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Vicar Kirk Hulvey
September 4, 2011
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What comes to mind when you hear the name Jerusalem? Do you think of the literal capitol city in Israel? Do you think of conflict between members of major world religions? Or do you think of King David and his son Solomon who reigned there in succession? Maybe you think of the temple on Mount Zion, the place where God dwells. Maybe you think of Jesus and His ministry among the people and His eventual suffering and death. Or do you think of heaven, a Jerusalem that is yet to come?
Well, if you're like me, when you hear “Jerusalem” you do not think of Nehemiah. Plenty of other people and things come to mind before Nehemiah. But Nehemiah, and the Jewish people that he led, played an integral role in Jerusalem's history. We learn about that history in today's story that we never hear.
Following Babylonian Exile, the Jewish people began to return to the Promised Land during the reign of King Cyrus II of Persia. The people were released from their seventy-year captivity, and were set free to rebuild the temple. They also resettled their towns in the Judean countryside.
About eighty years after this homeward migration, Nehemiah is appointed governor of the Persian province of Judah by King Artaxerxes. When Nehemiah arrives in the city, he inspects the walls. He discovers that they are still in great disrepair, even after eighty years. And by the inspiration of God, Nehemiah organizes the people so that they can rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, to fortify and protect the Holy City of their faith.
In order to rebuild the wall, Nehemiah divided the workers into groups-usually by families-and each group was assigned a gate or a section of the wall. The testimony of these faithful families is listed in chapter three of Nehemiah; each family is named along with the repairs that they were responsible for. And together, the Jewish people “laid [the wall's] beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars.” (Neh. 3:6)
But the reconstruction of the wall was not without opposition. As our first reading points out, from the very beginning, Sanballat from Samaria, Tobiah from Ammon, and Geshem the Arab tried to thwart the plans of Nehemiah and the people. Sanballat taunted the people, “What are these weak Jews doing? Will they rebuild the wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Can they finish it in one day? Can they bring stones back to life from piles of trash and ashes?” And Sanballat, along with Tobiah and Geshem, even planned to attack the Jewish people (Neh. 4) and to assassinate Nehemiah (Neh. 6). But God protected Nehemiah and the people; the opposition was never able to stop the building of the wall.
God blessed the work of the Jewish people so much that they were able to complete the wall in fifty-two days. “The people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6), and with God's mighty power they completed their goal. God Himself, who had laid the foundations of Jerusalem and fashioned it with His own hands, was the source of their success. And the opposition-those that used to taunt and plot against God's people-became afraid, because “they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” (Neh. 6:16)
Today, God's people continue to face opposition of many kinds. We are taunted by the media, by coworkers, and even so-called friends because of our faith. People tell us that our beliefs are intolerant...our thoughts are close-minded... our actions hypocritical. The world tells us that many of our major articles of faith-like creation, resurrection, and even the person of Jesus-do not exist. Some of our brothers and sisters around the world even meet physical opposition. They are persecuted for their faith-beaten, tortured, and killed-for trusting in Jesus. Satan opposes us as well, as he tries to tempt us away from our faith and separate us from God.
In the Gospel of Luke, we encounter Jesus as He makes His way to Jerusalem. In one place, Luke tells us that Jesus “set his face like flint toward Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51) And as Jesus made this journey, He faced all kinds of opposition: unbelieving people, plotting religious leaders, and temptation by Satan. But the opposition could not stop Him. Jesus knew that Jerusalem did not belong to the opposition. No, Jerusalem belonged to the God who built it, who had fashioned it with His own hands, who had promised to dwell there among His people. And Jesus came into the world to go to that Holy City. His ministry had Jerusalem as its destination. Jesus knew what He had to do, and nothing was going to get in His way.
Finally, when the day came for His triumphal entry, the people waved palm branches and laid their cloaks before their coming King. The people of Jerusalem expected a worldly King, someone who would defeat the Roman opposition. But as Jesus came near Jerusalem, He saw the city and cried for it, saying, “I wish you knew today what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from you. The time is coming when your enemies will build a wall around you and will hold you in on all sides. They will destroy you and all your people, and not one stone will be left on another. All this will happen because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you.”
I can imagine Jesus looks up and sees that very wall that Nehemiah had built, the one that the faithful people had restored after the Exile. He likely remembers the faithfulness of His Father to His people five centuries before, and even before that... faithfulness from the foundation of the world. And now Jesus cries warm, deeply-saddened tears over that same city, a city that less than a week later will become its own worst enemy. Jerusalem will demand that He be executed, usher Him back outside that same wall, and nail Him to a cross. The people of Jerusalem did not recognize that Jesus had come to save them.
Forty years later, no stone was left on another. The Romans came to Jerusalem and destroyed everything-the city, the Temple, and the wall-and burned it to the ground. Many people died in the destruction. The words of Jesus were fulfilled.
Jerusalem has continued to be destroyed and rebuilt... destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries. Its earthly government has changed hands multiple times. The dominant religious groups in the city have ebbed and flowed, waxed and waned. But throughout out it all, Jerusalem has belonged to the God who built it, who fashioned it with His own hands, who promised to dwell there among His people.
This same God will build a New Jerusalem, when His Son, Jesus Christ, returns in all His glory. He will not rebuild like Nehemiah and the Jewish people. He will lay bear the foundations, which He Himself set in place, and He will start over from scratch. God will make all things new. And those who believe in Jesus Christ will live in the New Jerusalem forever.
The New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God, shining with the glory of God and [it will be] bright like a very expensive jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. The city [will have] a great high wall”-far better and much more grand than that of Nehemiah-“with twelve gates with twelve angels at the gates, and on each gate [will be] written the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.... The walls of the city [will be] built on twelve foundation stones, and on the stones [will be] written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” who is Jesus Christ. (Rev. 21:9-14)
This New Jerusalem will have Jesus as its King. He will reign there forever, and no opposition will overcome the city because the opposition will no longer exist. All opposition to God's people will be completely defeated by the King when He returns. Unbelievers will not taunt us anymore. The world will no longer seek to destroy us. Satan will have no power over us.
And we, the people of the New Jerusalem, will worship King Jesus. You and I will cry with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:10) And we will not need a temple to worship Him in, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb will be the temple. Jesus and His Father will be right there with us, person to person, face to face, and we will see their glory. And that New Jerusalem won't need the sun or moon anymore, because God will give it light, and the Lamb will be its lamp, and there will never be night, only day. And the gates of that brand-new wall around the city-the one that far exceeds that of Nehemiah-will never be shut. (Rev. 21:18-26) For we-the citizens of the New Jerusalem-will enter it and live there forever.
As a people headed toward the New Jerusalem, we now live lives that trust God and cling to His faithfulness in the face of all opposition. Set firmly on the foundation of Jesus Christ, we cannot be moved. No opposition can overcome us. We belong to the God who claimed us... who built us in fact.... And through our baptism, God has placed His name on us and builds His temple within us, just as He did for Jerusalem. So no matter what anyone says, no matter what the world may throw at us, not matter how hard the devil may try, we can face the opposition because God has fashioned us with His own hands and promises to dwell with us.
The opposition is nothing when compared with the hope we possess. Our hope is in the New Jerusalem and the promise of everlasting life. Our hope is in God who has set the foundations of our lives since the beginning of the world. Our hope is Jesus Christ who overcame all opposition and who will return to bring us into that Holy City on the Last Day. Come Lord Jesus! Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
© St. Paul Lutheran Church 2011