The Wednesday Word 4.13.2022

 

Luke 19:36-44 New Living Translation

36 As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. 37 When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!” 39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” 40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!” 41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you…”

This image of Jesus weeping over the fate of the people who continued to reject him is heartbreaking on more than one level. It is sad because of the waste. If only they had recognized God in their midst. They had waited for the Messiah for so long, but couldn’t accept him when he came. What might the world have become if Jesus had been accepted and revered by everyone in the region? And then all of Asia Minor and Africa and Greece and Rome, and so on? If all mankind had come to worship Almighty God and began to live as he designed us to live two thousand years ago? What a waste.

It is also heartbreaking to think on just how much Jesus loved us and how we repay that love. Even knowing what lay ahead of him, Jesus’ thoughts were still about the people and what would befall them. Even making himself the sacrifice that would free us from the condemnation of our actions, he still wept for us. I cannot help but think that our behavior still reduces our Savior to tears. I do not want to be a source of pain to my Lord and Savior…something to pray about.

Don’t forget to look for the Lord today. Vicki H.

 

                                                                                             photo by Tom Barrett

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