He Entered into the Temple

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Luke 19:41-48

“And He entered into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold, saying unto them, ‘It is written, “And My house shall be a house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of robbers.”’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Merciful God, heavenly Father, we heartily beseech Thee, Thou wouldst so govern us by Thy Holy Spirit that we may not neglect the time of Thy gracious visitation, nor by impenitence fall into temporal and eternal punishment, but in this our day lay hold on the things that make for salvation and everlasting peace; through + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

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

My dear friends, when we celebrate Palm Sunday it comes at the end of the Lenten season, and at the beginning of Holy Week. We begin that Service in a joyful manner. We hear of the multitudes who welcome our Lord + Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of praise: “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” The crowds spread palm and olive branches before our Lord, they lay their garments before the ass, and the colt of an ass, upon which our Lord + Jesus rides. The joy of the Gospel reading appointed for that day spills out into our own worship. We sing the traditional opening processional hymn, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” We receive palm branches so that we may join with the multitudes of that first Palm Sunday in their joy and jubilation.

But the joy that begins that Sunday quickly turns to sorrow. For we hear the Passion history of our Lord + Jesus. We hear the suffering, crucifixion, and death of our Lord from the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew. Even our hymnody goes from “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” to “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” For this is why our Lord + Jesus took upon Himself our flesh—why He became Man—He came to atone for our sins by taking our punishment upon Himself. Our Lord rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday triumphantly, with shouts of praise. He goes willing, silently, as Lamb led to the slaughter. He does it all for our good.

But we are a rebellious generation. We are stiff-necked, and refuse to hear the Gospel of our Lord + Jesus. Instead of allowing Him to be the sole source of our salvation and redemption from sin and death, we try to curry away from Him some of His redemptive action. We want to add our two cents to our atonement, saying, “We have to do this, or that, in addition, to what our Lord + Jesus has done. Mankind always thinks he can save himself by his own keeping of the Law, by being a good person. Is that not what the world thinks? That all the “good people” are in heaven. 

Of course, “good” is determined by the estimation of this evil world. “Good” in this world is not good in eyes of the Lord God and in measure against the Ten Commandments, the Law of the Lord God. The world rejects the Law of the Lord God, the Law, which is a light to our path, which shows us our sins, so that we see how truly desperate our situation is, how we cannot in no wise save ourselves, so that we are forced to seek help outside of ourselves; to seek help in the One and only One Who can redeem us from sin and death. The world rejects this Law and creates one of its own choosing. It condemns those who do not buy into it, and follows it wholeheartedly, and praises those who do.

The Christ comes to atone the sins of even these haters of Him and the Church. But as He rides into Jerusalem amidst the cheers and shouts of praise described in St. Matthew, we are told by St. Luke the Evangelist that our Lord + Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem, for He sees its destruction. We heard the history of its destruction after the Gospel reading. We heard what terrible things happened to the city of Jerusalem. We know why our Lord + Jesus wept over it. And be clear that this weeping of our Lord + Jesus was not a simple tear running down His face. The Greek word implies loud, uncontrollable sobbing; a wail. Our Lord + Jesus was crying with full force. The destruction of Jerusalem pained Him greatly.

For the destruction of Jerusalem, though indeed a historical event, which happened in the year 70 AD, is symbolic of the eternal destruction of all those who reject the Lord + Jesus as the One, true, Redeemer, and Savior of the world. The destruction levied against Jerusalem is a sign, and type, of the eternal suffering and destruction of all those who look to their good works as a means of salvation. It is a foreshadowing of all those who reject the Law which the Lord God gave, and create their own rules and laws contrary to the Commandments of our Lord.

And our Lord + Jesus weeps over them bitterly. He has sent them prophets, and apostles, and pastors and teachers to preach into their ears that salvation is to be found in Him alone, but they would not hear. They have sealed their own destruction by their rejection of Him and His Word. The jubilation that surrounds our Lord on that first Palm Sunday, only reveals how truly the people did not know the day which made for their eternal peace with the Lord God. The people of Jerusalem, and all those who have rejected Him as the Messiah, have failed to see the day of their visitation. This world will be destroyed, like Jerusalem, because they did not know the day of their visitation. They have rejected the One Who can redeem them from sin and death, eternally.

