Palm Sunday: The Heart of Jesus

I wonder, do you ever give any thought to humanity?

Now, that's quite a big topic to be thinking about.

But I wonder, do you ever think about how we're made?

I hope you do, because I hope then you're amazed at how God has

made us.

Because not only are we made in his image, but we've been given

emotions by which we relate to one another.

We laugh together, we cry together, and we feel a sense of

contentment in shared experiences.

And God gave us these internal parts of us that we cannot identify.

Because we really can't put our finger on these different emotions

except in feeling them.

So that we would know that we're part of something bigger than

ourselves.

Part of a community, part of a family, part of a circle of friends,

part of a church or part of a society in which we live.

Of course, not all emotions are shared experiences.

Because as fallen humanity, our emotions can betray our true

hearts.

And this is seen in the pleasure we get when we speak ill

of others, perhaps, or in how we react to situations we don't like.

And in these cases, we get angry or we get cross, often lashing

out because we don't get the things our way yet.

Not to justify these kind of reactions, they're part of the package

of who we are.

And it is only by the grace of God that we can know forgiveness

and acceptance by Him.

And what our emotions are, they're a window into our hearts.

Because our emotions and how we respond tell people all around

us what is truly in here.

Now, as we go into this passage tonight, we'll see something

of Jesus.

We actually get to see his heart as he expresses two emotions

of response to what he finds in Jerusalem as he makes his way

through its streets to Calvary's cross.

And in the passage this evening From Luke chapter 19, we

Luke 19 · chapter mention

are in Palm Sunday, and Jesus has made his way to Jerusalem, just

like the other thousands of people who have made their way there

for the Passover.

Remember, this was a time of celebration for the children of Israel.

This was whenever they remembered their exodus from Egypt.

And as a faithful Jew, along with his disciples and those thousands

of others, Jesus made his way.

But of course, as we know as this week unfolds, the significance

of Passover, that old covenant commitment of remembering would be

done away with as Christ reinterprets it and tells us firmly

that this celebration that we now know as the Lord's Supper or

communion, is to remind us of his sacrifice, that exodus of sin

from us by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And Luke does something different for us than the other Gospel

writers.

Because Luke gives us a different perspective of this day.

And he gives us a different perspective of the welcome that Jesus

received.

And we used it this morning as part of our call to worship.

And if you were here, then I wonder, did you pick it up as I read

out our call to worship?

The other Gospel writers speak of Jesus entering Jerusalem and receiving

the praise of the people.

Yet Luke tells us something different in verse 37.

As he was drawing near already on the way down the Mount of Olives,

the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise

God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.

Notice where Jesus is, because it appears from Luke's perspective

that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and is actually heading

to the Mount of Olives.

Now, the Mount of Olives offered a spectacular view of the

temple and across Jerusalem, standing to the east of the city

across the Kidron Valley.

Now, if you know anything of Jerusalem, it's a city quite literally

built on a hill.

That's why the psalmist speaks of that and other writers in the

New Testament.

And there's this long ravine called the Kidron Valley that separates

Mount Zion from where the Mount of Olives is.

And that's where Jesus would have gone to Bethphpage and then

on to Bethany and heading eastwards out of the city.

So this was a path that was well known to Jesus, but he was heading

to the Mount of Olives, and it's here that the people are praising

him.

The whole multitude because began to rejoice and praise God with

a loud voice.

Now it would then appear that Jesus is at or near to the Mount

of Olives as our passage this evening commences in verse 41.

Because there we're told still with this language, as drawing near

to Jerusalem, not there, but drawing nearer and nearer.

This is what Jesus says from the Mount of Olives we believe.

And when he drew near and saw the city, remember the vantage point

looking to the temple, looking across the city, one hill across

the valley to the other.

He wept over it.

And this is what Jesus said.

Would that you even you had known on this day the things that

make for peace.

But now they are hidden from your eyes.

This particular account of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem is only

recorded for us in Luke's Gospel, and it is a significant one

as it presents to us the first of the two emotional responses from

Jesus that tell us his heart.

And from the text we see that Jesus heart is heavy with sorrow

for the city and its people.

Across from him at this stage, that heaviness of heart is.

Is not of the cross that's in front of him, but it's Jerusalem,

it's the holy city.

It's quite literally a million people who have come to celebrate

the Passover.

And Jesus weeps with sorrow because quite literally, they are

lost.

How does he describe them elsewhere?

They're like sheep without a shepherd.

You see, though the rejection of Jesus by many of the Jews was

predicted by in the Old Testament, Jesus still feels great

sorrow over this rejection of the people, reflecting the heart

of God as he contemplates the Jewish people rejecting his prophets

and now his Son.

