Luke 19:41-44 (NIV) As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Jesus was not the first of God’s holy prophets to weep over the fate of Jerusalem that was hanging over its head. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel wept for the city and its inhabitants, and for the destruction of both that was right on the horizon.
But Jesus’ mourning was of a different character than those who mourned and wept earlier. For one thing, at the time that Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, there was no visible sign of trouble lurking on the horizon. For both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the city was already under siege. For another, both Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s prophecies of doom were tempered by God’s mercy, as they were given glimpses of restoration a mere seventy years later, after the time of punishment was fulfilled.
But Jesus’ tears were not for a city that would be temporarily laid waste, or a people who would be punished for their disobedience for a short span of time. His tears were for a city that would never be the same again, and that would not be in the hands of the Jewish people again for multiplied centuries. They were for a people who would be nearly wiped out, the remnant of whom would be scattered over the face of the earth for millennia. In His sight, the destruction of the city, terrible as it would be, would only be the beginning of trouble.
And, again, the reason for this impending destruction and scattering was not a mere dalliance with idols, or even the blatant syncretism that had characterized Judah at the time of the exile, worshiping other gods alongside the true God. It was that the leaders of the people had grown so callous, so self-righteous, so distant from any kind of relationship with the God they claimed to serve, that they did not even recognize Him when He came to visit them, and ended up trying Him, condemning Him, and killing Him.
Father, it is scary to think that Your chosen people could corrupt their way so seriously, so thoroughly, and that they did it more than once! Lord, we need Your help today to keep us from falling into the same trap, from allowing our eyes to become blinded by the world, our ears to become deaf from what we listen to more often than Your voice, and our hearts become hardened to Your leading. Keep us all soft, open, and obedient to You. Amen.