This is why the history of the destruction of Jerusalem is read every year on this Tenth Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, as a reminder to us that if we do not repent, and cling in all faith to the Lord + Jesus, then the atrocities described in the history of the destruction of Jerusalem that we heard wait for us. Only it will not be a temporal punishment and destruction, but an eternal one. We should weep over our sins, even as the Lord + Jesus weeps over our destruction if we do not repent of our sins, and seek to amend our sinful lives, and live lives worthy of repentance. To repent means to turn from the folly of our sins to faith in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord + Jesus for us, and for all mankind.

Having seen the destruction that awaits Jerusalem, and having wept bitterly over it, our Lord gives a foretaste of that destruction when He enters into the Temple. When He entered into the Temple, He saw the result and consequences of the rejection of the people of Jerusalem. They turned that which was meant to bring atonement for sins—that which was meant to be a foreshadowing of His sacrifice upon the tree of the holy cross—into a market of buying and selling. The sacrifices were no longer about offering atonement for sins, but had become a means for people to profit off of other people’s misery and pain.

It is no surprise really that our Lord’s emotions change from that of bitter weeping into anger. They were unaware of their impending doom, of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and they went about in their daily lives with the same corruption which they had always done. Our Lord + Jesus will not tolerate it. He drives them from the Temple. We are told in another Gospel that He formed a whip from a cord of three strands, so that we know that He was not just urging them with words. He was administering punishment with a whip to those who had defiled the Temple. It is a foreshadowing of the punishment that will be inflicted upon Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. And it is a foreshadowing of the eternal punishment that all those who reject Him deserve on account of their impenitence and unbelief.

It is believed that our Lord + Jesus cleansed the Temple twice during His earthly ministry, once at the beginning, and once here at the end. Indeed, the third part of our Gospel shows that our Lord + Jesus will continue to do all that He can to lead people away from the impending destruction. St. Luke records that He taught daily in the Temple. He continues to preach salvation through Him alone to us. He continues to send us bishops, pastors, and deacons to proclaim that same message of salvation in the works and merits of the Lord + Jesus alone. Our Lord does not want anyone to perish. He does not want anyone to endure the coming destruction. He weeps over our impenitence and unbelief. He desires to draw us under His wing like a mother hen her chicks; to protect us, and guide us into the heavenly homes which He has prepared for us by His suffering and death.

So, He keeps on sending to us pastors and deacons to preach into our ears salvation in Him alone. They preach the Law, warning us of the destruction that will be ours if we do not turn to the Lord + Jesus in faith. They cleanse the Temple of our hearts with the Law, so that they may be filled with the hope of saving Gospel message of salvation in our Lord + Jesus alone. They take away all of our props that we build up for ourselves—all of our works for which we praise ourselves, and pat ourselves on the back, because we have accomplished keeping the rules and laws which we have made for ourselves; rules and laws which are easy for us to keep. The Law of the Lord God strips those things away from so that we are only left with the Lord + Jesus as our only means of salvation. The Law causes us to see our impending doom, and we cling to the only Source by which we may escape eternal destruction.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us not be like the foolish people of Jerusalem, who did not recognize the day of their visitation; who refused to see the things that made for their peace. But let us instead, heed our Lord’s warning, heed the lessons learned in hearing about the destruction of Jerusalem, and turn in faith to our Lord + Jesus, and cling to Him for our salvation. For He is the One Who can bring us eternal peace with the Lord God. He is the One Who can turn our sorrow into joy. The joy we feel on Palm Sunday, when we join the crowds of Jerusalem singing our Lord’s praise. For we see that our Redeemer and Savior has visited us. He has suffered and died to atone for our sins. He has come to cleanse our hearts by His Law, and He has come to turn our weeping into singing; our mourning into dancing. Let us go to meet Him with rejoicing, for in Him is eternal life and forgiveness of all our sins. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!