And the people of this city of peace, as it was known, could have

known the things, the true things that bring peace.

And as we were thinking this morning, peace is not the absence

of war.

Peace is something more.

It's a contentment, it's a stillness, it's a confidence that

nothing in this world can bring.

It's a peace that surpasses all understanding, that can only

come from God.

And this is what Jesus is saying.

If only you'd opened your hearts to this peace, then you would

have known they could have embraced.

As we know, Isaiah refers to Jesus as the Prince of Peace in Isaiah

9, 6, the 1, the only 1 who can bring everlasting peace.

You see, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 72:7 that in the days of

Psalms 72:7

the Messiah, peace will abound.

And Jesus has proclaimed the good news of peace, that is the news

of God's reign throughout his earthly ministry.

But Israel on the whole, and Jerusalem in particular, have rejected

such a message.

The people don't know the things of peace because they don't

know the one who brings peace.

And as a consequence, they now face judgment.

And so Christ is right to have a heavy and sorrowful heart, because

the people in front of him will face judgment because of their

rejection of the Savior.

In the words of Jesus, God is hiding the truth from them because

they have already rejected it.

But there's worse to come for the people.

They will be ignorant of what they have missed.

They don't realize they've missed the Messiah because they're

about to crucify him.

If only they knew, then it would have been so different.

But of course we know the Son of God must die and be raised again

so that we, the Gentiles, engrafted in, would know salvation.

But even though the people missed this, God doesn't.

Because God makes it clear, as Jesus continues in verses 43 and

44, that they will receive their punishment.

And it's described like this.

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.

See, instead of peace, Jerusalem is going to face war.

Enemies will descend upon the city and they will besiege it, offering

no means of escape.

And Jesus here is clearly predicting the destruction of the

city in A.D. 70.

Not that scripture tells us, but what we know in history.

That Jerusalem was destroyed.

The city will be leveled to the ground, and the devastation will

be so complete that no stone will be left upon another.

It will quite literally be powder.

Jesus says this again the very next day in Luke chapter 21 and verse

Luke 21 · chapter mention

6, when he says, as for these things that you see looking around

him at the temple, the days will come when there will not be

left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

So what Jesus says in private, he now says in public.

His heart knows what will happen to this great city.

Children will not escape.

Adults will not escape, each one experiencing the consequences

of their sin and their parents sin.

Jerusalem is being judged because it does not know the time

of its visitation.

Now, this word visitation may sound old to us, but visitation in

the Old Testament can signify God's deliverance and help or his

judgment.

Now, before we run too quickly and write down that perhaps this

visitation is judgment, the visitation here is actually positive

because Jesus as God's Christ does bring peace.

He does bring good news, and he does bring that good news about

the kingdom of God.

So this should be positive.

This visitation of Jesus to the city should be great news.

And those hosannas and hallelujah should continue day after

day after day.

But Jesus knows the heart of the people below him.

He looks across that valley and he sees the million people and

knows what they're like.

You see, rather than this actually being positive news, it

is desperate because Jerusalem does not acknowledge him.

Jerusalem rejects him, and so the citizens will face their judgment.

And so, through weeping eyes, Jesus laments for Jerusalem and her

sin of rejection of God's Messiah.

His heart is heavy because the people have had every opportunity

to find peace in him, but they have ignored him and are already

plotting amongst themselves to do away with him.

And isn't it a similar situation for us today?

See, what we're seeing here before us is the heart of Jesus in

Weeping for the lost.

And I think we can be too quick to judge the world when in

fact we should be weeping for it.

I've often stood in shopping centers, yes, here on this island,

but in other countries in the world that I visited, to particularly

countries where Christianity is in a minority.

And I felt the burden that everyone around me is going to hell

because of their rejection of the Savior.

In that moment, I don't judge them for their false religion or

their immoral practices.

I do feel a sense of sorrow that the hundreds around me are walking

to hell.

I wonder, is that how you emotionally respond to those around

you?

Because we could respond in different ways.

We could laugh at them for their folly.

We could criticize them and ridicule them.

Or we could weep for them, just as Jesus did in their state

of rebellion and sin.

You see, I think we must be people who weep for the lost.

Why do I say that?

Because it's exactly what Jesus did on the Mount of Olives,

looking across to Jerusalem.

He wept for a city that would never respond.

And so we must weep for the lost, whether they will come to faith

or not.

Our hearts must be heavy and burdened with sorrow.

We must prayerfully bring them to the Lord so that their eyes, heads

and hearts can be open to the peace that Christ brings his salvation

of their souls.

Before the day of visitation, his true visitation arrives on them.

