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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake about it: God our Savior earnestly desires that all people be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). For example, in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus says how often He willed to gather Jerusalem’s children but they were not willing to be gathered. Now, right away some Bible commentators have a “problem” with Jesus’s statement, because the last time that St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account reports Jesus’s being in Jerusalem was when He was twelve years old (Luke 2:41-52; confer Pullmann, CPR 29:2, p.16). So, some commentators conjecture that Jesus is referring to other times that He was in Jerusalem that St. Luke does not report, such as those occasions reported by the other Gospel writers (or maybe the at least three annual visits He would have made every year as an observant Jew). Of course, Jesus Himself would not have had to have been in Jerusalem in order to want to gather the city’s children, as He was not near Jerusalem in today’s Gospel Reading when He expressed His will regarding them (like prophets of old, speaking about them as if to them). And, as true God in human flesh, in a sense Jesus’s longing to gather the Jews goes back much further than Jesus’s own human lifetime. So, do not let that alleged “problem” with Jesus’s statement lead you to doubt that Jesus often willed to gather Jerusalem’s children but they were not willing to be gathered. Perhaps a more relevant question for us is “How often would we gather?” How often would we gather those who stray from our midst here at Pilgrim? How often would we gather those who have never been a part of this congregation?
Jesus tenderly speaks Jerusalem’s name twice, with great love and concern for the city’s people. Perhaps we have such love and concern for at least some of those who have strayed from our midst here at Pilgrim, as we should love and be concerned about all of them and all people, including those who have never been a part of this congregation. If you are grieved over broken relationships, perhaps I am more grieved, in at least some cases having invested more into those relationships, but surely our Lord is most grieved, having invested most of all. Our Lord earnestly desires that all people be saved, despite His perfect foreknowledge that in many cases His desire will be in vain (Lenski, ad loc Luke 13:34, p759; p760). Of course, that someone attends a different congregation need not necessarily mean that that person is not willing to be gathered. However, those who willfully reject God’s law, and those who refuse to be reconciled with their brothers and sisters in Christ, are fooling themselves, if they think that they are forgiven wherever they might attend, especially if that congregation is not properly exercising its responsibilities regarding such things as Absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar.
We have noted that Jesus often willed to gather Jerusalem’s children but they were not willing to be gathered, and we also note that St. Luke does not report anyone’s telling Jesus, because Jerusalem’s children were not willing to be gathered, that there is a problem either with His message or the way that He is delivering it. That is an observation from silence, of course, because St. Luke does not report that no one told Jesus that, but, more significantly, since Jesus is the sinless Son of God, we know that, even if someone had blamed Jesus’s message or His methods, the blame would have been falsely placed: only Jerusalem’s children bear the blame for their not willing to be gathered. Since, unlike Jesus, you and I are sinful by nature, as you and I reach out to those who have strayed from or those who have never been a part of our Pilgrim congregation, no doubt that our message or methods at times could be better, but people who reject our message and methods nevertheless still bear the blame for their rejection, and ultimately they are not rejecting us, but they are rejecting the One Who has sent us (Luke 10:16; confer Matthew 10:40, et cetera).
That One, God Himself, calls and thereby enables all to repent. Those who do not will otherwise do repent, and so they are gathered by God as a hen gathers her brood under her protective wings. So, when we both turn in sorrow from our sins and trust God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives our sins and saves us from the eternal torment in hell that we would otherwise deserve on account of our sins. Nothing, not even the Pharisees’ in the Gospel Reading’s report that Herod wanted to kill Jesus—whether the report was true or false, and regardless of the motives for which they might have made it—nothing kept Jesus from His Divine necessity of casting out demons and performing cures up to the time that He “finished” His “course”, appropriately perishing like at least one “prophet” before Him (2 Chronicles 24:20-21; Luke 11:51; compare Pullmann, CPR 29:2, p.16) not away from Jerusalem but, in Jesus’s case, right outside of Jerusalem. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins. Jesus accepted that “destiny” out of His great love and concern for us! Then, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, showing Himself to be victorious over sin, death, and the power of the devil. And, now Jesus Himself gives us that victory and its benefits—forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation—through His Word and Sacraments.
To be sure, God’s working through His Word (read and preached to groups such as this) and God’s working through His Sacraments (Baptism, Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar applied to individuals)—God’s working through His Word and Sacraments is resistible! Jesus often willed to gather Jerusalem’s children but they were not willing to be gathered: they resisted! And, as Jesus makes clear in the verses before today’s Gospel Reading, even having been washed with water and God’s Word, having been forgiven by those sent with God’s authority, and having eaten and drunk in God’s Presence, singing “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord”, by themselves do not guarantee one salvation (Luke 13:22-30; confer Pullmann, CPR 29:2, p.16), unless one receives those things in repentance and faith.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus speaks of “how often” He willed to gather Jerusalem’s children (confer Matthew 23:37-39), and the only other time that we find in the New Testament any discussion of “how often” something is to be done is when Peter asks Jesus “how often” he should forgive his fellow believer who sins against him (Matthew 18:21). In that case, Jesus responds with the riddle-like “seventy-seven times” (NIV, ESV) or “seventy times seven” (KJV, ASV, NASB), depending on which translation you read but either way a figurative number essentially meaning always. And so, as God always forgives us, we always forgive our fellow believers, including those who once strayed from our midst and return! But, there is a limit as to how often the call to repent will go out to those who resist it. There are consequences to continued and repeated rejection. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus seems to link Jerusalem’s children’s unwillingness to be gathered with God’s forsaking their house. So, in today’s Hymn of the Day, we who trust God’s Word prayed for Him to forsake us not (Lutheran Service Book 708:1)!
As we began, the question for us was “How often would we gather?” How often would we gather those who stray from our midst here at Pilgrim? How often would we gather those who have never been a part of this congregation? God’s serious and efficacious grace for the sake of Jesus’s death on the cross benefits us who repent and believe. God forgives our not always loving and being concerned about those who stray from and those who have never been a part of this Pilgrim congregation. God forgives our wrongly blaming the message or methods for their rejection instead of blaming those rejecting the message or methods. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. And, God enables us at least to want to do better, such as by reaching out to those who have strayed from Pilgrim and those who have never been a part of this congregation. May God grant that we do so and that we live in His forgiveness when we fail.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +