Luke 19:41–44 (NIV) — 41 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.”
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I want you to imagine a scene with me. There is a young doctor who has a wife and three small children. He volunteers for a dangerous six-month mission assignment to a place where there is an epidemic of a rare disease and a good deal of hostility toward outsiders. He takes the assignment because no one else with his special training is willing to go.
The months pass slowly, and the kids really miss their daddy. The wife does a valiant job of holding things together and trying to be mom and dad. Then the day of his return approaches, and the whole family is full of excitement. Mom has butterflies in her tummy, and the kids race around the house shouting, “Daddy’s coming home! Daddy’s coming home!”
At three o’clock in the afternoon, a taxi pulls into the driveway. The kids charge out the front door, followed by mom, with her heart beating so hard she can feel it. The back door of the cab opens, and out steps Dad, a good bit thinner than before and bearded to conceal his hollow cheeks, but with a big smile across his weary face. He kneels down on the grass and is smothered with six clinging arms and legs. “Hooray for daddy! Daddy’s home!” Each one gets his special hug and kiss while mom waits. Finally, he pulls himself loose, and they embrace: “Welcome home.” “It’s good to be back.”
Now I want you to look into this young doctor’s eyes, because there is a message there. And if you can see it and feel it, you will know something of what Jesus felt as he rode into Jerusalem to shouts of welcome and acclamation.
What you can see in the doctor’s eyes is something he knows that his family doesn’t know: he caught the disease he went to heal and has one week to live.[1]
In our biblical story, there is joy, excitement, and even a confrontation. Yet, there is a deeper mood. We will see a sobering message, a probing message that should cause us to look deep inside our hearts, and then a liberating message.
This is a sobering message as you enter the story. Jesus is making his final entry into the City of Jerusalem. He knows what awaits Him. This final entrance to Jerusalem is intentional. He is going to the Cross to drink the cup of God’s wrath for your sins, my sins. He will bear our punishment. So that we may enter the kingdom of God as sons and daughters of God. He is riding a donkey’s colt towards the city. He is about two miles away. There is a lot of drama. There is a crowd praising Him, “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” But Jesus is not moved by these shallow praises. He knows that within a week, their affections will turn to betrayal and shout for his crucifixion. They will shout for his murder.
In the middle of this praise and celebration, some Pharisees get close enough to Jesus and tell him to rebuke the people for calling Him the Messiah, their Savior-King. The mood went from excitement and joy, to complaints and rebukes. Jesus gave these Pharisees little attention, but enough to rebuke them.
Then we get to verse 41. The scene changes to a sobering, lamenting mood. It says, “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” Did you catch that? “he wept over Jerusalem.” This weeping is an emotional, even outward sorrow, a deep mourning. The closest disciples notice Jesus’ emotions, and hear him speak to the grand city, the capital of Israel, Jerusalem.
Jesus continues to say, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Jesus is weeping over the people of Jerusalem because they have rejected their Savior. The Messiah, the Savior-King, has come to them. God has visited them, and they will not receive him. Verse 44 tells us the cause of Jesus’ tears. Jesus says, “… because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
The Apostle John tells this in the beginning of his account of Jesus’ life:
John 1:11 (NIV) — “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
It is not as if Israel had not been told that God was among them in the person of Christ Jesus. In Luke 1:68, Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesies about Jesus and says,
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people; he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”
And in Luke 7:16, after Jesus had just raised up a widow’s son from the dead, the people in the village of Nain “were seized with fear, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!” ’
Another example, Jesus said in Luke 11:20,
“If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
God has come to them. He had clearly revealed Himself, and they rejected Him. The God that they boasted of, whom they supposedly loved and worshiped, was among them and has revealed himself as God in the flesh. Instead of embracing Him, they crucified Him.
Do you want to hear Jesus’ heart as He looks at Jerusalem? It is recorded in Luke 13:34.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
Can’t you feel the depth of His sorrow? “I have longed to gather your children together, and you were not willing.”
As we continue to hear Jesus’ words as He looks at Jerusalem, this is also a probing message. Jesus says of Jerusalem, “If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”
The Prince of Peace had come, but they would not Him. It is not that they didn’t want peace. They wanted peace, don’t most people? The problem is, peace from God only comes on His terms, the Savior-King’s terms. But they wanted peace on their terms. Doesn’t that sound familiar today? People want love, peace, justice, joy, and other characteristics of the kingdom of God, but they want it their way. People want God’s mercy and favor, but not on His terms. They want it on their terms. People want to go to heaven, but on their own terms, not God’s.
Peace would have to come on Christ’s terms—the King’s terms, not theirs. Surrender your heart and will, and accept your Savior-King. They would not have it. “Crucify Him”, they would later shout.
There are many people, including Christians, who can’t understand why they are not experiencing God’s presence, or God’s peace, or why God doesn’t answer their prayers. The problem may be that they want God to work on their terms. Attention: God doesn’t work on our terms! He has given us His terms in the Holy Scriptures. The obvious question is, “Are you willing to submit and learn His terms to enjoy His blessings?”
There was another reason for Jesus’ sadness and deep grief, which brought tears from his heart. Luke 19:43-44 says,
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 …
Jesus knew the judgment of God that was coming upon them. Within forty years, the Roman army would besiege Jerusalem, conquer it, and level the temple to the ground. He saw their destruction. It was inevitable.