That's why Paul writes what he does in 1 Timothy 2, 1 4.

Quite a long section.

But first of all, then, says Paul to Timothy, I urge that supplications,

prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people.

And he goes on to explain for kings and all who are in high positions

that they may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified

in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our

Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge

of the truth.

Now, why does Paul specifically talk about kings and

those who are in high positions?

Well, we are 2,000 years removed from this.

There's no one who is a king or in high position would ever call

themselves a Christian.

And so these are pagans.

These are people who are just like those people I walked amongst

in shopping centers.

They were destined to hell.

And what does Paul say to Timothy?

Pray for them?

Well, actually, he says he urges supplications, prayers, intercessions

and thanksgiving.

This is our hearts open before God, weeping for the lost and coming

before him in prayer.

You see, Jesus emotionally responds to these people and he weeps.

He Weeps because of the judgment they're going to face.

And you know what's even more sorrowful?

They think they're okay, but they're not.

The heart of Jesus before us is one of sorrow and weeping for

the lost.

This example of Jesus must be ours.

We should not and dare not laugh at those who are lost, or ridicule

them or scorn them, but weep and pray that they will come to the

Savior.

Because remember, we were once like them.

But Jesus emotionally responds in a different way in the next four

verses.

Because having looked upon Jerusalem and the Temple, he now

enters it and sees the outcome of the rejection of God.

Now Luke simply moves on from the Mount of Olives to the Temple

courts.

And as Jesus enters those temple courts, he doesn't find it

to be a place of worship, a place that it's supposed to be.

Rather, it has become a market, and in his own words, a den

of robbers.

Look at what verses 45 and 46 say.

I think I don't know where they are, but we'll find them somewhere.

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.

Powerful words from Jesus.

He arrives at the temple, and what he's doing here is fulfilling

the words that you do have in Malachi three 1, 2.

The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight the

Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

See what Malachi says.

This coming of Jesus into the temple is not a moment of celebration.

It's a moment of judgment.

That's why he tosses over the tables.

You see, this is not the way things should be in the Temple.

The past sins of Israel in the Temple have been repeated now by

a new generation.

Luke tells us that Jesus coming to the Temple is brief.

As the Lord comes to drive out those who are buying and selling.

The Temple has become a place of financial profit instead of meeting

with God in a place devoted to prayer.

And any religious leader of the day could have justified that

items were needed to perform the sacrifices correctly.

And so this aspect of temple life was required.

Well, was there not a whole city and surrounding area in which

people could trade?

Why did they need to do it in the Temple?

Well, cynically, we can say the Ruling and religious classes

were able to profit from it and benefit from it by the extra

taxes that they would charge.

But what this scene is really telling us is that the spiritual

heart Israel had collapsed.

They may not have been worshipping false gods as their ancestors

had done before the exile to Babylon, but there was.

They were not practicing worship in a way that was practiced

decently and in order, as Paul writes in First Corinthians.

They weren't living by the way God had told them.

And perhaps the cleansing of the temple anticipates its destruction

that Jesus predicts in chapter 21.

And if so, this cleansing is a prophetic action symbolizing the

Temple's destruction.

And Luke tells us nothing more, except to say that Jesus was

daily teaching in the temple.

And as he did, he was making enemies of the Jerusalem elites.

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.

But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people

were hanging on his words.

Jesus continues teaching the people until the end, instructing

them even in the temple.

But the people of influence are determined to do away with him.

The chief priests, the scribes, and those with political

heft.

Yet the leaders are hindered in their plotting, as the people

have a very different view of Jesus.

And is it quite the statement that's here in Scripture that says

they hang on his every word?

The people, by their attention to Jesus teaching, show their spiritual

perception to be far greater than of those who are supposed to

be leading Israel in the area of faith.

Jesus has come to his temple, and it is clear that his opponents

will not be able to endure the day of his coming.

Indeed, they will think they have won, but they will not.

Their heckles are raised because of Jesus emotional response.

He demonstrates his heart.

This window that we're given into the heart of Jesus is no longer

one of weeping and sorrow.

It's now one of anger.

And it is against those who abuse and misuse the name and worship

of God.

Let's call it spiritual adultery.

They say one thing and they practice another.

Jesus challenges these powerful men on two fronts, these

people who are in charge.

The first thing he does is he overturns the tables.

And in doing so, he challenges their morals and their ethics regarding

the worship of God.

He's challenging the heart of what they're supposed to do practically

in leading the people.

And secondly in his teaching, he is challenging their theology

of God, what they believe about him, what they believe about

the Messiah.

What they believe about salvation as the Son of God is in

their midst, they're the ones supposed to be looking out for him.

