Wednesday of the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Collect: O God, You declare Your mighty power above all in showing mercy and pity. Mercifully grant us such a measure of Your grace that we may obtain Your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasures; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

 

The Epistle reading for the Wednesday of the 11^th Sunday after Pentecost is from 1 Corinthians, the 12^th chapter.                                            Corinthians 12:1-11

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. ⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. This is the Word of the Lord.

Alleluia Verse: Alleluia. O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. Alleluia. 

 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 19^th chapter.                        Luke 19:41-48

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² 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. ⁴³ 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 ⁴⁴ 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.” ⁴⁵ And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold,⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” ⁴⁷ 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, ⁴⁸ but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. This is the Gospel of the Lord. 

 

O Lord, your Word is lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. 

 

The New Testament records only two times when Jesus openly wept. The first time is when Mary, the brother of Lazarus, came to Jesus outside of Bethany. She wept as she spoke with Jesus, for Lazarus had died. Jesus responded with tears. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit.” And “He wept.” (John 11:33, 35) The early church Father Hippolytus comments on Jesus’ expression of tears. “What need was there to weep for him whom he was soon about to raise? But Jesus wept to give us an example of sympathy and kindliness toward our fellow human beings. Jesus wept that he might by deed rather than word teach us to ‘weep with those that weep.’”   

 

The second time Jesus weeps is after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In the Collect of the Day, we pray to God, “O God, You declare Your mighty power above all in showing mercy and pity…” Jesus shows mercy by continuing toward the cross. He is merciful despite the resistance he suffers from most of those who ought to recognize Him from the messianic promises in the Scriptures. If they do not recognize Him from the passages in Scripture, surely, they would recognize him from His preaching, teaching, and abundance of miracles. But that was not to be the case, as today’s reading makes plain. Despite what the rest of the people, and even some gentiles, see, the chief priests, scribes, and other leaders see a troublemaker that needs to be destroyed.  

 

Jesus weeps. He has mercy upon the people. He even has pity on those who despise Him. Despite their sinful arrogance and wrong headedness, Jesus loves them too. He is the suffering servant for all people. As He turns the other cheek, Jesus weeps for them. 

 

Jesus weeps for the city of Jerusalem and the temple. The beautiful place of worship will in another four decades will be destroyed. When Jesus says, “⁴³ 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 ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another…” He is predicting the way in which the Romans will defeat the Jewish Revolt. In AD 70, when the Jewish Revolt was squelched, the Roman Army dismantled the temple. It has never been built again.

 

Jesus weeps because so many failed to recognize that God incarnate was in their midst. Jesus says that they did not know the time of their visitation. The kind of visitation that Jesus is talking about is referring to is all the occasions when God visited His people. Joseph prophesied that God would visit Egypt and lead Israel back home. (Genesis 50:24-25) This happened through Moses.  Ruth 1:6 reports how Naomi had heard that the Lord had visited Judah, so she and Ruth went back to Judah, Naomi’s home country. 1 Samuel 2:21 tells how the Lord visited Hannah. Afterwards, Hannah, who was barren, became pregnant. In Psalm 65:9, King David offers praise because when the Lord visited the earth, it became abundant. There are additional examples. What is pertinent now is that 

the Lord’s past visitations were recognized, honored, and praised. But not this time. Jesus weeps because so many who should have recognized him as the Lord, did not. 

 

Yet, out of this loss springs our salvation. Jesus continues toward His passion and crucifixion. He has mercy upon all people regardless of their discernment of the Lord’s visitation in their midst. Jesus’s blood is spilled for the unrighteous so that through faith they may receive Christ’s righteousness.  

 

It is the Lord’s business, not ours, to know the final spiritual and eternal fate of the religious leaders who sought to destroy Jesus. But we are grateful to know that Jesus dies for all sinners, including us. We rejoice that the Holy Spirit has called us to faith in Christ Jesus who is crucified and risen for us. We, in turn, offer tears of gratitude for his grace. 

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.