Luke 19:41-48; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Jeremiah 8:4-12
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
One of the most poignant ecclesial symbols of Christ’s atoning sacrifice is known as The Pelican in Her Piety. In a time of famine and distress, the female pelican was believed to pierce her own breast and feed her young with her own blood that they might live. It is easy to see why this became a symbol of Christ, who sacrificed His own life and shed His precious blood that we might be forgiven, restored, and have life in Him. St. Thomas Aquinas even used this image in his Communion hymn, Thee We Adore, O Hidden Savior: “Thou, like the pelican to feed her brood, Didst pierce Thyself to give us living food.”
There is an image in St. Luke’s Gospel that is remarkably similar. Jesus compares Himself to a mother hen who gathers her brood beneath her wings. Earlier in Luke, Jesus lamented over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” They were His people. They were His children. They were His brood. He desired to gather them to Himself, shelter them, feed them, and give them life. But they were not willing. And so, when Jesus came near Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept.
I want you to notice something about what Jesus says: “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” Throughout the Gospels, seeing is often more than simply having functioning eyes. It is seeing with the eyes of faith. It is seeing what is really true and real rather than merely what appears to be true. Many people could see Jesus. They saw the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. They saw an itinerant rabbi. They saw a prophet. Some saw a threat to their power, authority, and wealth. But they did not see who He really was. Others, including some whom the world considered blind or insignificant, saw what others could not see. They saw Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
Jerusalem could see Jesus, but Jerusalem could not see Jesus. And that spiritual blindness had consequences. Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that Jerusalem would be surrounded, besieged, and destroyed. He knew that the temple itself would be torn down, “not one stone upon another.” And He knew why: “because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
That is the tragedy. God had visited His people in grace, and they did not recognize Him. Jesus was there. The Word made flesh was there. He was preaching the Word of the Lord and calling them to repentance. He was giving them the very things that make for peace with God. But they refused to believe Him.
Jeremiah had described the same spiritual blindness centuries earlier: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” They thought they were secure because they were Abraham’s children. They trusted in their outward righteousness, their religious observances, their temple, their prayers, and their works. But they did not see that all of these things were pointing to Christ and His sacrifice. They had religion, but they did not have Christ. They had the signs, but they rejected the One to whom the signs pointed. They said, “Peace,” when there was no peace. And this warning is not merely for Jerusalem. It is for us.
The Greek word translated “visitation” is episkopē. It means visitation, oversight, supervision. It is related to the word from which we get bishop and pastor. Your pastor’s visitation is a visitation of grace. The visitation of your bishop is a visitation of grace. And, most especially, when you gather here on the Lord’s Day, you are receiving the Lord’s gracious visitation. He comes to you with the things that make for peace. The preaching of the Gospel. The forgiveness of sins. Holy Baptism. The Lord’s Supper.
St. Paul says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Do you know the time of your visitation? Do you see what is happening here? Do you see what is really happening when the Word of God is preached, when your sins are forgiven, when the waters of Baptism are applied, when the Body and Blood of Christ are given to you?
This is not merely something we do for God. This is not merely our religious obligation. This is not merely another hour of our week. God is visiting His people in grace. And that is why you should never think of coming to church as though you are doing God some great favor. You are not coming here primarily to serve God. You are coming here because God has promised to serve you. You are coming into the presence of your Peace. You are entering His Sabbath Rest. You are receiving His gracious visitation.
I am not suggesting that this congregation, or Lutherans, have somehow cornered the market on the Lord’s gracious visitation. God is truly present everywhere. But here, in this place, in Word and Water, Body and Blood, God is present for you in a particular and gracious way. Here He gathers you beneath His wings. Here He forgives your sins. Here He strengthens you with His Word. Here He feeds you with the very Body and Blood of Christ. Here the One who pierced His own flesh for His brood gives you His flesh and blood that you might live.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they did not recognize the time of their visitation. They could not see the things that made for peace. But you have been given eyes to see. Do not close them. Do not despise the Lord’s visitation. Do not take His gifts lightly.
The world may tell you that peace is found in wealth, politics, success, pleasure, security, or your own righteousness. It may tell you that the Church needs to become more like the world in order to survive. But there is no peace in those things. Jesus is our shalom. He is our fullness and completeness. He is the Foundation of our Peace with God and with one another. And though the world surrounds us and hems us in, though the culture threatens to tear down everything that belongs to Christ, we gather here in the Lord’s house of prayer. We take shelter beneath His gracious wings. We hang on His every Word. We receive His heavenly treasures.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! This day, and every Lord’s Day, is the day of His gracious visitation. May God grant us always to see it, to know it, and to rejoice in it. Let us never forget the things that make for our peace. Let us cling to them. Let us preserve them. Let us receive them with thanksgiving. For they are our life and salvation. They are Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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