Living with Christ in the Shadow of the Cross (Luke 19:41-48)

Living with Jesus in the Shadow of the Cross
Luke 19:41-48

INTRODUCTION:
Barbara, five, had disobeyed her mom and was sent to her room. After a few minutes, Mom went in to talk with her about what she had done. Teary-eyed, she asked, “Why do we do wrong things, Mommy?”
“Sometimes the Devil tells us to do something wrong, and we listen to him,” Mom said. “We need to listen to God instead.”
“But God doesn’t talk loud enough!” the five-year-old wailed.

Jesus actually talks quite loud enough; if we’ll just listen. He talks to us through His words and through His actions. On the second Sunday night of each month, we are “living with Jesus in the Shadow of the Cross.” We are looking at individual paragraphs or events from the last week of Jesus on earth and looking for lessons He wishes to teach us on His way to the cross. Tonight, we look at 19:41-48…

JESUS WEPT OVER JERUSALEM - 19:41-44:
Let’s back up to the Mount of Transfiguration, in chapter 9: when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus before the apostles, Luke writes they: “appeared in glory, and were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (9:30-31).

Look down at verses 51-53: “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.”

In 13:22, we read in the life of Jesus: “He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem.” Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’ “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! “Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (a quotation of Psalm 118:26; Luke 13:31-35).

In Luke 17:11, we see “While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.” Then we observe in 18:31-33: “took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. “For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.”

Then we see in Luke 19:11 that Jesus gives a parable: “While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately…” The point of this parable, notice, is to teach what mankind is to do until the kingdom of God appears: that is, they were to be busy doing good and staying faithful to their stewardship. But there was another lesson going on in this parable. Notice in verse 14 that the citizens did not want the man to reign over them.” In verse 15, the nobleman called for an accounting, a reckoning.

One servant had been faithful and he had been busy and he had doubled the master’s investment (ver. 16). The nobleman blessed him. A second servant came up and had increased his stewardship by 50% (ver. 18). The nobleman blessed him. A third servant came up and said that he was fearful of the nobleman so he had hidden his money. The nobleman was angry because he had not produced any fruit and commanded that this man’s money be taken from him and given to someone else. But I want to draw your attention to verse 27: “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.” (And then verse 28:) “After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.” Isn’t this a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem because they did not produce fruit for their Master? The fruit of repentance toward God and faith in the message of the Gospel: that salvation comes through Jesus Christ? Isn’t Jesus predicting here the destruction of Jerusalem?

Then we come to Luke 19:41: “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it.” Do you know how many times Jesus wept? How many times the Gospel writers tell us Jesus wept? The only passage we are probably most familiar with is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” Now that is the only verse that uses that Greek word. These are the only two passages which record Jesus weeping, looking up both Greek words and English words. There are a few other verses, like Mark 15:34, 37 which state that Jesus “cried out” but it seems to me that it means Jesus yelled, raised His voice, rather than an emotional cry. So He cried because of the effect of death on humanity and Jesus cried because His people were about to be destroyed.

But in Luke 23:28-31, the Master tells the people of Jerusalem: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. “For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus is telling the people of Jerusalem that their city was kindling ready to be set on fire by the wrath of God. He said, “Don’t weep for Me. Weep for yourselves”

So Jesus cried over Jerusalem. What does Jesus cry over?

First (ver. 42), He cried that Jerusalem did not know the “things which make for peace!” What are “things that make for peace?” 1) Accepting Jesus Christ for Who He is. 2) Obeying Jesus Christ’s words. 3) Honoring God with our lives by fulfilling His expectations of us. That’s what makes for peace. Jerusalem - in the words of Gamaliel (which I just quoted last Sunday) from Acts 5:39 - was fighting against God by rejecting Jesus and by persecuting God’s people, Christians. They did not know what makes for peace.

Second, because Jerusalem had turned its collective heart away from God, the things which make for peace had been hidden from their eyes. In other words, at some point, God is going to quit trying to get us to change our behavior. God is extremely patient and long-suffering but even His patience has an end and when His patience is consummated, it ends with wrath. This statement is saying basically the same thing Jesus had said in quoting Isaiah 6:9-10: “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

When Jesus gets tired of teaching and He withdraws the light of His word, there is truly darkness indeed!

Third (ver. 43), Jesus predicts the coming destruction on Jerusalem by the Roman armies: “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side.” Look over at Jesus’ sermon in Luke 21, Jesus’ extended sermon on the destruction of Jerusalem, verse 20: “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.” Jesus is clearly hinting at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies which happened in A. D. 68-70 under General Vespasian and General Titus.

Fourth, Jesus tells Jerusalem that the Roman army would level them to the ground and they would not spare the children. When Josephus writes about the destruction of Jerusalem, he states that General Titus was appalled that the Jews were eating their own infants during the siege (Jewish Wars; 6.3.5, paragraphs 214-19). The Romans will not leave “one stone on another.” That phrase is a specific allusion to the destruction of the temple. Look again at Luke 21:5-6: “And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

Not only was Jerusalem going to be destroyed, but the temple would be destroyed. Thinking about this… In the mentality of the ancient peoples, if one army destroyed another army’s temple, that meant the god of the victor was more powerful than the god of the conquered. Here, we’ve got Jehovah God conquering His own temple, destroying His own temple which He actually did once before back in 586 B. C. by the Babylonians. What god destroys His own temple? Well, Jehovah God does if His temple is not obeying Him and sanctifying Him in their hearts!

Back to 19:44, Jesus finishes this statement by saying that the destruction of Israel, Jerusalem, and the temple are happening because they did not “recognize the time of their visitation.” This word, visitation, is only used 4 times in the NT. Two verses do not help us understand the point here: Acts 1:20; 1 Tim. 3:1. But in 1 Peter 2:12, Peter writes: “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” The word means “the coming of divine power, either for benefit or judgment.”

In the context of Luke 19, Jesus is saying, it seems to me, that the Jews did not recognize the coming of God’s power in Jesus Christ, whether for their benefit (of salvation) or judgment (of condemnation). In the 1 Peter 2 context, Peter is referring to the coming visitation of Jesus at the final coming.

In Acts 13:27, the apostle Paul told the Jews in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia: “those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.” They did not recognize the Messiah, though they were staring Him in the face.

The father of John the baptist, Zechariah, said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people” (Luke 1:68). He was referring, of course, to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, not his son John. Staying in Luke 1, in verse 78, Zechariah says further, “Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” The verb “to visit” here is related to the word “visitation.” Zechariah here quotes Isaiah 9:2 - “to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,” which Matthew applies to Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:16. So the coming of Jesus was God’s “visitation” on the nation of Israel. For those who repented and obeyed the gospel, the visitation was for blessing. For those who refused, the visitation was for condemnation.

The verb is used again in Luke 7:16, when Jesus raised from the dead the son of the widow of Nain. The crowd reacted to that miracle, shouting: “Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!” So some Jews recognized that the coming of Jesus was the visitation of God on them.

JESUS CONDEMNS THE TEMPLE - 19:45-46:
We studied this event last month; I simply read it here because it relates to what Jesus has just said: “Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, “It is written, ‘And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a robbers’ den.”

JESUS PLEASED THE PEOPLE - 19:47-48:
Then, finally, at this point in His ministry, Jesus is still appealing to the common people. They have not yet been influenced by the Pharisees and Sadducees to denounce Jesus. The crowds were paying such close attention to Jesus and His teachings that the enemies could not get close to Him. The theological implication of that point is that the Pharisees and Sadducees could not get close to Jesus to arrest Him at this point in time. It was not the right time for Him to be arrested and God used Jesus popularity now to delay that action.

CONCLUSION:
What do we learn, living with Jesus in the shadow of the cross?

1) First, we don’t need to lose perspective on earthly affairs to the extent that we don’t cry for those who are lost in sin, even our enemies.
2) Second, Jesus is the Prince of Peace; He brings peace, if we will follow His word. It doesn’t matter whether we can see the end results of our decisions or not. We have to trust Jesus’ word and do what He says and there will be peace.
3) Third, it is possible for us to listen to a lie for so long that we start believing it is true. Paul warns about us searing our conscience with a hot iron in 1 Tim. 4:2. That’s why we need to continually go back to the Scriptures and humble our hearts and our wills to the teaching of Scripture. Even we can choose to believe something that’s not true simply because we’ve heard it for so long.
4) We have recognized the coming of Christ as the visitation of God. But Jesus is also coming back again and we need to prepare for it. And this point is related to the next point…
5) Jesus accurately predicted the destruction of Jerusalem which proves that Jesus can predict the future. He has also predicted the final destruction of the world. That’s why we need to truth Him and do what He says to do.
6) If we teach the word of God as Jesus taught, people will still listen to us gladly. Not everyone, but some will. We can’t give up the truth just because fewer and fewer people seem to be apathetic. Stay faithful, stay committed, stay teaching the truth.