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2-1-14. Luke 19:41-48. JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM-my devotional

JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM-my devotional

jesus weeps

Luke 19:41-48                                                                                                                                                    Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 19:41                                                                                                                                               2/1/14

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,”

     Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for showing us the way to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the most satisfying place dwell, even in this life, for wherever Jesus reigns is the Kingdom of God. Lord, you once told us that the Kingdom of God dwells within us. May the fullness of the Kingdom of God dwell in our hearts and among us. May the world know that there is more to life than just media and electronics. There is the Kingdom of God and there are citizens of that kingdom, all believers in Christ, sprinkled throughout the world. May your kingdom come to the hearts of the people across our land. May people believe that such a spiritual kingdom exist and seek that Kingdom and in the process find you, O’ Lord. Please grant me your word today, so the kingdom of God may grow within me. I pray in the name our Savior and King, Jesus Christ.

Part 1: Recognize God’s Coming (41-44)

Jesus entered Jerusalem amid shouts of praise, but tears were in his eyes. Look at verses 41-12, “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  We wonder what Jesus was weeping over. If I were Jesus, I would be weeping over my own predicament, for within a week Jesus would be falsely accused, beaten, tortured and nailed to an cruel Roman cross. He would become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I would be in tears thinking about my own suffering. But Jesus is so much different than I am. He is the great God and Savior. He does respond as we normally would. He was actually full of compassion and concern for his people, even in the time of his upcoming suffering.

He was not weeping for himself, but for the people who did not know that God was visiting them. They rejected him. Yet Jesus was weeping over the physical and spiritual suffering of his people. The people where suffering in many ways. There are excavated graves that show the bones of young people who were malnutrition. They found an ankle with a nail through it from crucifixion. The people were fighting a guerilla war against the Roman occupiers. They were also suffering inwardly. Jesus says, ““Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (ESV)  Jesus knew that they did not have peace. He is not talking about the peace we get when we go for a walk in the park, or for a good workout and then a cup of coffee and Starbucks, or eating a Christmas dinner with all your extended family. Jesus is talking about the peace of God. The peace of God was hidden from their eyes.

Since the fall of mankind, people have been at odds with God. They have been rebelling against God and there has been a broken relation with God. Because of the broken relationship people have become like cut flowers in a vase. They have been enemies of God and objects of God’s wrath. When I was separated from God, I suffered from inferiority, self condemnation, loneliness, emptiness; fear…all kinds of bad fruit. I had no peace. But God came to me and forgave all my sins. He set my feet on the path of righteousness. He made me his child and a servant of God. No longer were my heart, mind and soul at odds with God. I was no longer an object of his wrath. I was now an object of his love and affection. I had assurance of his love, acceptance and in my inheritance of eternal life. Because of God’s grace I could now be reconciled to God. I could now experience God’s peace. Now I walk by faith in this world into the next, swimming in the peace of God that surpasses human understanding. This is the peace that Jesus longed to impart to his people. He longed for them to be set free from their inner turmoil and oppression and bring them into eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Though Jesus longed for this grace for his own people, they were not able to enter into this rest. It was hidden from their eyes. Why? It was because of their unbelief. They could not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They had so many fixed ideas of what the Savior should be and accomplish. Jesus never fit their fixed ideas. They had constructed and elaborate religious system that actually blinded them to God and the kingdom of God. Their “man made” religious system never allowed them to accept God’s grace of forgiveness through faith in Christ. In a sense they had became entrapped by the religious system they had created. If they had welcomed him, he would have given them real peace. This is why Jesus said it was hidden from their eyes. This is why Jesus cried.

Jesus also wept because he could foresee the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 40 years. Look at verses 43-44, “For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”  This is in reference to the coming of the Roman general Titus in 70 AD, surrounding Jerusalem and destroying the Temple. The Jewish people hated their Roman occupiers. They engaged the Romans in guerilla warfare. The Romans decided to solve the problem by besieging Jerusalem with their armies. There were one million Jewish people in the city at the time. It was the Passover. Two more million people came to the city. Titus let them in and would not let them out. Within the city walls people starved, were cannibalized, there was fighting between the various political factions. Eventually Titus entered the city and destroyed much of it. He looted the temple of its golden treasures. The Temple burned and the gold that lined the Temple melted and dripped between the stones. When things cooled down, the Romans turned over the stones in order to get the gold. The only stones left standing were that of the Wailing Wall. Some many people died. Some were taken away as slaves and to fight as gladiators. The Jews were banned from coming from 70 miles of Jerusalem. The Jews lost control of Jerusalem since that time until 1948.  Jesus knew that this was coming upon his people if they continued in their ways and so he cried.

But how could accepting Jesus as their Savior have changed this? If they would have accepted the Gospel, en masse, as a people, they would have a different viewpoint of their predicament and the Romans. They would have stopped their guerilla warfare because Jesus taught us to love our enemies. They would have trusted God’s sovereignty in bringing the Romans to them so that they could preach the Gospel to them. They would have known that God’s purpose for the Temple that it could be a house of prayer for all nations. They would have prayed for the Romans. They would have served the Romans with the love of God. If they would have accepted Jesus they would have had 40 years to develop the Christian church. Do you think that the Romans would have needed to send Titus and his armies? No! The disaster would not have happened.

