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Peace in Christ
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus said, “Days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you,
surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one
stone upon another, because
you did not know the time of your visitation.” It
seemed preposterous. Jerusalem was the city of God, the apple of His
eye. Jerusalem was the home of the Temple, where God Himself
promised to dwell among His people. But everything our Lord foretold
happened to Jerusalem.
Barely 40 years after this, in the year 70, the Roman overlords laid their
siege against Jerusalem
and annihilated the holy city. Things
she loves so dearly—even her godly worship and her beautiful buildings—were
taken from her. This happened because the chosen people of God no longer
put their trust in God. This happened because they looked for their peace in
their status as children of Abraham. This happened because they looked for
their peace in what they believed was their obedience to the Law. This happened
because Jerusalem—the
priests and Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes and the people—did not know the
time of her visitation by the Lord.
But Jesus will suffer first. He is the Temple not built with hands, the
Dwelling-Place of God in flesh among His people. He will die first for Jerusalem. He will be
hemmed in, surrounded by the chief priests and teachers of the Law. Soldiers
will seize Him. They will level Him. He will die just outside the city, put to
death for the crime of coming to save people who believe they have no need to
be saved. God in flesh has come to visit His people, and they shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They drive
nails into His hands and feet. They lift Him above the earth on a cross. They
mock Him as He hangs until He dies. Jesus is the Cornerstone, leveled and
rejected by His chosen people. If only Jerusalem
knew. If only they knew the cause of their peace.
You know, and still you reject Him daily and much. You have
been running after false peace and false comfort wherever you can find it. Do
you look for your peace in what you possess? Do you look for peace in what
gives pleasure to your body? Do you look for your peace in not being as bad or
sinful as others? It’s certainly understandable. After all, others are really
bad; they will be the ones that go to hell. And you are basically good, right?
You sin from time to time, but it's not like you do anything really bad. Is
that where you look for your peace?
Jerusalem's
false peace failed them, just as your false peace fails you. You cannot find
true peace on your own. Only the death and resurrection of Jesus makes the
peace of Jerusalem.
His death and resurrection makes for your peace, as well. His death gives you peace
with God—peace, Jesus tells us, which the world cannot give. That peace which
He won for you on the Cross is delivered to you in His gifts: in His Word of
Absolution, in His washing of Holy Baptism, in His holy Supper. There in His
Word combined with water, with bread and wine—there is the peace of God.
If only Jerusalem
had known. And if they had listened, if they had put their trust in what God
had told them through the prophets and through Jesus in flesh, they would have
known. But now you know, for you have listened. You have received. And you have
rejoiced, for He has made his peace known to you, a gift of pure grace. Jesus
is your peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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