He Began to Weep

 

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.  “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace.  But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.  Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side.  They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you.  Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”  Luke 19:41-44

Jesus was close to finishing his journey to the cross.  As he approached Jerusalem, he wept for the sheep he would have shepherded…if they’d only been willing.  From the depths of his sorrow tears flowed, and the Lord of Glory poured out the pain of the coming recompense his family would suffer.  Jerusalem, the shining City of David, would be crushed, its walls and temple razed to ground-zero.  Men and women, along with their children would enter a trial that would leave them devastated and broken.  God had visited them from a manger in Bethlehem…and they put up a shield to ward Him off.  Instead, it would become a prison wall to an eternal sentence of death.  Peace rejected, destruction ensured, the tears flowed like a river from the Christ who would be Savior over the lambs who were blindly bleating their own destructive brand of independence…we don’t need YOU, God!

Frankly, it’s difficult to read those words of prophecy…senseless destruction of men, women, and children, broken, bloodied, crushed into the ground.  That is the awful truth about rebellion towards our Creator.  When we decide to go our own way, rejecting God’s loving hand, we do to ourselves the worst kind of judgment – an unnecessary suffering contrary to what God had planned for us. 

Rather than pain, anguish, and eternal death, the LORD holds for us eternal LIFE and joy.  In human understanding, we hardly begin to comprehend that loss.  It is like a little boy playing on the railroad tracks.  He enjoys hopping from one rail to the rocks and skipping-up to the other rail.  His dad calls, but the child is having too good a time, so he ignores the voice.  What a tragedy is coming; but the child cannot see the danger, so His father and mother weep for him.  He’s making the worst possible choice, and refuses to take his eyes off his game for a moment.

Jerusalem, God’s Holy City, is not the focus of this Scripture.  Jerusalem is a metaphor for everything God created.  All the earth, it’s people, animals, cities, rural areas, mountains, wilderness, and dry places, were created for God’s glory.  And all was placed in humankind’s care.  Some of us choose to play on the tracks, ignoring the train’s approaching destruction.  Some turn to the voice of God’s warning to come close for protection.  And, as the story of the Great Shepherd who left the 99 safe sheep[1], to look for the 1 lost sheep still playing on the tracks, the heart of the Father grieves just as Jesus’ weeping displays…because they would not.

For You Today

For some, the idea of getting right with God is not something by which they’re upset, or angered; they’re just buried in the distraction of living daily life.  They just don’t think about it.  Sadly, this was the case in Jerusalem; the king of glory visited, and they were too busy playing on the tracks.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

---

[1] See Luke 15:1-7