Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Holy Gospel reading and also Pslam 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem".

I've recently seen bumper stickers that say "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," which is a quote of Psalm 122:6. This passage seems as timely now as it was when David wrote it 3000 years ago. The Middle East is always war-torn, and Jerusalem is right at the center of it, both geographically and politically. And when you factor in religion, then it gets even more complicated. In Jerusalem you've got members of three religions squabbling over who the city should belong to. The Islamic Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the second most holy site for Muslims next to Mecca itself. Judaism holds that same location as sacred because it was the location of Solomon's temple, destroyed and rebuilt two times, but then destroyed a third time. To this day the Temple's remnant, the great Wailing Wall, is a major site of pilgrimage and prayer. Christians recognize Jerusalem as very important since that plot of land was the location where our salvation was achieved. Outside the city gates the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, and it was there that he was buried and rose. In fact, the very first Christian congregation was in the city of Jerusalem, and that is where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first Pentecost.

So if you add up all the politics, religion, and economic factors at play in the Middle East, then it is no surprise there is so much strife, and therefore it seems worthwhile to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." And of course, it is a laudable prayer, as St. Paul says, "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people". We should certainly pray for earthly peace everywhere, since the Lord is the only one who could ever grant it. But in our Gospel reading, Jesus Himself did not predict peace for Jerusalem, but strife and destruction.

Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, wept over the city, and cried out, "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."

This is one of the most ominous predictions Jesus ever made, but before we talk about this destruction of Jerusalem, first we need to understand what Jesus meant when He spoke of its "visitation" and "the things that make for peace." As always, Jesus Himself is the key. Jerusalem's "visitation" and "the things that make for peace" were the things Jesus had come to accomplish. He came and preached to Israel that its Messiah had arrived, the one God had promised them long ago. Jesus identified Himself as the Suffering Servant written about by the prophet Isaiah: "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed". The peace that God promised to Israel in the Old Testament would come about by the Lord Himself visiting His people to redeem them with His own suffering, death, and resurrection. His precious blood alone could make peace between the rebellious Israelites and their faithful Lord.

And so after weeping over Jerusalem's persistent impenitence, Jesus would come into the city, and very soon the Jewish leaders would put their Lord to death. Christ's death was God's will, and His own will. The Lamb of God died willingly, not only for Israel's sin, but for your sin, my sin, and all the sin of the world. Our sin had called down God's wrath and enmity, but in Christ, God has made peace with His sinful creation and has opened up the door to Paradise, where peace reigns again. As St. Paul says in Ephesians, Jesus Himself is "our peace" with God, who has abolished the Law's condemnation upon us. He has reconciled Jews and Gentiles alike to God in His body "through the cross, thereby killing the hostility" between God and us, and between Jew and Gentile. After rising from the dead on the third day, Jesus went and preached peace to His apostles in the upper room, where they were hiding for fear of the Jews. He showed them the marks that accomplished peace in His wounded hands and side. And then He commissioned the apostles and His Church to go out and preach the Gospel of peace to all nations, as Peter explained in Acts that God sent them out to preach the "good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)".

And for all those who have received the gracious visitation and forgiveness from the "Lord of all" through Baptism and faith, they have a kind of peace that the earthly Jerusalem never can have. St. Paul wrote, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God". What a joyful life we have, knowing that we have perfect peace with God through the forgiveness of all of our sins! That is why the Divine Service is such a joyful and peace-filled time for us Christians, particularly the Lord's Supper. In the Communion liturgy, the pastor proclaims, "The peace of the Lord be with you always!" as He shows you the true body and blood of Jesus, which was sacrificed on the cross to earn peace for you. After the Lord's Supper we sing, "Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace…for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." And the Benediction concludes with, "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." And we respond with not just one "Amen" but with three, "Amen, Amen, Amen!" because in the Divine Service we have enjoyed God's gracious visitation to us in the Word and Sacraments, and now we are assured that the peace which passes all understanding will keep us in the one true faith until life everlasting.

Indeed, through Baptism and faith in Jesus, you are now part of the true, heavenly Jerusalem, as the writer of Hebrews says: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel". As you gather here as Christ's Church, in the Divine Service, you are once again assured that you are God's chosen people in Christ Jesus, among whom God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell with grace and mercy. You are joined by angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, with whom you will spend eternity in the heavenly Jersualem.

But on the other hand, in the Gospel reading Jesus prophesied of the earthly Jerusalem that there would be no peace for her because her people had for so long rejected the Lord, and now they were rejecting the Word-made-flesh Jesus. They rejected the heavenly peace of God's grace that grants forgiveness of sins and eternal life. St. Paul said in the Epistle that because Israel attempted to get right with God on the basis of the Law, on the basis of their own works, they failed to obtain peace with God. So many Jews stumbled over this teaching of free salvation for the sake of Christ's death and resurrection because they were enamored of their own self-righteousness. And as Jesus promised in the Gospel, for their rejection, the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD as a sign of God's rejection of them.

Of course the Lord is merciful and tells us that He desires that all people repent of their sins and turn to Him. So He did not destroy Jerusalem right away but gave her forty years to repent. That's about how long it was from the time of Jesus' death and resurrection until Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. In the meantime, many Jews did become followers of Jesus and enjoyed the peace of the Gospel.

But as Jesus promised, time would run out. We know from Josephus, the great Jewish historian, that the legions of Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus laid siege to the city from 66 to 70 A.D. and that Jerusalem finally fell on August 10 in the year 70 A.D. Josephus records that after the Roman army had killed everyone in the city, Caesar gave orders to destroy the whole city and the temple. Jerusalem "was so thoroughly laid even with the ground that...there was nothing left to make those that [visited] believe it had ever been inhabited."

This destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is what Jesus was talking about in our text from Luke 19 today. And that event was the once and for all sign that Jerusalem would never again be the special location of God's gracious presence in the world. No longer would it be the city of God's peace. Rather, the only true and lasting peace to be found in this world is in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, who is Himself our peace, who continues to visit the world through the Word and Sacraments in the Church. But the earthly Jerusalem was rejected, and no longer does it have any significance for our Christian faith, except for the historical events that happened there long ago.

So do "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" by asking the Lord to grant earthly peace in the Middle East, but more importantly, ask that He would sent His good Word and Spirit to convert to Jesus all those over there and throughout the world, Jews, Muslims, and members of every other false religion, who are trapped in the delusion that their peace with God is obtainable by their own righteousness. As St. Paul said in the Epistle, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved". So we pray that that Gospel of peace may not be bound but would have free course and be preached among all nations. The only true and lasting peace in this world is in the free salvation that Jesus delivers when He visits us in Word and Sacrament, so let us pray that He would continue to visit our dying world with the peace of the Gospel until He returns to put an end to this war-torn world of strife and woe.

And there's another thought you should keep in mind as you "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." You are also praying that the Lord would grant you the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem by coming quickly to save you. That peace will be perfect on the Last Day, but in the meantime, the Lord visits you again this morning in His true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, and He says to you, "The peace of the Lord be with you always." "Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.