THE PEACE THAT ONLY GOD CAN GIVE
Tenth Sunday after TRINITY
8 August, AD 2010
TEXT: St. Luke 19:41-47
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“And when he 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!” (St. Luke 19:41-42).
These words of Our Lord, as recorded by St. Luke, were spoken by Jesus just after he had drawn near to Jerusalem just before He entered the great city for the last time. In fact, this small section in St. Luke’s Gospel records the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem immediately before the time of His Passion. As you heard, His lamentation over and prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem is paired with His cleansing of the Jewish Temple in order to emphasize and draw attention to the state of Jerusalem’s spirituality in the awareness of and the rejection, as a whole, of their salvation in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and how they had become blind towards the identity of the One who would have brought them real peace.
This is only the second time in all of Holy Scripture which records that Our Lord wept. The first time was the death of His friend Lazarus and scholars are divided as to whether Jesus wept because His friend was dead or because of the lack of faith exhibited by Lazarus’ relatives. In reality, it was probably a little of both. But this time, it is clear that Jesus is weeping over the fate of Jerusalem, because that great city, that most advanced city of the ancient world, had rejected the visitation of the Kingdom of God and thereby its inhabitants had forfeited their salvation. As a result, Jesus now predicts its destruction as He says, “For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”St. Luke 19:43-44 Jesus has spoken in words what He feels in His heart for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He feels great sorrow over their rejection, reflecting the heart of His Father in the rejection of His Prophets and His only-begotten Son by the Jewish people as a whole. But surely, Jesus didn’t mean that Jerusalem would be totally destroyed did he? We have but to look through the chapters of history to find out Jerusalem’s fate.
About forty years after Jesus spoke His words concerning Jerusalem, they came true. In AD 66 the Jewish people in Jerusalem revolted against Roman rule. Three years later, in AD 70, Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian, arrived to regain control and reestablish order in the city. Although he breached the northern wall, Titus could not regain control of Jerusalem, entirely, so the Roman forces laid siege to the city and built great earthen embankments around her walls. After the city had become sufficiently weakened, Titus and his soldiers breached the walls completely, burned the city to the ground, and destroyed the Temple. As a result, over 600,000 people were killed and the only structure left standing was the Western wall of the once great Jewish Temple. Had Jerusalem acknowledged and embraced Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah would that still have happened? There is no way of knowing. But in that they did not, it gives us pause to listen to Jesus’ words again.
“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” What is this “peace” that Jesus is talking about? Can Jerusalem be held accountable if it doesn’t even know what those things were that could bring them peace? Oh, they knew. They knew because Jesus had told them over and over. A little earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus cries out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not!”St. Luke 13:34 And again, when He was asked of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said to them, “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Lo, here it is!, or, There!, For the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you!”St. Luke 17:20 So Jerusalem knew the time of its visitation from God and yet, the Religious Authority still rejected Him. They knew the things that would bring them peace, but instead of embracing and acknowledging them, they would not, could not, and did not accept them.
What about us? What do we understand about the peace Jesus is talking about? Is it just the absence of open conflict, or is it good feelings, or positive thinking? Or is it something different; something altogether “other” that only God can give? To find out, we listen to God’s Word which tells us that the peace Jesus is talking about is completely different from the world’s conception of that word. True peace, the peace that God gives, is the knowledge that God is in control of every aspect of our lives. Remember, Jesus told the Apostles when He sent them out that not even one sparrow could fall to the ground without the knowledge of His Father; that the hairs of your head were numbered, and for them not to be afraid, for you are worth more than many sparrows. It is God’s peace which guides us and guards our hearts against anxiety. The source of God’s peace is the Holy Spirit who dwells within us; restraining hostile forces within our souls like fear, anxiety, doubt, and the propensity to sin. With the peace of Christ, we have no need to fear the present or the future! This is the peace that only God can give; true peace of heart and mind. And it is available to all of us! Jesus promises us the peace of God if we are willing to ask for it and accept it! Where, then, can we find this peace? It is found through God’s Holy Word when you pray the Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. It is found in your “alone time” with God when you pray, hopefully, each day. It is conveyed to us through the Sacraments of God’s Holy Church, especially the Eucharist – The Sacrament of His Body and Blood, which we come together to share in each week. And finally, it is there in your hearts if you will just embrace it. Recall to mind the painting by the artist Warner Sallman, entitled “Christ at Heart’s Door”. Jesus is standing before a door without an outside handle and is knocking so that He might enter in. Sallman received the inspiration for that painting from Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20 which reads, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Jesus is always around us waiting to be let in, so that He can give us the peace that only God can give by His presence in our lives. Does that mean that if we let Him in and ask for the peace of God that everything will be hunky-dory and a bed of roses? Of course not! There will still be hardships, disease, and death, even in the lives of God’s people, but remember, true peace, the peace of God given to us from God the Father, by Jesus the Son, through the power of the Holy Ghost is knowing, not just intellectually, but knowing, in the deepest recesses of your heart, that it is God who is in control of our lives and that nothing can happen to us, around us, or in us that His Love and Peace cannot surmount! Jesus told us this just before He sent the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” In the end, we find that the Peace that only God can give is not necessarily a what, but a who – Jesus Christ! Let Him reign in your heart through the presence of the Holy Ghost and experience that Peace for yourself, which only God can give. Let us pray.
Most gracious Heavenly Father, whom to know is to have the fulness of everlasting life; fill our hearts this day with thy Presence and the Peace which only Thou canst give; comfort the souls of Thy servants who, in whatever circumstance of life they may find themselves here today and then feed us with the life-giving Body and Blood of Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose most blessed Name we pray. Amen.
And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end. Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+