“HE DRAWS NEAR”
Saint Luke 19. 41-48
The Tenth Sunday after Trinity: 20 August Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
“As He drew near, He saw the city…” Jesus has drawn near since the beginning. Even when Eve and her apostate pastor husband wished God dead, even when they withdrew and hid themselves, Jesus came for them, “walking in the Garden in the cool of the day.”
It was supposed to be a garden and not a city. Eden was heaven on earth not only because it was perfect but because Jesus was there with His lambs. Civic, local, and community pride aside, there is no honest observer who can claim city life has ever been better than the pristine garden of God’s handiwork. Modern urban areas rather look as if they had been planned and designed by Satan himself. Architectural opinions notwithstanding, if man won’t gather around the table with the Lord, than he will find himself, like rats or roaches, gathered around the refuse of sin, worldly pursuits, and selfish lusts; crammed into the “city of man.”
The Shepherd won’t let His flock remain rustled. The Protector of the sheep won’t let His own remain hungry, lost, diseased, and full of the mange of sin: “He draws near.”
While one can not draw an entire theological belief system from this one phrase, it does serve to bolster other important parts of God’s revelation which do make it abundantly clear that God does all the “drawing near,” all the choosing, electing, deciding, adopting and baptizing, and that we, receive Grace totally by His action not by our cooperation or synergistic “accepting.”
“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.” Love is not in the “feeling,” but rather in the sending, the going, the coming, the “drawing near,” and in the “weeping.”
Jesus shed blood on the “eighth day” when He was circumcised to obey the law you break; a foretaste of the blood He would shed on Calvary to pay for all your misdeeds. Jesus shed tears, even before He raised Lazarus. Those tears then, even as the tears in today’s text, are tears over sin, their sin, your sin, all of our sin. Think of that: God cried over your daily trespasses. The Lord knew what lay in store for Him on that hill called “skull,” but He wasn’t bemoaning His fate, or even His suffering. Jesus wept over your sin which, un-repented, unforgiven, leads to death and hell. The Savior also was weeping over all those who would go on rejecting His “drawing near” even unto their own earthly deaths.
Fellow sinners, Repent! Repent and be again dipped into His tears. The precious saline moisture from the pure eyes of God cleanses you of all stain. These tears point to the tears He would shed in pain on the Tree; they point to the water which would gush from His side when His dead body was pierced by the spear. These tears typify the very Waters of Life in every Baptismal font. These are the tears which the Holy Ghost daily applies to you in confession & absolution, as the old nature is drowned in Jesus.
Because He has “drawn near to you,” as near as your Baptism, as near as His Word, as near as His Supper, you both know and have the things that make for your peace.
You know the time of your visitation, for today is the day of your visitation and salvation. You’re getting hungry again for forgiveness, aren’t you? You’re starting to thirst again for abundant life now, and eternal life hereafter, aren’t you? You really want, right now, salvation from death and despair, I know you do! Hallelujah! “He draws near,” and IS HERE!
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost