PALM SUNDAY
WHY CHRIST WEPT
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 4, 2004
LUKE 19:35-44
Last Wednesday was March 31st, and for some of you it was a special day. For some of you, March 31st is your birthday. For some of you, March 31st is your anniversary. But for most of you, March 31st was just another day. And yet when we look at history, and particularly the history of the Jews and the relationship of Christians and Jews throughout history, March 31st looms big because it was on March 31st in the year 1492 that Ferdinand and Isabel signed an edict forcing all Jewish people out of the kingdom of Spain. Most historians view March 31st, 1492, as the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. But of course, in truth, the Spanish Inquisition began years earlier when Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile were married, in 1469. And when they were married, they established a state church that was hostile to the Jews—a Christian church hostile to Jewish people, and Jewish people began to be oppressed and persecuted.
They were interrogated, tortured, and incarcerated. But it was March 31st, 1492, when they were actually banished as Ferdinand and Isabel signed that edict. And so it was that when that edict was signed, every Jewish person in Spain lost his home. They lost their land, they lost their jobs, they lost everything. They lost their homeland that they’d had for almost 1,500 years. And 150,000 Jewish men, women, and children rose up to leave Spain. The last Jewish person left Spain on August 2nd, 1492. August 2nd is a dark day in Jewish history. Traditionally it was August 2nd when the first temple was destroyed. Traditionally, August 2nd was when the second temple was destroyed. And of course, August 2nd was when the Jews were driven out of Spain. And of course, on August 3rd, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world.
You look at Christian history, you look at history in general, and it’s very clear that not everything done in the name of Christ is Christian. And of course, throughout history there have been tragic persecutions of Jews by Christians. Now we come to Palm Sunday. Jesus was arriving in Jerusalem, the beginning of passion week. As Mark said, He was coming over the Mount of Olives, down the slope towards the Kidron Valley and across the valley, the walled holy city of Jerusalem. As Jesus looked on that city, He wept. In fact, the Greek means that the literal meaning of the Greek means “He wailed like at a funeral.” In tremendous grief, He wept.
And why did he weep? Why did Jesus weep? Perhaps even in His incarnate state He had omniscience enough to know the future of the Jews. Maybe He looked through the portals of time and He saw the Spanish Inquisition. Maybe He saw the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Nazis, when 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were gassed and incinerated. Certainly He looked through the portals of time and saw the destruction of Jerusalem and He prophesied it. And He said that He saw that the Roman armies would come into Jerusalem. They came in 70 AD under the leadership of Titus and Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered in the streets and the temple Mount was destroyed and not one stone left upon another. Jesus saw it and He wept.
But as we look at this passage of scripture, we see that Jesus also wept for two other reasons. I want us to examine these two reasons this morning. First of all, Jesus wept because He saw that the people did not know the things that make for peace. Jesus said, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.” He wept because they knew not these things.
Now, many of you have traveled to South America. Perhaps you’ve gone high up in the Andes Mountains. It’s high up in the Andes mountains where you can find an incredible monument called Christ of the Andes. It’s a great statue of Christ and it stands right on the border at the top of the Andes, right on the border between Argentina and Chile. It’s one of the most famous monuments in the world. Its base is made out of granite, and the statue itself is made out of brass, formed from countless cannons that once were used in battles between Argentina and Chile. Christ of the Andes. On the base, there’s a plaque, and these are the words: “Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust than Argentina and Chile break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer.”
And there’s a date: May 28th, 1903. It was in that season when Argentina and Chile, having fought for decades, having killed their neighbors for decades, asked for King Edward the VIII, king of Great Britain, to come and arbitrate in their war and lead them to peace. King Edward VIII was a Christian King, the son of Victoria. He came in the year 1903. He sat down with the leaders of Argentina and Spain—and many of them Christians—and they swore at the feet of Christ and they signed in the name of Christ that they would never fight again. And to this day, it has been true.
Argentina and Chile have lived together in peace. They sort of prototype of what will come when Jesus comes again—Shar Shalom, the Prince of Peace. “And He will beat our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore.” But as Jesus came into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday, He knew that Israel didn’t understand peace and they did not know the things of peace.
