Tenth Sunday after the Trinity Old Testament: Jeremiah 8:4-12 Epistle: Romans 9:30-10:4 Gospel: Luke 19:41-48 Real men don’t cry. It’s been said in the movies, on athletic fields and in homes across the country. Men are not supposed to show their feelings because that makes them weak. And yet, in our gospel as Jesus makes his final approach to Jerusalem, he weeps. Jesus is the greater Jeremiah, the new weeping prophet. Jeremiah wept over God’s children because the people of Judah had filled the land with vices and idolatry. They killed the prophets so that their idol worship could go unrebuked. Jesus cries because the people of Jerusalem, his own people, couldn’t see the peace that he had come to bring them. They had not sold themselves out to idols like Baal, but to worship of the Law. They were so caught up in a faith of laws, waiting for their political savior that they could’t see the one who has come to make peace with God for them. This sorrow is what moves Jesus to action. And before he can make peace with God through his death and resurrection, Jesus must perform one more exorcism. The word Luke uses for “drive out” is also the word used for exorcism. Before Jesus could go to the cross, he needed to clean out the temple. He needed to make the House of God clean and receptive for the gospel that was coming. The Jews had for many years believed their peace and righteousness was in the Law. The Pharisees had taught them that obedience and satisfaction to the law would bring peace. The Jews began to trust in their own obedience for righteousness and looked only for a political savior. The words of the prophets past had been forgotten. The call to repentance was ignored. Peace and righteousness had little to do with God and everything to do with politics and law. Has the church forgotten the way peace and righteousness? Jesus is among us in Word and Sacrament but we are more concerned about the steps to a better marriage or to a happier life now. When asked to talk about the gospel, we often point to our good deeds and mission work. We find satisfaction in our tithing and our servant hood. While we don’t worship idols carved from stone we worship the things carved by our own hands. The Pharisees of our age point don’t point to the peace and righteousness of God in the cross of Christ but to the peaceful easy feeling we find in the worship style of our choice. We are led to believe that peace is found in a Hollywood preacher or a mega church. Peace in this world is found in securing your future and living a better life than your parents. Our own college students are taught that all they need for this life can be found in books and thought. We are led to believe that righteous living has little to do with Jesus and everything to do with political correctness and tolerance. Many look to mainstream media and politics to find peace in the world. As much as the temple needed an exorcism at the time of Jesus, our temple, our hearts need an exorcism. Without it, we cannot receive the peace and righteousness of God. Without repentance and a cleansing of the temple of our hearts we cannot receive Christ. Our hearts are temple of doom, filled with all sorts of evil, hatred and rage. Our eyes are blind to Jesus, to the peace and righteousness he won for us through his death and resurrection. We are the ones who should be weeping. We were the ones who are lost; even damned. We know no peace and we have no righteousness; not through our hands. The righteousness we hoped to establish through our own works could only fail us. We need help. For that reason Jesus came. He came to call sinners to repentance. He came to cleanse the temple and then to die for our sins and rise again that we might have new life. Jesus’ death on the cross would be the final once for all cleansing from sin. Jesus still comes to cleanse our hearts. He comes in baptism to exorcise the devil from our hearts. Jesus cast out the robber who wants to steal us and he prepares our hearts for faith. He brings us peace with God through his righteousness. Jesus also comes in communion to cleanse us from our own unrighteousness. He brings us his very body and blood that we might be restored and renewed in his own righteousness and peace…peace with God. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 11:32:26 +0000
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