“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 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. 43 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. 44 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.” Luke 19.41-44
Jesus does not weep often. We find him weeping over his friend Lazarus, and perhaps he wept something like tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Other than that, this is just the third example in Scripture of Jesus weeping, lamenting, crying.
Hard to see a grown man cry, isn’t it? Growing up, I rarely if ever saw my father cry. I don’t know if I ever saw my grandfather Pop cry. I have wept many times, however! Overwhelming times in college, breakups, losing friends or family members, losing dogs! I don’t just cry at the drop of a hat, but the older, more mature, and sensitive I get, the more my eyes are filled with tears.
Jesus wept over a city—a people who had abandoned God. What breaks God’s heart? We do. When we (or the Jews specifically in this case) rebel against his life. Think of a time when your kids disobeyed or defied you—some of those times when children rebel, we have wept. The Son wept because the Father was weeping.
Jesus wept because the people who could have known peace (v. 42) now find it hidden from their eyes. Their destruction will come, Jesus says, because they did not recognize God when he came in the flesh as Jesus the Christ.
God does not force our love upon him. What kind of God would that be? He wants our love, desires our love, created us for that love, but he does not force our love. I listened to a sermon by Billy Graham yesterday from 1968, preached in San Antonio, and the theme was “you were made for more.” What “more”? His love. We were made to love and to be loved by God. Period. End of story.
Jesus wept for a people who had abandoned God. But that does not have to be our story. We can turn, repent, and place our hope and our love in God. We can experience him once again. No longer do we need to be lost and alone; we can and should return to God.
Will you turn to God this day? Will you repent? Will you cry out to him, the master and commander of your soul?
“O Lord, In the darkened forest of my heart
In the depths of seasons past
In the light of the coming day
You love us.
You love your people best
You love your people most
You find our hearts in you.
Come now
Lord and Master, Teacher and Friend
Filling light into my heart
Filling Holy Spirit holes
Replacing lost with found
In the spaces of your love.”
“O Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for reaching down even when I was lost and alone that I might find my hope in you. Come now, Holy Spirit, allow me to walk in your ways. I trust you, Lord, and praise your name. For you are good and your love endures forever.” Amen