There were four groups of people in Israel at that time. There were the zealots, and the zealots were more or less a political party and they had hatred of Rome, their oppressors. And the zealots sought peace, but the zealots sought peace through terrorism. And so, the Jewish zealot leaders trained assassins who they called dagger men. And these assassins, these dagger men, went throughout the crowds and they looked for Roman soldiers and Roman officials, and they just killed them in the midst of the crowds. And these Jewish zealots, these terrorists, were willing to die in the act. They didn’t care. They wanted to create chaos. And they believed that through terrorism, they could drive Rome out of Israel and they would have peace. They believed that if they just did enough terrorist acts, Rome would leave and they would have peace. And they sabotaged Roman roads, overturning Roman carriages and chariots killing Roman officials in acts of terrorism. Of course, it did not lead to peace. And as the zealot movement grew and the eyes of Rome fell upon it, Rome did not decide to leave Israel but rather to destroy Jerusalem. And that’s what caused Titus and his Roman armies to come in 70 AD, because the zealot movement was rising and they were tired of terrorism. They didn’t understand the things of peace.
As a second group in Israel on Palm Sunday were the Essenes. The Essenes sought peace through escapism—not terrorism, but escapism. They sought to isolate themselves from all the problems of the world. And so the Essenes rarely lived within the cities of Israel, but they went out into the remote areas, areas like Qumran, where an archeological dig is taking place today. And of course, Qumran is near the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves at Qumran. It was an Essene community, one of many Essenes communities—people seeking peace through escape, Jewish people seeking peace through escape, through isolation. But of course, this is not the way of peace, and there’s no real genuine peace through escape.
A third group in Israel on Palm Sunday were the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a kind of religious political group, and they sought peace through moral and theological compromise. And so it was the Sadducees who entered into compromise with Rome. And the Sadducees were thereby rich and powerful as they made moral compromise with Rome and theological compromise with Rome. They rose in power and their pockets were lined with cash. But of course, it was not the way of peace, because moral and theological compromise does not bring genuine peace.
Then there was a fourth group, and that fourth group was the Pharisees. You’ve all heard of them. And the Pharisees sought peace through external religion and all the religiosity that characterizes external religion. But Jesus knew there’s no inward peace through external religion. They did not know the things of peace. And you wonder what would’ve happened had the Jewish people at that time listened to the Sermon on the Mount. What would’ve happened? What would’ve happened if though they had little power and no army to resist Rome? What would’ve happened if they listened to the words of Christ and the Sermon on the Mount and they actually tried to serve their oppressors? What if they tried loving the Romans? What would’ve happened if they did what Jesus told them to do? When a Roman soldier asked them to carry his stuff for one mile, they said, let me carry it for two miles. What if they would’ve done that?
I mean, it was during the era of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. Many nations had attained favorite nation status. Many cities throughout the Roman empire had attained favorite city status. Maybe this would’ve been true of Jerusalem and Israel had they had servants hearts. What would’ve happened had they embraced Jesus as the Messiah? And of course, some of the Jews did embrace Jesus as Messiah, and the disciples were Jews. They embraced Jesus as Messiah. But the nation did not. Israel did not. And what would’ve happened if they had embraced Jesus as the Messiah and they aligned themselves with the power of the Son of God? What would’ve happened? Surely Jerusalem would not have been destroyed in 70 AD.
And of course, it is true (and even secular historians know it is true) that ultimately Christianity and the gospel of Christ conquered the Roman Empire and the very center of the Christian world became Rome. All of those people throughout the Roman Empire who embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ found peace. Everyone who truly responded to the gospel found peace. The world cannot understand the peace that comes through repentance and faith—the peace of knowing that your sin is forgiven you; the peace that comes with knowing you’re bound for heaven; the peace that comes from knowing you have eternal life; the peace that comes from knowing you have a family beyond your immediate family, a spiritual family of brothers and sisters the world over who feel very much like you do and live for the same purposes as you; the peace that comes from having a purpose and the privilege of serving the kingdom of heaven in our time.
