The Tenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 19:41-48 “The Time of Your Visitation”
August 9, 2026 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Almighty and everlasting God, by Your Holy Spirit You have revealed to us the Gospel of Your Son, Jesus Christ: We beseech You so to enliven our hearts that we may sincerely receive Your Word, and not make light of it, or hear it without fruit, but that we may fear You and daily grow in faith in Your mercy, and finally obtain eternal salvation; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 160)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:
And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, 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. 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.”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who is our everlasting peace, dear fellow redeemed:
In the seasons of life, when the halfway point rolls around, sometimes people will do something drastic. We give it the name “a midlife crisis,” and as we joke about it at times, it is a real thing. So, what are things we do to avoid this scenario. To avoid burnout, there are many events that have been created. From lock-ins, to retreats, to seminars and conferences, these things allow us to find a sense of relief and renewal. Burnout and crisis are events that we see and they are nothing new. Thankfully, renewal is also graciously not new. Over this last year it has been reported that there is renewal in Christianity. However, this renewal is something that also isn’t new. And this renewal is happening so often we can sometimes miss it because it actually is happening to us. It is happening to us every day of every week. In this life that we live, we see our struggles because of our sin and we see our renewal because of our Savior. For this is the time of our visitation.
And all we can be is thankful, because of the visit that we are receiving. We can’t complain with the clarity that we have. We have the completed saving message from start to finish. The people of Jesus’ day shouldn’t have complained either. Their clarity was having what the Scriptures told them and then witnessing those Scriptures come to life before their very eyes. And even over a three-year period, they did not want to believe what they were even witnessing. They were indeed being visited and His visitation was nearing the end. And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, 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.” Some texts even translate that this says “this is your day.” So, you have an idea how important this procession is and the events that are about to follow. It’s so important that even Jesus reveals His emotions. An emotion that was witnessed in one other spot just before this procession at the grave of His friend Lazarus.
Before we try to think we are better than this era, this great emotion of Jesus is visible because He has, He is the solution. They have the solution in their midst, but this is what happens when you are distracted by what is happening in the world. The things that would bring them peace are right in front of them and they have told they will have them as their peace comes from Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus isn’t hiding these events from them. They are blind because of their stubborn unbelief. Jesus knows their concerns are going to override His message. They will rely on their unbelieving past as He says earlier, “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!” (Luke 13:34) As we see in our text, it is only worse in God’s house with the pilgrims losing their location for worship and being cheated out of their money.
With this chaos happening in the Lord’s house and with the faith lacking in the people. What should have been a great moment for God’s people to gather, instead was pretty dangerous as their offerings were given and not done in repentance. Giving God sacrifices with no spiritual connection at all was an abomination before God. Scripture is clear the Lord is looking and waiting for penitent hearts. With this key part being absent, God is clear what direction this can take us to. God can be hidden when He has finally ended someone’s time of grace. Now this is not where most people were and are at. Again, realizing the visitation is crucial because it is here. And in both visitations, we see how the world is actively trying to remove the visitor. The enemies were set on killing Him and then they did kill Him. If labeled an enemy, “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). How can there be peace without the Prince of Peace? Jesus had been bringing His people the renewal they needed as He goes directly to the temple to cleanse it for proper services; the hearing of God’s Word which has the answer of peace.
Like the people of Jesus’ day, we must beware of world distractions from the Lord’s Word. We must hang on to it, for Jesus cleanses our hearts by faith in His Holy Word. For in this Word we truly have peace. Unfortunately, this information does not make us perfect upon hearing it. The moment we are not maintaining it into our daily life and we see why Jesus had to cleanse the temple for a second time. The prophet Jeremiah was dealing with the same issues right before God’s divine judgment on His people. He prophesied, which is fulfilled in real time with Jesus, Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD (Jeremiah 7:11) Upon seeing the Lord’s chosen people in such a state, Jeremiah laments, Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1) As Jesus laments for the slaying that will come forty years later with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, we must keep in mind this weeping. For He weeps for His people and we are also His people who struggle with our own sins that would rather see us ignoring our blessed Savior’s visitation.
As Jesus knows what is going to happen to His beloved city of His people, He knows that there would be some who would heed the call of His visitation. As His enemies were scheming, His people were being renewed as they held onto His Word. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on His words. This is proof of the power that is found in His Word. It doesn’t go out and fade away. While many will reject His Word, there are some who have ears that are not deaf to what they hear. They hear it and because of its power, the power of Jesus’ teaching and the anticipation that something was going to happen. After witnessing what brought them peace on this holiest of weeks, they believed in Jesus as the Savior of the world. And with this message of peace, this message is what continued and continues to be taught. Jesus’ visitation did arrive. And He continues to be present for His people in His Word.
Being present in His Word means seeing His power and being reminded of history. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the first temple in 587 B.C. for the same reason. While there are some ignoring God’s call through His prophets to repent and seek the Lord, who alone supplies true peace, God’s Word rings true and prevails. Jeremiah was able to tell God’s people, do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from His hand (Jeremiah 42:11) Hope was found when the temple was rebuilt 70 years later. Jesus people were also given hope because the temple of Jesus’ body that was about to be arrested, beaten, and crucified, was raised 3 days later, as Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).
A temple rebuilt, a spirit of renewal, is given to you for the time God came to help you is literally the time of your visitation. And this help does not only happen once for you and never happens again. The Lord rebuilt His temple, the Lord rose from the dead so that you see He is Christ the Lord, He has given you His peace, and He wants you to come and renew your hearts in this peace every single day. For you experience trials and temptations every day. You see the troubles every day bring and because of those troubles, they try to persuade you there is no peace. Your only hope is to fall into His all-powerful Word and hear the sweet Words of His Gospel again and again. For in His Word it is revealed to you with His attitude, how He has done all that is needed to save you. With His weeping for you, He reveals the confirmation of all the beatitudes. For the blessed One, blessed being poor, blessed through mourning for you, blessed as meek, blessed for hungering and relying on the strength of His Father, blessed with the richest of mercies to go to the cross, pure in heart, the peacemaker, and finally persecuted for you, gives you the finished task of an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. He is confirming what He teaches as He did nothing by force. He did it in service for you.
And though He is rejected and the world will try to give you distractions, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Luke 20:17-18). Your enemies, His enemies, can’t win. The victory is witnessed with the cross standing high for all to see. With this cross raised, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, pouring from it, even in the sadness of all who raise an attack, with Jeremiah you confess, the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23). Renewal every day of every week with these Words which are read every year on Good Friday.
With renewed hearts, you pray for your family, friends, and neighbors, that they would receive Jesus, who came in compassion to seek and save the lost. Who wept and endured the shame of the cross to give them a new heart. It is not an easy road. Many run because to stand here means to repent and have this heart acknowledge what it has done wrong as Malachi writes, 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 fullers’ soap (Malachi 3:2). With this scrubbing of the law, hearts that see they can’t change on their own, they instead hear in Jesus’ powerful Word that He is sincere in His redemption for the sins of all people. His tears point to Him being truly human and because of His work, they are tears that console you as your tears of sins are taken onto Himself, where He publicly reveals God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone. Instead, He wants you to see, He is here in His visitation. He is here to renew your heart. And with its renewal, He gives you His peace. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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