They're the ones who know how to identify him, and yet they ignore

him.

But of course, the anger of Christ is not like our anger.

Our anger comes from outbursts of not getting things our way.

Ultimately, that's what it is.

Whether you're, you're annoyed by a little ear chipping or a little

voice chipping in your ear and wanting something and you're doing

something else and you turn around and you bark at them, that's

a response.

Because we're not getting our way.

We're not getting what we want.

And that's what anger is.

Anger is about self.

But Jesus was the suffering servant.

Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.

This anger is not a knee jerk reaction response.

His anger is a righteous anger.

Whereas in our anger we want to prove we are right, in the anger

of Jesus, it is one that is righteous because it is fair.

And there are many verses that speak of the slowness by which God

is to anger.

We read them this morning.

And so for the second person of the Trinity to display this righteous

anger means that we need to pay attention.

Because whatever is going on, Jesus is taking seriously so seriously

that it rises him to anger.

And to pay attention means that we must ask ourselves, are we

like the temple attenders of old or attendees of old?

Do we simply come to be seen or to keep ourselves in the hope

that we're okay?

Lulling ourselves into believing that being a church will

simply save us like a bargaining chip with God?

That on that day when Christ comes and we face the judgment, we'll

be able to say, but I went to church.

If nothing else in this incident, in this final week of the

life of Jesus, to teach us is that we cannot play him for the fool.

Coming to church does not save you.

It's good to be here.

Don't get me wrong, it is very good to be here.

But it doesn't save.

And if we think we're coming here to use it as a bartering chip

in the future, then we are playing God for the fool.

You see, God knows our hearts.

He knows them just as we know them.

And what he requires of us is what he required of his people of

old.

He requires faithful worship of his name through the gift of his

salvation.

And for us, that gift of salvation is Jesus Christ.

And so we worship God because of Jesus, because He is the One who

has provided us the way by which we can Worship as the writer

of Hebrews in Hebrews 12, 28, 29 says, Therefore let us be grateful

for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence

and honor.

Awe for our God is a consuming fire.

Again we see in Hebrews verses that sum up quite well what we're

looking at.

What's the problem with the people?

Well, the problem as Jesus weeps and with a sorrow filled heart

is their judgment, their lostness.

And they don't even know it yet.

They should.

And as he's in the temple, what is the problem?

Well, the problem is they're two faced.

They're saying they worship God, but really they're not.

They're worshipping self and simply going through ritual so that

they will convince themselves they're okay.

But when we look to the heart of Jesus, both his weeping heart

and that heart of anger, righteous anger, the heart of Jesus

is one for us that wants us to love him as we respond to his love

for us.

You see, it's not one way where Christ expects us only to love

Him.

He has loved us first in that demonstration of that love on Calvary's

cross.

He wants each of us to be faithful to him, not to be adulterers,

but to worship him and him alone in our thoughts, in our actions

and our words, so that our hearts will truly become his and

he will be glorified in our worship and in our acts of service

for Him.

You see, this is what his heart is for us as he both weeps

and demonstrates righteous anger.

Because the window on the heart of Christ is one we need to

see and we need to know.

Because in it we see truly who he is and it is a heart of love towards

us.

So as we finish this evening on this Palm Sunday, will you trust

him tonight?

Will you trust him and his heart that he is enough for you?

And so completely commit in faith to him and to him alone.

Because in these next days, as we follow this Holy Week to Good

Friday, he will demonstrate that love on the cross for you.

And when we are confronted with Christ, we must respond.

Is your heart troubled tonight?

Well, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem offering peace, receive

his peace for the days that are ahead.

Are you filled with self righteous in the words that you use

in the actions you want to show people, yet you're someone different

behind closed doors?

Or you simply think turning up here is enough?

Well, the Savior may be angry, but it is righteous because it is

for your good that you will turn while there is yet still time

and come to him for his heart of love and no salvation in him and

him alone.

Respond to Jesus this night.

Respond to his open heart and loving heart so that we will know

him as Lord and Savior and we will live for him in the days ahead

that he has given us.

So let us pray.

Our Father God, we thank you for your word, a word of challenge

to us because we don't want to think of an anger, even a righteous

anger upon us.

But yet Jesus demonstrates this because it is the depth of his

love towards us.

And he went to that cross to demonstrate that love.

And so we ask Father, that we will respond well to Jesus.

We will respond well to his weeping, that we too will weep for

the lost where we will have a genuine concern.

And Father, we ask that you will help us to know our own hearts

so that we will be true.

And Father, we will be honest before you and we will come unto

you for salvation and for life eternal.

And we ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.