So how about you? Do you know the things that make for peace? Or does Christ look at you and weep? Is He weeping? Do we know the things that make for peace? Do we have servant hearts in our relationships? Do we love people? Have we responded to the gospel of peace? Have we responded to the gospel of Christ? Do you have the peace of knowing your sin is forgiven you? Do you have the peace of knowing you’re bound for heaven? Do you have the peace of knowing you’re in the family of God, brothers and sisters of Christ, sons and daughters of God through Christ? Do you know that? Do you have that peace? Do you have the peace of His purpose and the confidence that all things do work together for good for those who love Him? Do you have that peace? Do you have the peace that passes understanding peace that the world can’t give? You can find that peace today.
There is a second teaching, and the second teaching this morning concerns the second reason that that Jesus wept on Palm Sunday, and that is this: He wept because they did not know the time of their visitation. They did not know the things that make for peace, and they did not know the time of their visitation. That’s a curious phrase, “the time of their visitation.” Scholars have looked at Hebrew culture and Greek culture to try to understand this exact phraseology, “the time of their visitation.” They’ve discovered that it refers to a God appearance, to a divine visitation. This was phraseology that refers to a divine visit. That’s why in the NIV in this verse, Luke 19:44, it is translated for you, “For they did not know the time of their visitation from God.” They missed a divine visit. Jesus had come to Jerusalem. They did not know it was the time of their visitation—a God appearance, divine visit. Have you ever had a divine visit? Have you ever had a time you felt like God appeared in some sense, in some way, in your life? Have you had any sense in which you felt you were visited by God?
Many of you have probably watched the movie Bruce Almighty, in which God, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman, contacts a man named Bruce and offers him all of His powers. Certainly Morgan Freeman did a great job of portraying the one who cannot be portrayed, and certainly Jim Carrey is a very, very funny man. But of course, we all know we’ve never had God appear to us bodily and physically. And yet, I hope you understand, God has appeared bodily and physically, and that was in Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t portray God. Jesus is God. And so Jesus came to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday as God incarnate, God in the flesh. It was the time of their visitation, a divine visit. And of course, the people did not understand, and He wept.
We can look back on history and see there have been many divine visitations. In one form or another, God has manifested Himself to mankind. There have been many theophanies. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and spoke through the burning bush. That’s a theophany, a visual manifestation of the divine presence. God appeared to the children of Israel in the pillar of fire and then the Glory Cloud and guided them through those theophanies. God tabernacled with the people in the tabernacle and in the temple as the Shekinah, the glory, hovered over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. That was a theophany, a divine visit.
And of course, the Bible speaks of divine visits through this mysterious being called the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord is mysterious. And whenever the Angel of the Lord appeared, people knew they had been with God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham and to Moses and David and the Angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob and to Joseph and to Gideon. Theologians debate, “Who was the Angel of the Lord?” And there are some theologians who believe the Angel of the Lord was just another theophany, another visual manifestation of God chosen by God. There are others who believe the Angel of the Lord was actually an angel, although the word “angel” in Hebrew, the word “malachim,” and even the word angel in Greek, the word “angelos…” these words don’t necessarily mean angel. They simply mean messenger. But there are some theologians who believe the Angel of the Lord is the highest of all angels—above the cherub, above the seraphim, above the archangels, above the dominions and the thrones and the principalities and powers. They believe it is an angel so high that this angel can somehow represent God.
There are other theologians who believe the Angel of the Lord was a Christophany, that he was a kind of Old Testament appearance by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. No one knows for sure, but we do know this: through the Angel of the Lord, God paid the earth divine visitations. And I think there’s a sense in which we could say that wherever angels appear, God visits. And the Bible says some have entertained angels unawares.
