The Lord's Sermons
- Sermon 35 -
Ninth Sunday After Trinity. The Lord's Grief over Jerusalem
St. Luke XIX, 41-46: "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves."
(April 12, 1872)
Already in the revelations about 'The Spiritual Sun' you find explained what it means: "And Jesus wept."
There you are shown that spiritually these words express the deepest sorrow of God Who brought for His children His whole Kingdom of Heaven to their earth, even showed them in a visible form their Creator and Lord of all the universes, and how the blind, in spite of all that, did not recognize Him, the manifestation of supreme love, meekness and grace. They did to Him whatever despicable and painful things can happen to a man, and spurned His teaching, the teaching of love, reconciliation and forgiveness. It was this great blindness of the majority of His contemporaries which made the great Creator, visibly embodied in Jesus, shed tears of sadness. He wept over the decadence of the capital of the Jewish people foreseeing their total end as an independent nation, followed into the distant future by the contrary line of thinking this nation, once chosen by Me for the greatest destiny, has pursued to this very day.
The exultation of My disciples, who in My entry into Jerusalem believed to recognize the climax of My mission, did not suit the Pharisees and scribes at all. When they demanded that I should rebuke My disciples, I replied: "Let them rejoice; for if they keep silent, the stones will speak!"
By this I wanted to tell these deluded people that soon after the rejoicing of My disciples will have turned to mourning the stones of the destroyed walls of their city and temple will show them that they did not recognize Me Who entered within their walls with the palm of peace. They recognized neither the divine teacher nor His teaching from the heavens, longing only for worldly glory and splendour and a worldly Messiah who was to strengthen and fortify them even more in their good living and sordid pleasures.
Not fully fifty years had passed since My death when My warning became a reality. The chosen people had ceased to exist as an independent nation. As I once cast out from the temple the sellers and buyers who had turned the house of prayer into a market, thus later on the Jews were driven out of Jerusalem because what had earlier happened in the temple, they had continued in the city, that is, they had completely forgotten man's spiritual, higher life and in their worldly-min-dedness striven only for pleasures, power and riches. Thus they themselves fulfilled My prediction which in deep sorrow I made concerning the walls of Jerusalem and the temple.
As then I directed My words of lament to erring mankind, I also now want to do the same again for the now living and the coming generations. Now, too, I am grieved at the fate of many a soul even I, as God, cannot save because I may not interfere with man's freedom of action.
Thus I see also now how mankind's ship is fast approaching rocks and reefs in full sail, I foresee the shattering of all their hopes and dreams of happiness and how thousands upon thousands recognize only late, yes, too late, what they should have done, but failed to do. To them, too, I would like to say what I once said to Jerusalem and its inhabitants: "If you would only recognize what could give you peace; for the time will come when through bitter experiences you will feel what you did not recognize at the time of visitation through My blessing and grace!"
Today, too, I could repeat My lament about Jerusalem's inevitable fate, for also today's foolish mankind does not recognize its mission, the purpose of its creation and its present and future life. Therefore, a reaction in a completely natural-spiritual way must set in, through which, in accordance with My divine laws, the spirits, souls and beings are once more put in their place, which alone will enable them to attain to the degree of perfection I set them as their highest goal.
It is often sad for a mortal father to see his children, notwithstanding all his sacrifices, love and care that was devoted to their spiritual and moral education, turn out failures and take the wrong road, instead of becoming the comfort and joy of his old days; how they repay his love with sorrow, anxiety and often disgrace! But what can he, the disappointed, do? He has no control over his children's individuality; they are mentally and spiritually free and can think and do whatever suits them. Thus parents often helplessly see all their hopes dashed, one after the other, collapsing like castles in the air.
What here happens to mortal parents, happens also to Me to a much more intense degree. I, the Creator of all the universe, must watch My created beings, destined by Me for the highest spiritual majesty, walk in the opposite direction instead of hastening towards the spiritual in the awareness of their sublime descent. I must watch the spiritual being spurned, derided and described as the fancy of crazy, fanatical bigots, whilst the gross material pleasures of worldly life are praised as man's most precious possession. I must watch how the external garment is regarded as the most important thing, but the spiritual essence inherent in this casing is ignored.
