A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Coming within sight of the city of Jerusalem, Jesus wept over it and said, if only you had known the path to peace this day, but you have completely lost it from view. Days will come upon you when your enemies encircle you with a rampart, hem you in, and press you hard from every side. They will wipe you out, you and your children within your walls, and leave not a stone upon a stone because you failed to recognize the time of your visitation. And this is the gospel of the lord.
Praise the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. This morning, you listen to the third dramatic incident from this book of Maccabees. First, we had Eliazar and his reaction to the invitation to desert his god and the law. He paid for it with his life.
Then the next day we had an unnamed woman, the mother of seven sons, who sacrificed her sons gladly, joyfully rather than encourage them in the slightest to violate the law. Remember all they were talking about was eating pork. Today we have the third dramatic incident of Mattatias and his just fury of slaying the Jew who went to offer sacrifice on the altar to the king. This is a fascinating story for the book of Maccabees. It's one of the latest books of the old testament.
It's quite different from the other books. But let's these stories which are so dramatic, so heroic, noble, and human. This scene today is about as dramatic as you can get anything. Let's take it to heart and see in it something for ourselves and that is zeal for the law of God coming to us through the living voice of Jesus Christ's living church. The reading from the from Saint Luke this morning shows us a very human side of Jesus Christ.
If I recall correctly, there's only one other incident when our blessed lord wept and that I was at the tomb of Lazarus his friend. Now there are at least two great loves generally speaking, in human lives. The love of family and the love of one's country, one's native land, often symbolized in the capital. And our blessed lord made no bones about it. He had both of those loves because Lazarus in a sense was part of his at least his extended family.
And his love for Jerusalem is evidenced today when foreseeing what was going to happen to this glorious city, he wept over it. He was moved to tears. He was emotional. He was sentimental. In a way, he was a chauvinist.
Today, we sort of look down our noses at people who express great love for their country, for their native land. It's so it's so unsophisticated and immature. Well, blessed Lord made no bones about it at all and remember the temple was at its best at this time and had just about be it had just about been brought to its perfection at this particular time. And within seventy some years, it was destroyed by Titus. Utterly destroyed because the temple was on the top of the hill of this rather high plateau as you all know who have seen it over there.
It's where the two mosques are now. And not a stone we are told was left upon the stone. The Romans absolutely tried to eliminate it. Now you'll say, heard it said, well, that's not true. There were stones left upon stones.
Let's look at the wall. That wall, the weeping wall is not the temple. That is simply a restraining wall built up from the lower land to support the side of the mountain. Wasn't part of the temple at all, not a knock at all as you as you can see if you have seen it. And so our blessed lord's prophecy that a stone would not be left upon a stone is certainly true.
And there have been two I think or three minor attempts to restore the temple, extremely minor. There's been no serious attempt to restore the temple. And even today with the in Israel, you never hear a word about the restoration of the temple. That whole area now is under Mohammedan control. As I say, two mosques are there, and one of those mosques is second in dignity only to Mecca.
There's not even a vestige of the temple left, not a vestige. Now it's a figure of speech but it's a very ordinary one that Jerusalem is the the temple is our is our ourselves. And our blessed lord is speaking to each one of us in this very striking passage. If only you had known the time of your visitation, how do you know that time? You have to be on, you have to be alert, you have to be listening for it, you have to be waiting for it, you have to be expecting it, you have to be planning for it.
Do we take it seriously? Friend of mine just died. Trust you will remember him in his prayers. But you see when this moment of dying and meeting God face to face comes, no matter how long we've lived, it's as if almost we had not lived at all. The time of preparation is when we have the time, when we are in a in a position to do something about it, and we're in that position.
God speaks to each one of us by his living voice. It isn't that mysterious. It isn't that we have to go around like blind deaf people not knowing where we're going. God has helped us in every way. If only you had known the time of your visitation.
Remember, this is what's frightening to me. Those who were closest to Jesus Christ missed the boat. Not one of his disciples had a had a decent proper concept of his kingdom. Not one of them till after the resurrection. When they were going up to Jerusalem, they the disciples when we're told this, they thought that Christ was going to restore the kingdom.
Which kingdom? The kingdom of this world. And they were all going to be members of his cabinet. So it's don't let us miss the boat. We have no excuses at all.
But and this isn't something that that should be a damper on our living. It should be just the reverse. It should be a stimulus to joyful living. If we know the answer to the question, what are you living for? That's that's the heart of the matter.
And so these passages today from the Maccabees and from Saint Luke, they are so applicable in our daily lives. Let us try and with God's grace we will succeed in recognizing the day of our visitation.