Now, I read a few years ago about a man named W S Mitchell, a medical doctor and a renowned neurologist in the city of Philadelphia. He wasn’t in the habit of making house calls. Most doctors aren’t. But one night he was asleep and there was a knock at the door, and he awoke, went to the door, and there was a little girl. She had old shoes on, and her coat was weathered and torn, and it was snowing outside. It was wintertime in Philadelphia. The little girl said, “My mom is dying. Please help me. My mom is dying. Please come. You must come.” So, Dr. Mitchell decided to go. How could he say no? He went with this girl, and they went to the mother’s house and found her. And she was indeed dying. She had an acute respiratory illness, and the doctor was able to save her life. He was able to give her medicine and was able to help her.
He said to her, “You should be proud of your daughter. She was very bold, very courageous, very forceful.” And the mother said, “Well, I have no daughter. My daughter died one month ago. I’m still in grief. Her clothes are still hanging in the closet.” Dr. Mitchell went into the closet, and he saw shoes just like the shoes the girl had on and that coat weathered and torn just like the coat she wore, except it wasn’t even wet. It hadn’t been out in the snow. He didn’t understand.
The story of Dr. Mitchell is told in a book by Billy Graham called Angels: God’s Secret Agents. The story is also told in Reader’s Digest. According to Billy Graham, perhaps that girl was an angel. Maybe that little girl was an angel. According to the Reader’s Digest, well, maybe the girl was the mother’s daughter allowed to come back. Maybe God would allow her to come back just for a visit. No one knows for sure. Although the story’s renowned, nobody knows for sure. Certainly this much is true. Somehow through that girl, there was a divine visit—a God appearance, a divine visitation. Heaven came to earth somehow. And you see, throughout history, there have been such experiences. Some of you have shared with me some amazing experiences. But you see, there’s never been a God visit like Jesus. Never has God visited this world like He did in Jesus.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem that Palm Sunday, this was God in the flesh coming to visit His people and they did not know the time of their visitation. Now, in the Aramaic world (and remember Jesus spoke Aramaic) the average Jewish person in Israel on Palm Sunday knew three languages. They knew Aramaic, which they spoke every day. They knew Hebrew, which was used in the context of religious worship. And they knew Greek because they lived in a Hellenized world. So they knew Aramaic and Hebrew and Greek, but every day they spoke Aramaic. And the Aramaic title for a divine visitation was the title “The word.” In Aramaic, the term is “memrah,” which means “the word.” What did the Aramaic-speaking people call a divine visit? They called it “memrah,” the word? what did they call the Shekinah in the Holy of Holies? They called it the “memrah,” the word. What did they call a theophany? They called it “memrah,” the word. What did they call God himself? They called Him “memrah.” They called Him the Word.
So we come to John’s Gospel, the first chapter, and what do we see? Jesus is given the title “The Word.” “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was in the beginning with God all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And as you look at that title in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, it takes on different subtleties of meaning. But you see, for the Aramaic-speaking people, it means a God visitation. Jesus was God visiting His people, and they did not know the time.
Now, here’s the important thing for us. You see in the Bible that this title “the Word” is also applied to the gospel. You see, the gospel in the Bible is called “the Word.” Jesus is the Word incarnate in the flesh. The gospel is the word spoken. And so, the gospel in the Bible is called the Word. And there’s a sense in which wherever the gospel is preached, God shows up. There’s a divine visitation. Whenever Billy Graham has a crusade, God appears through the gospel. God visits, and people need to know the time of their visitation. Wherever the gospel is preached, in any pulpit in America or anywhere else in the world, God shows up. Wherever the gospel is preached, God shows up, and people need to know the time of their visitation.
I love testimonies and I love to hear people share their testimony—how they came to love Christ, how they came to believe, how they came to know Christ. Sometimes on our staff retreats or on our elder retreats, I’ve invited the elders or the staff to share their testimonies. We all tear up. It’s so incredible to hear about how God visits His people, and it’s so wonderful to hear from people who knew the time of their visitation and gave their heart to Christ. Some people heard the gospel through a friend. Some heard the gospel at a Billy Graham crusade. Some heard the gospel in church. Some read the gospel in a book. But in every case, there was a divine visitation. They knew the time of their visits, and they gave their heart to Christ.
