Trinity 10 – 2026

And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And He was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on His words. ^(ESV)

Prayer: O Lord God, through the ministry, word, and life of Jesus Christ, we see the peace He has won and wants for us. Help us to hang on His words in life and death, so that we might receive the peace which only come through Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus, who desires all men to be saved, dear fellow redeemed!

When I was in high school, I worked at a gas station in my town for a little while. It was quite common for customers to stop and visit for a while. We’d sometimes just talk about the price of gasoline or the weather. Occasionally, the conversation would touch on the more important matters of life. I remember one conversation where a man stopped and talked for a while. He said, “Do you know why I don’t want to be cremated?” I said, “No, I don’t know.” He said, “Because I don’t want to burn twice.” He was trying to be funny, but I also got a sense that he was very serious. He was troubled. He was certainly not a model citizen in our town. He ruined his marriage and had been a derelict father, which was evident by the years his son had spent behind bars, and he abused more than one substance. He knew he was a sinner and his crude joke was confession of it. I knew this man needed the Gospel. After joking with him a little, I said something along these lines, “You know, Jesus didn’t come for perfect people. He came to save sinners. No one could get to heaven on their own that’s why God sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die on the cross for our sins. Christ’s resurrection is proof that death doesn’t have to be the end, but the beginning. Jesus wants all people to be saved.”

Between man and God there is a great chasm. None of us can get to God on our own. Even if our history is less littered than the man I mentioned, we still are born in sin and deserving of hell. And we know this! No matter how much we try to compare ourselves to others or make up for our wrongs, we have fallen short of the glory of God. If we are at all honest with ourselves, our conscience confirms this truth. The great lie of the devil is that this has made us beyond God’s help, but that is simply not true. Between us and God there is a great chasm, but Jesus has bridged the gap with the cross on Calvary. He is our way to the Father. Jesus came down from heaven, was conceived, born, lived, died, and rose again to bring us from earth to God our Father in heaven. Jesus wants all people to be saved. He had pity on us. It was his love that led him to give up his life for us, so that whoever believes in him will be saved. If there is any doubt in your mind about whether or not Christ wants you in his kingdom, our lesson is proof.

“When [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!’” Why did Jesus weep when he saw Jerusalem? For a little context, our lesson takes place on Palm Sunday during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As the caravan Jesus was traveling with took a turn, the entire city came into full view. While the sight of the imposing city walls and temple of God, with gilded roofs and marble walls, brought joy to the heart of every Israelite, it brought tears to Jesus. Our Savior wept, because as the all-knowing Son of God he saw an additional picture. In forty years, the temple would be destroyed, the city walls torn down, and all the inhabitants either slaughtered or sold into slavery. All of this would take place because the Jews and their leaders would reject Jesus as their King and Savior. Jesus knew their shouts of praise that Palm Sunday would be short lived. Reflecting upon the sin which Jerusalem was about to commit, Jesus wept.

The Israelites were God’s people, and Jerusalem was the City of David! Yet, despite sending prophet after prophet to call the Jews to repentance and faith, they rejected and killed God’s prophets, and even God’s own Son. Jesus said, “For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them” (Luke 11:47). Most recently, God had sent John the Baptizer whose job was to prepare the way of Jesus. When he called them to repentance they doubled down on their sin. They didn’t want to admit they were sinners in need of the Lamb of God. They wanted to be able to earn their own way, to have their hope built on their family lineages, man-made traditions, and their sacrifices. They wanted to find peace through other things than God’s own Son. The fact that the money changers had turned the temple into a den of thieves was an outward manifestation of an internal problem. Instead of listening to the prophets, those who sold were using the temple to turn a profit. Because of their unbelief and rejection of the Son of God, they would be judged. Jerusalem would be destroyed.

So, what’s the lesson for us? Christ loves you and your neighbor. He wants all people to be saved. Yet, those who reject Christ, who ignore his Word, will not be saved. The warning for us in our lesson is that if God’s chosen people, the children of Abraham, could throw away the gift of salvation, then we should not be so prideful to think that it could never happen to us. Scripture states, “He who thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall.” 

