This sermon series will focus on the major cities of Jesus Christ’s life here on this earth, Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. Each sermon asks a singular question, what did Jesus do in that city, and answers with a letter, addressed, if you will, from the future, warning each city to pay attention to its Lord and Messiah and guiding them to His truth. As we listen and hear the words to the past, we also hear that the words are for us today. May the Lord bless us as we hear His Word.Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this evening comes to us from Matthew’s Gospel, the 16th chapter:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”…From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Thus far the text.
Dearest Jerusalem,
You had no idea what would happen, did you, when Jesus rode into your city limits that last time on Palm Sunday. You had no idea that Jesus had set His face towards you, that He had resolved to enter your city one last time. Jesus had, of course, been here many times during His life. He came yearly to make His sacrifices for the atoning of sins. And that made it that much harder to see Jesus for who He is, didn’t it?
You see, you know, O Jerusalem, that one who makes atonement for sins must then have sins which need be atoned for. You know that only a guilty one would need to become innocent, for indeed that is what the Law of Moses, the Law of God, says. But, you missed it with Jesus didn’t you?
Jesus wasn’t coming to the Temple each year to make atonement for His sins, for indeed, He was sinless. Instead, Jesus came to the Temple in order to fulfill the Law. He completed all the Law for you, so that you no longer needed to obey it in order to win for yourself the salvation unto eternal life. Jesus did these things for you.
But, when you saw Jesus fulfilling the Law, you assumed it was for the same reasons you attempted to fulfill the Law. And you were wrong. He fulfilled the Law, ultimately, so that He would die, and die with your sins firmly planted on His back, and so that He could give His righteous fulfillment of the Law to you.
You see, the Son of the Living God was in your midst. You didn’t expect Him, no one expects the Son of God to come into their midst. You weren’t looking for Him. Instead, you thought that others would be the Messiah. You were looking for strangeness, you were looking for notoriety, you were looking for a long-ago message. But you weren’t looking for righteousness. You weren’t looking for someone living among you. You weren’t looking for someone living. You only looked to the dead.
But you should know, O Jerusalem, that our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living! That’s why He says that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! These men are alive even today, and are together with God in the heavenly places awaiting the second coming, the second Advent of the Lord.
But you missed that, too, didn’t you? You missed Jesus. You looked at this man, and just saw Him as a man. You saw Him as one to be used the way that you would. That’s why Jesus said of you, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!“
Jesus knew what you were going to do to Him. He wished that He could bring you up under His wings, the wings of God that we see in the Psalms, the wings of God that offer protection and shelter and comfort. But you would not turn to Him, you would not repent. Instead, you hardened your hearts as Pharaoh did against God and the children of Israel in the Exodus. You turned hard against Him, and so you sealed your destiny and Christ’s.
In fact, only because of your hardened hearts was it that Jesus would die for you. Only through your hard hearts would it possible that the Christ would be crucified on your behalf. Only because of you and your sins would He be put to death. You worked as the servants of Satan himself, for He would have killed the Christ if only he could. He couldn’t, but you could, O Jerusalem, for the Lord gave you great power that day.
You see, you would have made Him a king. You would have seemed to force Him to battle the Romans occupying the city. You would have made Him an apfelkönig, an apple king as Luther said, one who would come and give you everything to your hearts’ desire.
But Jesus had a different Kingship in mind, one outside this will of Satan. He had the Kingdom of Heaven in His hands. He was the King of Heaven, ruling along with His Father. He did not need you or your approval to be a King, you have no authority, except that which has been given to you by the Father.
And the only authority you had on that fateful Good Friday was to call for the Christ’s crucifixion. You had intended that this Jesus would die because He wouldn’t do as you wanted, because He wouldn’t obey the fake laws of the chief priests and scribes. But, Jesus intended to die, and you ignored this, in order that in His death, He would come fully into His Kingdom, and in fact, bring His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God upon this earth. Christ was lifted up into His throne, and He reigns from the Cross, where He is lifted up above all men.
This is what Jesus wanted, make no mistake. Jesus wanted to be crucified. In fact, even before the foundation of the world was laid, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, had already made His mind up to come, take on our human flesh in His incarnation, and be crucified. And so He was. You had no idea the role you were to play in that.
But that’s not an excuse. Yes, the Lord knew that you, indeed you, O Jerusalem, would be the city that would crucify the Lord. But, you chose that sin for yourself. And indeed, it is a sin. It is a sin that, like all other sin, would damn you.
But, O Jerusalem, and all hearers of this letter, this is not a sin that Jesus did not die for. Yes, He even died for the sin of you murdering the Lord of all Creation. For indeed, this Christ is the Son of the Living God, and He has all power and glory given to Him.
But He does not keep this for Himself. He took the power and glory away from the Jewish atonement system, and put it in His Church. Upon Peter’s confession, that Christ is the Son of the Living God, Christ will build and has built His Church, for indeed, in this place, and in all churches that teach the One True Faith of Jesus Christ, but only there, is this preached: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of which I am the worst. Listen to this forgiveness, all you who hear this, Jesus forgives you all of your sin. He has atoned for it all, and He will never stop forgiving you. There is nothing that you can do that He has not died for.
And so, O Jerusalem, you had to kill Him. He had to die. But it was not for your selfish reasons, it was so that He could forgive all of your sins, even the sin of murder. For you also must know, O Jerusalem, that while Jesus intended to die, He did not intend to stay dead. And so, while this man, this God-man, came to earth, took on our flesh, was born of the Virgin Mary, He also came to suffer under Pontius Pilate, He came to be crucified, He came to die, and He came to be buried. But He also came, that on the third day, He would rise from the dead and show Himself to be the Lord of all things, even the Lord over the power of sin, death, and the devil.
This Jesus, O Jerusalem, this Jesus is the Lord of all. And even though you killed Him, He did not stay in the bonds of death, but was raised to new life and is the Firstborn of the Resurrection.
Jerusalem, and all who hear this letter, this Resurrection that Jesus has is the same Resurrection that you may also have, a Resurrection unto eternal life with Him. Repent, O Jerusalem, and believe in the Gospel, the very Gospel that points us to all that Jesus would hear about God’s plan to save you and all sinners. And when you repent, when you have turned from your wicked ways by the power of the Holy Spirit, know that the Lord has indeed forgiven you all of your sins, for He won this for you, because of you and your traitorous actions against the Lord of All. The same Lord who came as a baby, grew to be a man, lived, died, and was resurrected, all for you. In Jesus’ name, we write you in love and concern. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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