So what about you? Today is the time. And of course, it is also true that the Bible itself is called the Word. I mean, Jesus is the Word. The gospel is the Word. The Bible is the Word. Jesus is the Word. Living the gospel is the Word preached, and the Bible is the Word written. And so every time we read the Bible, there’s kind of a divine visitation. It’s pretty incredible. We can visit with God every day through the Word. We can visit with God every day. What a privilege. And do you know the time? Do you make time for His visitation daily?
You know, a little story I want to close with took place on September 14th. It begins on September 14th, 1898, with a man named John Nicholson. He was a traveling salesman, and he was in the state of Wisconsin. He arrives in this little town of 2,000 people called Boscobel. And so he comes into that town and he approaches the central hotel to find a room. And he is amazed because every room is taken. It’s nine o’clock at night and every room is taken in this small town. And the clerk says, you know Mr. Nicholson, there are a few people who said they’d be willing to double up and I’d be willing to put you in a room with another person. He said, okay. So they sent him to room 19 in Boscobel, Wisconsin, in the central hotel. And in there was a man named Samuel Hill. Samuel Hill was asleep. It was just a little after nine, but he was already asleep. And so when John got into the room, he decided to kind of be as quiet as he could and set his things down and prepare his bed. But he turned on a lamp light. He lit a lamp because he wanted to read his Bible.
He had promised his mother who had passed away that he would read his Bible every day, and he didn’t want to break that promise. Plus, he loved his time with God. But as he lit that lamp, Samuel Hills woke up and he said, hey, what’s going on? He says, I’m trying to sleep. John said, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. He said, I, just want to read my Bible briefly before I go to bed. I like to take time to speak to God and let God speak to me before I go to bed every night. Samuel Hill said, hey, I’m a Christian too. Why don’t you read the Bible out loud and I’ll listen in. So John Nicholson read the Bible out loud. And when he was done, done, Sam got out of bed and the two of them got on their knees and they prayed together.
That was the beginning of a great friendship. A couple of months later, Samuel and John met each other again in the town of Beavers Dam, Wisconsin. And they decided that there were a lot of traveling salespeople out there who were Christians and they needed the encouragement of the Word. So they decided they would establish a Christian group for traveling salespeople. And they set a meeting for July 1st, 1899, in Jamestown, Wisconsin. And so they showed up there expecting others to come, and only one other person arrived. It was a man named William Knights. There were just three people: John, Samuel, and William. But they decided that God had brought them together. God makes no mistakes. And so they decided to establish a Christian organization for traveling business people.
They loved the Old Testament character of Gideon because he always did what God commanded. And so they called themselves the Gideons. And so John Nicholson, Samuel Hill, and William Knights were the first three Gideons. They resolved as their first decision that they would go around asking every hotel to keep a Bible for travelers so that the Word of God might be available. Of course, it was 1907 in the city of Chicago when the Gideons decide to actually place Bibles in hotels.
And today, the rest is history, because today the Gideons have placed over 800 million Bibles in hotels of more than 170 nations. And if you’ve ever been in a hotel or a motel and opened the drawer in the bedside table and seen a Gideon Bible there… I mean, Barbara and I have done that countless times, and it just kind of puts a smile on my face. I’m so glad to see the Gideons have been here, even when I’m in another country. The Gideons have been here, and the Bible’s there, the Word of God.
Did you know there are countless stories of people who went into a hotel room, their life in shambles, and they open that drawer next to the bed. They see the Gideon Bible, and they have an encounter with God. God visits—a divine visitation. It has changed their life. They’ve given their heart to Christ, as there’s a little plan of salvation attached to every Gideon Bible.
Of course, the truth is, for all of us who believe, we have Bibles and we have opportunities to visit with God every single day. I try to set aside every afternoon time to visit with Jesus in prayer in the Word. I don’t want to fail. I want to take time every day. How about you? So we make that decision today as Christians to be visiting with Christ daily. And if you’re not a Christian, now is the time. Now is the time of your visitation. Let’s close with a word of prayer.