“He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem. When he saw the city, he began to weep.” Luke 19:41
As Jesus approached Jerusalem for the final time of his earthly ministry, the disciples sat Jesus on a colt as instructed. This moment is often referred to as the Triumphal Entry. The Son of God, God come to earth in the flesh, is celebrated as the king that has arrived in all of his royalty to save his people. A different kind of king with no military might or power, Jesus arrives as an honored dignitary to celebrate Passover.
As he and the crowd travelled within sight of Jerusalem, Jesus began to weep. In the original Greek, the word that Luke uses, klaio, means to wail loudly. It would be easy to assume that Jesus wailed because he knew that he was on his way to suffering and the cross. However, Luke records that Jesus wept and announced an oracle of doom on the city. Jesus described the utter destruction of Jerusalem and said that it was because they “didn’t recognize the time when God visited” (Luke 19:44). Roughly half a century later, Jerusalem was brutally attacked and destroyed by the Roman emperor Titus.
Jesus wailed loudly because he loves deeply.
The desire of God is that his people walk in relationship with Him. Jesus came to live and walk among God’s people as a living example of God’s kindness and love. He preached, taught from the scriptures, healed many and performed miracles- all in attempt to convince people that he loved that he truly was the Messiah sent from God. He was the walking representation of the love of God for man.
Genuine, sacrificial love is a heavy, often painful, burden to bear. Jesus was not exempt from that kind of pain. He knew the future of the people he came to reach and bring close to God. What Jesus knew broke his heart. The people called by God had rejected God’s love and, in so choosing, would suffer outside the care and blessing of God.
The consequence of sin, rejecting God and His love, has always been death, an eternal separation from God and a fate that breaks God's heart. The gift of God will always be eternal life. God has sent out an invitation to every generation of humanity that came before us to walk with him and know his love. Like every other generation, we are given the same choice, the same invitation to receive life eternal.
Jesus was raised from death by the power of God and lives now in God’s presence. His Spirit is poured out on those who believe in him and by faith we are given eternal life and close relationship with God.
All that God asks of us is that we believe in his Son, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Will you accept the love of God through Jesus today?
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
Copyright @ TA Boland 2023
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