"Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" (February 28, 2010)
By Rev. Steve Bagnall

We can almost feel Jesus’ love for His people in His anguished words, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem!” He loves His people desperately, but they always reject Him. When He sends prophets they stone them, and now they’re trying to scare Him away. “Get out, and depart from here,” they say. Over and over God has reached out to His beloved people and over and over they’ve rejected Him, and the result is that they are left desolate.

Here desolate means without God’s blessings. Of course God is still present with His people everywhere, especially in the temple, but because the people have rejected the One who brings blessings, they have been left without the blessings He brings. He brings the way of peace, but they choose the path of conflict, He offers marital bliss, but instead they choose infidelity and abuse. Instead of God’s way that leads to unity and friendship the people have chosen division and hatred and they’ve rejected God’s blessing of enough-for- all and instead chosen the way of greed, poverty for some so there is more for me.

Those choices push away God and the life of joy and contentment He means for His people to have. And so they are left desolate. Desolate, until —that great word of hope, “until.” Until they say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” These are old words, words that were waiting for the proper recipient, waiting for the Messiah, the Savior. The words had been used before, but always the hopes of the people were dashed. The one they thought was God’s anointed may have had temporary success, but always defeat came, always the oppressors returned.

The people pulled out the ancient words of hope when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. It is impossible to know exactly what they thought of this supposed Savior – Maybe a few looked to Him to forgive their sins, probably most thought He would be a new Jewish king.

Either way, the great and ultimate Prophet of God came to Jerusalem – the true spokesman of God, God Himself. He came to the beloved city and went straight to its heart, the temple. He came to purge that heart of the contamination and sin that had entered it.

First He drove out the greed of the moneychangers, the selfish neglect of the people, the belief that God’s gifts were mainly financial. He purged the heart of the city of this sin of deed, and then He drove out the false teaching that had taken a seat in this house of truth. He faced the Sadducees who declared that the way to please God was by a perfect act of worship, and that the reward for this was entirely earthly. He debated the Pharisees, who believed God could be pleased by our best efforts to be good. He confronted these false teachers and proved them wrong and they retreated from the temple – Jesus had cleansed the heart of His beloved Jerusalem.

But as had always happened before, sin rallied against God’s Prophet and the people turned away from God. The Jerusalem that our Lord loved so much seized Him in the middle of the night, quickly convicted Him in a kangaroo court and hurried to have Him punished and executed. Hope was dashed again. Sin was back in the city’s heart of the temple. All within 24 hours, the prophet was dead and Jerusalem was desolate again.

Same as it ever was. Except. Another word of hope, except. Except that the night before all this happened Jesus told his closest followers that this would happen – He spoke of His body broken and His blood shed. Before it happened Jesus told them why, “for the forgiveness of sins.” And before it all happened, Jesus told the disciples for whom it was happening, “Take and eat my body given for you, drink of it all of you.”

Jesus came as the final prophet, knowing that the people would kill Him. But that was part of the plan. His message was that this time the Prophet’s death would not leave His people desolate. No this death of Jesus would bring all God’s blessings to everyone who has faith in Him. This death would be defeated when on the Third Day Jesus, the dead Prophet, rose to life again. This time the broken body and spilled blood of the Prophet bring not condemnation, but rather they bring forgiveness for all who eat them faithfully in the Holy Supper.

My dear friends, we are Jesus’ beloved 21st Century Jerusalem – the Christian Church, St. Luke, me, you. We are desolate of His blessings whenever we reject His life of love, when we choose fear and selfishness, anger and conflict, infidelity and lust, greed and division. With each sin we stone the prophets who bring us God’s holy Word of truth and by our choice we chase out the One Who blesses, and with Him go the blessings He most wants us to have. Our sin leaves us desolate – until. Until we say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

We are separated from God only until we receive Him riding into our ears on His Word, to cleanse our hearts with his forgiving Sacrifice. Until we receive His death for us in the Sacrament of the Altar. In a few minutes we will sing the ancient words of hope, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” and He will enter us upon bread and wine and He will drive out the sin we have placed in our hearts.

Brothers and sisters Jesus calls out to us, “My children, how I have longed to gather you together under my protection, like a mother hen guards and cares for her chick.” And by the power of the Holy Spirit, through faith in the dying and rising Prophet, delivered in the Holy Word and Blessed Sacraments we are called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified; we are safe under His wings; we are forgiven.

But though we are forgiven and though we are under Christ’s protection we still face suffering and disappointment in this life. The forces of evil and the brokenness of the world – even our own hearts – continue to keep us from the full blessings that Jesus brings. But the Day will come, the Great Day of His return, when He will judge all evil and destroy it forever. And on that Day the Prophet will not die – death will die, sin will die, forever. And on that day we, His children, will greet Him with great joy and we will say, either in our hearts, or more likely with great shouts: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed be our Savior, Jesus. Amen.