Love in Lowly Pomp

Tenth Sunday after Trinity

August 12, 2012

See His Love in Lowly Pomp

Luke 19:41-44

Ride on, ride on in majesty!

In lowly pomp ride on to die.

Bow Your meek head to mortal pain,

Then take, O Christ, Your power and reign.

Dear baptized souls,

Today's Gospel tells us what else happened during Palm Sunday—Jesus sobbed. The Greek word used (ἔκλαυσεν) tells us that Jesus was sobbing, as He soon would sob during His prayers at Gethsemane.

Jesus was weeping loudly on that donkey's colt, not crying tears silently, but we might say that He was bawling. And Luke puts this sad noise in sharp contrast with the happy noise of the crowd, who had just been shouting, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Lk 19:38)

He was sobbing because so many in Jerusalem and even many in this crowd of Hosannas rejected His cross.

They demanded glory and good times and happy feelings. They shouted, “Hosanna!” because they thought Jesus was coming to bring them glory right there and then. And when He didn't, they killed Him.

Jesus wept not for Himself, but for those hard-headed people. They stubbornly thought that since they belonged to the Jewish race and had the Temple, where they went through the motions of sacrificing to the true God, then God would reward them.

This attitude went back to the time of Jeremiah, who told their forefathers to stop trusting in outward things and lip service to God. Jeremiah told them these hard-headed people,

Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4)

Jeremiah telling them to stop trusting in idols, in this case, a building built by King Solomon. But they didn't listen and the First Temple and the surrounding city of Jerusalem was destroyed.

Jesus warned the crowd of the same attitude and its consequences—stop trusting in your community, stop trusting in things that you can see, stop looking for glory and power. And because they didn't change, Jerusalem and its Second Temple were destroyed.

And He wept bitterly as He saw all the lost souls who refused to be gathered into the refuge of His Church. Matthew adds to our understanding of Jesus' weeping, when he writes that Jesus said later,

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” (Matthew 23:37)

Where is our comfort in our Savior's tears? If He cares this much about those who hate Him, take a moment to consider how He loves those who trust Him and seek the cross, both His and our own.

By His grace and through His gracious means, He has baptized you into His Church, He has forgiven you through His pastor, and He will soon feed you the Bread of Life. Through His Church, He gathers us together and protects us, even when steeples are falling and even when crops are dried up and even when families are crumbling. He weeps with you when you weep, He rejoices when you rejoice in the cross, and He will always be with you because in lowly pomp He died for you.

In the name of the Father and of the  Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.