, and so knew what made for their peace and could confess that in the Gospel God visited them with the gift of salvation.

II

The unbelief of Jerusalem is a warning to us. As the Church, we are tempted to spiritual pride like Israel of old. This happens the moment we stop taking our own sins seriously. If we do not live a life of repentance, then we’ll forget we’re God’s people by grace, and start thinking that we’re God’s people because we’re so great. We’ll start to be pleased with our own self-chosen works. We’ll forget what makes for our peace, and so we won’t know the day of our visitation.

The judgment of Israel stands as a warning to us in our day. So much of American Christianity doesn’t take personal sin very seriously. They say that you repent once and get saved, and you can never fall away again—so live life as you please. Others don’t take God’s judgement of sin seriously at all. The angry God was the God of the Old Testament. But the loving Jesus of the New Testament means that God has chosen to stop talking about sin. We never have to examine our lives and apologize to God or neighbor. It’s actually quite rare in churches to confess sins as we do every Sunday. Visitors sometimes get offended or puzzled about why we start our service with a confession of sins. They either say “But I already repented when I got saved and forgiven by God once, so why do I need to again?” or “Isn’t that so negative to focus on sin?” Such people sadly forget the danger of sin in our lives and the need to receive God’s gift of peace in the forgiveness of sins as often as possible until kingdom come.

That’s a temptation you face, too. It’s easy to become proud like Israel, to tell yourself, “Well, I’m a Christian. I go to church now and again, I give, so I’m good. I’m not that bad a sinner.” Tell yourself that enough, and church will cease to be a priority in your life. You’ll stop coming frequently. When you feel guilty about sins, you’ll remind yourself that you’re basically a good person, there’s no dirt on you, and so you’re fine.

Repent! Until you die, sin remains the big problem in your life. Even if you don’t run around doing open horrible sins, your flesh will seek to rebel against God in many ways that will turn you astray. So confess that you are a sinner. Examine your life according to the ten commandments and realize your actual sins. If you don’t, then you will despise the things that make for your peace, and God’s wrath will be upon you.

As a Christian, you confess every day that you are a sinner, but you also confess that Christ is truly your peace. He was crucified to make peace between God and men through the blood of His cross. He has atoned for your sins. He has won full forgiveness for you. The time of His gracious visitation is now, and the place of His gracious visitation is here. Jesus, who stood in the temple, stands in our midst today to grant us His peace in the forgiveness of sins.

Think of our service. After the confession of sin, the pastor says, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of our sins.” There, Christ’s peace is given. After the sermon, the pastor says, “The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” because he has just preached the Gospel of peace to you. After consecrating the bread and wine, the pastor holds them before the congregation and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always” because in His hands is your peace, the body of Christ given for you, the blood of Christ, shed for you. Before you take communion, you sing, “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us Thy peace.” And after you receive communion, you sing, “Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace,” because you have it. You’ve received the things that make for your peace with God, the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Your eyes have seen salvation. You’ve received the Lord’s gracious visitation.

How can we ever despise these things? Only if we deny our sin and grow in spiritual pride. The tragic fate of Israel stands as a warning to you. So confess yourself a sinner and know what makes for your peace with God—Jesus coming to His people to forgive them their sins. In Christ, you are at peace with God. In Christ, the peace of the Lord is with you always, and His face is turned ever toward you in grace and mercy for Christ’s sake. Thus we always leave Church with that final blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace,” because in Christ come for us, we do have peace.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.