The Jews didn’t just one day wake up and say, “We are going to be work-righteous.” They didn’t just decide to change their concept of the Messiah from the suffering servant to a political figure. It was gradual. It was slow. They gave in to their human ego, thinking that they could play some part, no matter how small, in their salvation. They rejected God’s promise for peace through the satisfaction of sins, for an earthly peace given by a political Savior. They ignored the Word.

God’s will for you is for you to be saved. But our sinful nature is opposed to God’s will. This is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done,” not “my will be done.” By nature, we are enemies of God. When God the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts to believe in Christ through his holy Word, he conforms our will to his. He makes us love what he loves, hate what he hates. But until we get to heaven, we are at the same time saint and sinner. We have an internal battle—God wants this for me, but my sinful flesh wants that! God wants me to love and cherish my spouse, but I am tempted to ignore the needs of my spouse and be selfish. God wants me to faithfully rear my children, but my sinful flesh is lazy and easily gives in to what the world considers acceptable parenting. God wants me to love my neighbor, but I want to hold on to that grudge! God tells me not to worry, but my sinful flesh is worried and anxious about international relations and changing markets. God says our peace is found in Jesus, but I am tempted to find peace on the internet or at the bottom of a bottle or with a little shopping therapy. God wants me to live a chaste and decent life, but I want to give in to every sinful desire I have. We are in a battle—how is yours going? Does Jesus weep over you when he sees all the ways you are trying to find peace in this life? Or is he rejoicing over your repentance and faith in him?

Is there a particular sin you are struggling with? Maybe you have fanned the flame of your anger, lust, greed, or overindulgence. Maybe you feel extremely guilty, because it has been a struggle only you know about and you are ashamed of it. You are at a loss for what to do, because you are embarrassed to even go to God about it.

It would bring the devil great joy for you to do nothing about it—to ignore your sin and let it fester. He would love for us to think that God would be ashamed of us, that we are beyond forgiveness. But this is a lie.

When Jesus sees the city which would deny him and crucify him, does he rejoice at the idea that Jerusalem would be destroyed in AD 70? No. He weeps. He wants the Jews to have the peace which only he can give. “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”

It is because of your sin and weakness that Jesus came into this world. Your sin is the reason the eternal Son of God became man to live a perfect life every second of every minute of every day. Where you have fallen short, Jesus lived perfectly in thought, word, and deed. He wanted what God wanted, even praying, “not my will, but yours be done.” It was this obedience to God the Father that led Jesus to willingly lay down his life for your sins on the cross. He suffered hell in your place. He rose from the dead so that our death would not be the end, but a new beginning. Our bodies will rise.

Jesus accomplished peace with God on the cross and he wants you to have it, which is why he calls you to confess your sins and believe in him. You and I can’t win the battle on our own. We can’t fix our sin, fight off Satan, and resist the temptations of the world. But God can and does. He did this when he baptized you into Christ’s holy name. He conforms your will to his every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, study his Word, and hear the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus gives you true peace through the remission of all your sins in the Lord’s Supper and strength to cheerfully serve him.

I want this lesson to be a comfort to you. Christ wants you to have peace! I want you to remember this when you look in the mirror of God’s law and are ashamed of what you see. I want you to remember this when you see someone who you think is beyond hope. I want you to remember this when you talk to someone who feels like they are a lost cause. Jesus weeps, he doesn’t curse. He wants us to live. Of course, if we want nothing to do with God, we will get what we want. But it’s not him preventing us, because God wants us to be with him. This is the reason Jesus bridged the gap. It’s why he came to save us. So, believe it, act like it, and put your trust in your Savior. Jesus loves you and wants you to have peace. So, may we, like the crowds, hang on to the precious words of Jesus, and let nothing stop us from hearing them. Amen.