It reminds me of the Waodani Indians in Ecuador in the 1950’s. They were killing each other and also killing miners and loggers. There were no elderly among them because they did not live long enough. The government was about to come and shoot them. But there were five missionaries who could see the writing on the wall. They set out to make contact with people and in the process they lost their lives. They were speared to death. But their wives and their kids went to the Waodani to preach the gospel. The Waodani accepted Jesus. They stopped killing each other and people entering the jungles. The government aborted their plans to send in soldiers. The missionaries helped them overcome a Cholera outbreak. Eventually their people became blessing to the whole world and an inspiration for a revival in world missions. This is modern example of how accepting Jesus and Lord and Savior, en masse, can change the entire future of a people group. In the same way the whole future of the Jewish people would have been so different if they accepted Jesus, en masse as a nation. What kind of disaster has been averted in your life because you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Part 2: A House Of Prayer (45-48)

In this section, we can learn more about the heart of God and the secret to receiving the peace of God. Look at Verses 45-46, “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”  Jesus did not go to Herod’s palace, leading a peaceful political protest. He was not there to start a political revolution. He wanted to spark a spiritual revolution among his people, and so he went to the Temple.

When he got there he could vividly see the corruption of the Temple and he was not happy. The religious leaders were ripping off the people by selling defective animals and giving poor exchange rates for foreign money. They were exploiting the people who were coming to worship the Lord. They were also keeping the Gentiles from coming near the Temple. They could not enter the court of the Jews without losing their lives. Jesus set out to cleanse the temple by turning over the tables of money changers and driving out those who sold the animals. He wanted to rededicate the Temple to the true and sincere worship of God.

To worship the Lord is a vast topic that could fill many volumes of books. But in this passage we can see one aspect. Look at verses 46a, “saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’…”  Sincere worship of God involves prayer and having “eyes out” to all the nations of the world. Jesus’ words in verse 46 echo the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 56:6-7, “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (ESV) God really wants his house to be a house of prayer for all nations. In the Temple they needed to pray and worship God. They needed to learn more about God and his ways. They needed to sing songs of praise. But they needed to open their hearts to people from other nations, even the Romans. There were Romans who were worshipping the God of the Jews. In the Bible there was a Roman centurion fitting this bill. They Jews needed to reach out to their occupiers. Why else would God have allowed them to come into their midst?

Today there is no temple. But we do have our churches and our homes and our own hearts. We learn that our bodies are a temple of the Lord. Our hearts should be filled with prayer for all nations. Our church should operate with an “eyes out” to other people groups. Our homes should be open to showing the love of Jesus to the foreigner. Why? It is because our God is concerned about all people of all nations. God was concerned about me, a Ukrainian/Polish/Norwegian/French Canadian/Belgian. I am a Gentile, but God cared about me. He cried when he saw me in a broken relationship with my creator. He saw my suffering and helped me to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. He came to redeem me from slavery to sin. Jesus cared about me, a foreigner, a Gentile. We need to also care. We need to have “eyes out” and seek to embrace all people of all nations, which includes the First Nation People of Northwestern Ontario.

Jesus coming to the Temple had a mixed response. Look at verses 47-48, “47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”   The religious leaders looked at him with political eyes and saw in him a threat to their leadership. Jesus was undermining their authority. All that they believed and were devoting their lives to was being questioned. If Jesus had his way they feared they would be out of a job and possibly even arrested under corruption charges. They did not repent; instead, they sought to kill him. They hated Jesus. But they could not because the majority of the people were happy with what Jesus was teaching, though they were fickle. Within a week they would devise a way to kill Jesus by having him nailed to a cross.

But there were spiritually thirsty people who hung on Jesus’ words. This was most of the populace. They were very interested in what Jesus was saying. They never heard the words of God being preached in such a refreshing way. They never saw the ways of God being so manifest in the life of Jesus. Jesus was so interesting and refreshing to the soul. They hung on what he was saying. What Jesus did, the healing of the sick was so compassionate. The riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and the cleansing of the Temple was so exciting. I am sure there were others who wanted to do the same things. But Jesus had the courage to do it! They could see God in Jesus and they hung on his words.

I wish I could always hang on the words of Jesus. I wish the people of our land could hang on the words of Jesus. They are the wonderful words of life. Hebrews 4:12 reads, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (ESV)  This sounds pretty powerful. The word of God deserves to be hung onto by the people. I pray that my heart may always treasure and hang onto the word of Jesus.

In this passage, we discovered the heart of Jesus. He cried when he sees people blinded to the only way that they can experience true peace, that is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He cries when he thinks of all the suffering that could have been averted if only people would accept him and his gospel. We also learn of God desire for his churches, our homes and our hearts to be a house of prayer for all nations. To really share in the heart of God, we need to operate with an “eyes out” to all the nations of the world and embrace them with the love of God. May a revival come about among us that we may ones who hang on the words of Christ.




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