Here, too, applies what I once said to the Pharisees: Even if My disciples and adherents were silent, the stones - that is, all the material kingdoms of nature - would speak and call to men everywhere: "Awake, mankind, from your worldly intoxication! You seek in vain to deny your destiny and your Creator! If you do not want to believe in the precepts He left you from the time of His visible sojourn on earth, if you want to drown the voice in your own heart which as something "certain" keeps speaking to you and admonishing you, if you want to deny all this - do contemplate nature!"
The keenest over-subtle reasoners, natural scientists and explorers of matter, despite their resistance, all do and must come to realize in the end that high above matter there dwells a great spirit who unites the smallest atoms as well as the great worlds to a whole and who, as can be seen from all his works, can only be a God of love, grace and forbearance and - as was once stated in the parable of the prodigal son - He rejoices more over one regained than over ninety-nine righteous, who do not need to be comforted.
"THERE IS A GOD!" This call resounds from everything. Even the linking together of political and social circumstances shows the attentive observer clearly enough that events do not always take the turn man intended, but that in the life of the individual, as well as in that of whole nations, the results of efforts often differ considerably from what had been hoped for. The might of the Deity becomes manifest everywhere -with love for the ones who love, with anger for the angry ones, with forgiveness for those who forgive.
And as I once shed tears of divine grief over the blindness of the inhabitants of Jerusalem because I foresaw how these erring children would first assault Me physically, then offend against My teaching spiritually, eventually suffer death themselves and cease to be a nation once and for all, since they did not want it otherwise, - now also My heart is filled with grief because of the blindness of mankind.
Everywhere I cause sparks of My heavenly light to be disseminated, everywhere My fatherly call is sounding: "Turn back, deluded mankind! Hear My call, hear the voice of your heavenly Father, Who is warning you prior to the great catastrophe - as once happended to Jerusalem and its inhabitants! Hear the voice that wants to open your eyes and show you how carelessly you are staggering, as if intoxicated, close to the abyss of eternity, risking any moment to be swallowed by it for a long time. In your immaturity you will then in those timeless spaces be able to attain only with much hardship and great effort what here in this trial life on earth can be gained so easily."
As then the destruction of Jerusalem took place not long after My decease, today it will not be long either before your social system, which you believe will last forever, is going to collapse.
At that time the destruction concerned one city and one nation, but now many cities and many nations, indeed, the whole earth and mankind living on it are involved.
In those days, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish cult on the whole ceased to exist and My teaching began to bear its first fruit among the Gentiles instead of among My people, the Jews. Thus the present so-called representatives of My teaching will discontinue their sinful game with My words and My teaching. There the walls of the temple which, as it were, separated the people from the shrine, collapsed, - and now the spiritual walls are collapsing. What was previously the property of a caste will now become common property. The temple was razed to the ground, and only devastation and horror marked the place where - falsely and misunderstood -the great God was worshipped. The destroyed city walls were the sole remains indicating that there had stood the capital of a nation.
The same will now happen spiritually. One will hardly be able to recognize where once pure truth had been hidden and buried under a tissue of lies. Darkness will vanish, and not the dim lamp from the vault of a temple, but the almighty sun of spiritual light will illuminate and warm all things. Upon the ruins of error and deceit there will be planted the eternally verdant trees of hope which - ever striving upward for the never ending kingsdom of heaven - will be a symbol of the path for remaining mankind.
Therefore, My children, since My light of grace is shining in vain upon the great mass of the erring, - something I have to recognize with sad eyes and a sorrowful heart - you shall take up this light of grace and bear in mind that among so many thousands I have chosen you, so that one day you may become the first solid building-stones of the new temple in a new Jerusalem after the edifice of deceit has been destroyed.
Once I walked visibly among My children and they did not recognize Me; but now when you do recognize Me, or at least have the chance - be it through My words or through My works - to comprehend Me as a loving Father, endeavour at least to save yourselves from the general decadence, so that when the walls of the old world of habit collapse, you may remain standing erect. Prove by your endurance and trust that, although I must also now shed tears of sorrow over many that are lost, there are still some who do comprehend and appreciate the Father's love and who, notwithstanding all that is so sad, can become a deciding factor in a future unending joy.
When others deserve tears of compassion, make sure that in My spirit world tears of joy and delight are shed over you and your attitude and endurance, which shall then be the greatest proof of your victory. Amen