A note here about this prophetic foretelling. Jesus didn’t just say Jerusalem would be destroyed; He described how it would be destroyed. And when Titus led the Roman troops to stop the anarchy, it happened exactly how Jesus described. The Romans built an embankment, a wall that encircled the city, and eventually broke through the city and destroyed it. The blood from the murder of the citizens flooded the streets.
But Jerusalem’s destruction, the blood of its people (it’s “children”) didn’t have to be. Jesus longed to gather the people as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they would have nothing of the sort!
At the root of the rejection of Jesus was pride. This was religious pride that would not accept a Savior-King who did not meet their idea of Savior-King. Jesus was neither who they wanted, nor came the way they wanted, nor even how they wanted. Pride blinded their hearts. “I want my way. I must have my way!”
There was also a national pride. “We are the chosen people of God, and we should not have to be under the rule of Rome. We will resist and grumble, and make your rule over us miserable.” Of course, that attitude made Israel’s life miserable and difficult as well. You do know that those who complain and grumble about others are the most miserable people themselves.
It was pride. They should have learned the wisdom of their former king Solomon.
Proverbs 16:18 (NIV) — 18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 18:12 (NIV) — 12 Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
Their own Pride brought their own destruction. What is interesting about Israel's destruction in 70 AD is that it was a fight they didn’t need to fight. When Rome conquered a nation, it would take complete control. The nation would be required to strictly adhere to all of Roman law and worship the Roman gods. Worship Caesar and their gods or die! Rome found that Israel was to suborn and would rather die than bow its knee to the Roman gods. Israel was given a lot of freedoms, especially religiously, that all the other conquered nations did not have. But because of their pride, they would not be thankful for the freedoms to practice their faith; they would hold anger, hatred, and bitterness in their hearts against Rome. They would rather resist and fight a fight they could not win, rather than focus on worshiping God and recognizing that God had visited them.
Pride is never satisfied unless it gets its way. And if pride gets its way, it wants more. This is a moment of honesty. Honesty with yourself. Honesty with God. Do you allow pride to keep you from the Savior-King? From having peace with God, even peace within your soul? Do you allow pride to keep any relationship from healing? Do you allow pride—self-will, from living joyfully, peacefully, and lovingly?
If we continue to hear Jesus’ words, we find a liberating message. This text of scripture seems depressing. It is, and yet there is a promise of freedom. There is a promise of deliverance. There is a promise of hope. Where do we see all of this? Look at the last part of Luke 19:44.
“… because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Within this negative statement by Jesus is a liberating message. Jesus, God the Son, the Savior-King did come; he did visit us. Is that not the greatest of news? He came to set us free from the judgment of God. He came to deliver you from the road of eternal destruction and damnation. Jesus has come to bring peace. What is the way that makes for peace? A humble surrender to Jesus Christ. He is the way. He even called Himself “The Way.”
One book that has affected many in this church, and one might say that it has, second to the Bible, has helped this church in our development of Christ-likeness. It is a little paperback book titled “Humility—the Journey toward Holiness” by Andrew Murray. Humility is the opposite of pride. There is no other word that describes the heart of Jesus Christ. Jesus described His own heart as “gentle and humble.”
Andrew Murray describes humility as “perfect quietness of heart.” How many people, maybe sitting here, and especially out in the world, need “perfect quietness of heart”? Murray also rightly wrote how essential humility is for true spiritual growth. “Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”
The Bible says that God lifts up the humble but lays low the prideful and arrogant. Clothed in humility, Jesus conquered sin, death, and sits with all authority over heaven and earth.
Do you want peace in your life? Cultivate humility in your heart. Do you want heaven in your life? Seek the Savior of heaven. And as you seek the Savior of heaven, you will see Him inviting you to come and be changed into a citizen of heaven.
Christian, probe your heart for evidence of pride and stubbornness. What do you do when you find it? Shut it down. Refuse to listen to and obey it. Instead, pray for help. And put on humility. Learn from Jesus, and find Him offering peace!
“When our will is a must, the bitterness will brew.
Peace will evade us, and the enemy will subdue.
Where a humble heart is groomed, a life of peace does bloom.
It’s our strength, not a weakness; calmness will come soon.
Here we seek our God, with thankfulness for His grace,
We’re only passing through now, til we see Him face-to-face.”
Heavenly Father, God of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we humbly pray unto You.
Thank you for the peace you have given us as Your beloved people. Peace in a cursed and broken world. Peace in a land of rebellion, a land of violence, greed, hatred, and lawlessness. Peace where there is no peace. Our peace is from heaven, from your heart, from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Thank you.
Father, You know our minds and our emotions, how they are too often unfaithful to You. They are often like the restless seas or the unpredictable winds. Help us to harness our minds and emotions so that they may be as calm waters trusting You, unaffected by the evil and foolishness of this world; unaffected by the groaning of creation under the curse; unaffected by the works of the Evil One.
By the Holy Spirit, strengthen us that our whole hearts may be anchored and stayed on You. So that we may be sober-minded in these last days. Grant us our needed portion of each day to rest in You. For truly, you have visited us, saved us, and given us and eternal peace with You, through faith in Your Savior-King.
In the name of our Savior-King, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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