The Tears Behind the Triumphal Entry's Joy
Daily Scripture
Luke 19:41-44, 47-48
41 As Jesus came to the city and observed it, he wept over it. 42 He said, “If only you knew on this of all days the things that lead to peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 The time will come when your enemies will build fortifications around you, encircle you, and attack you from all sides. 44 They will crush you completely, you and the people within you. They won’t leave one stone on top of another within you, because you didn’t recognize the time of your gracious visit from God.”
47 Jesus was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests, the legal experts, and the foremost leaders among the people were seeking to kill him. 48 However, they couldn’t find a way to do it because all the people were enthralled with what they heard.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
At the end of Palm Sunday, Jesus did not glow (“The crowds loved me!”). Luke said he wept. N. T. Wright guides us to understand why. “Jesus’ tears are at the core of the Christian gospel. This was not a moment of regrettable weakness, something a real Messiah ought to have avoided. Again and again during his long journey, he had warned of God’s impending judgment on the city and Temple, because they, like the towns of Galilee, had resisted his call for peace, for the gospel of God’s grace which would reach out in love to the Gentile world…. When you reflect on Jesus’ words and deeds of judgment, don’t forget the tears. And remember, with awe, that if [Palm Sunday] is about Jesus embodying the long-awaited return of God to Zion, those tears are not just the human reaction to a sad and frustrating situation. They are the tears of the God of love.” * Luke captured the sad irony: even as Jesus wept, his enemies were meeting to plan his violent death.
- Jesus’ enemies would kill him, thinking they had silenced a troublemaker. But in the long view the city’s people and religious leaders, believing violence would bring freedom, faced doom at Rome’s hands. Jesus wept because he could see the long view, could see that the people in Jerusalem did not know “the things that lead to peace.” History shows that principled non-violence often outrages those who believe violence is a solution, not a problem. Don’t Jesus’ heartbroken words speak just as compellingly to our violence-addicted world today? Can you support leaders who seek to follow Jesus’ leading?
- But this is personal as well as national. Verbal and psychological violence do as much damage as fists or weapons. How good are you at listening to God’s voice? Do you make Jesus weep by resisting “the things that lead to peace,” or are you open to living out Jesus’ principles?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you yearned for your people to accept the things that lead to peace. Make me a person who shares your yearning, who is a messenger of peace. Amen.
GPS Insights
Sheree Reece
Sheree Reece, who serves as Global Missions Director for Africa, Asia & Haiti, wrote today's Insights. Sheree and her family have been part of Resurrection for more than 25 years. Sheree joined the Resurrection staff when she realized that she wanted to spend more time reaching out to non-religious and nominally religious people in the Kansas City area.
I recently learned that Jerusalem means “City of Peace.” (Sorry, Pastor Adam, if that’s been in a sermon before and I totally missed it.) This makes me look at Jesus’ entry during Passover in a whole new light. In that time, many know that Passover was a time of high political tension–many pilgrims came into a city being oppressed by Rome. It was a prime time for a riot. Think of the believers in Jesus expecting “their king” to come in guns a-blazin,’ yet Jesus came in peacefully on a donkey. Despite this, the people on the street are filled with joy celebrating his arrival, yet in the background, an insidious threat is lurking. The religious leaders are scheming ways to destroy Jesus once and for all so that they can remain in power.
Jesus only weeps two times in the Bible–when his friend Lazarus dies, and again during Passover. He was not crying for his fate, but for the people of Jerusalem, the people who don’t believe in him, the people who would be destroyed in the next 35 years. In 70 A.D., the Romans came with ballistas (ancient missile launchers) and catapults and ended a revolt that began in 66 A.D. by demolishing the Temple and the entire city. Can you imagine what he was feeling, the Prince of Peace, riding through the streets, seeing the people he loved, the people he was getting ready to die for, knowing what will happen? He not only wept, he sobbed.
So often, as we go about life, we allow little pieces of destruction into our hearts and we don’t even realize it. I tend to have a heavy foot, and recently, when someone is driving slowly (or heaven forbid, camping) in the fast lane, my brain says, “What an idiot!” This is a little insidious piece of destruction. It’s a terrible habit I need to break–I need to reshape my thinking, my perspective, so that I don’t have to hurry every place I go and don’t allow that kind of attitude into my heart. We need to make sure it is well with our soul. When anger, frustration, disappointment, fear, embarrassment, any negative emotion enters our minds and hearts, we need to give those emotions to Jesus so that when an incidental bump comes along in our lives, we shrug (or even laugh) it off and move on. Where are you? Is your emotional state sitting precariously on the edge of violence? Or is it grounded in the love, peace, and joy of our Lord, the Prince of Peace, the One who came to save us all?
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Wright, N. T., Luke for Everyone (New Testament for Everyone Book 4) (p. 231-233). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
