Our Lord Weeps for Jerusalem

Posted 7/16/15 by Donald Barnhouse
Theme: The Mirror of Prophecy
 
SCRIPTURE
Mark 11:1-11
 
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,“Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

LESSON

The Gospel of Luke amplifies Mark’s account to tell us that as Jesus came to a turn in the road and saw Jerusalem in the distance, He wept, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you 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” (Luke 19:42-44).
 
What Jesus said was lost on the crowd, the running, jumping, shouting crowd, the crowd bringing their adulation to the one who had fed five thousand and healed so many of them, who had within the week raised Lazarus from the dead. Yet Jesus knew that underneath this acclaim was the wretchedly hard heart of bitter unbelief. He knew that His impending rejection in Jerusalem would bring into play all those forces that would someday bring Caesar’s army to the city. Within forty years an army surrounded Jerusalem. Inside it, people ate not only cats and rats and mice, but their own baby children. It was one of the worst scenes in history. When Caesar’s armies came in, they killed the men and took the women into slavery. The walls of Jerusalem were knocked down, and literally one stone was not left upon another. They plowed the city and sowed salt in the fields, so that nothing would grow.
 
Jesus knew both the temporal and eternal consequences of the city’s unbelief, so as the crowd is crying, “Hosanna,” He weeps. That day the crowd sees Him as their deliverer, but He knows the destruction that will come to those who reject Him.
 
Look carefully at the Lord Jesus, riding into the city that would soon take His life. How He loves us! He comes to each one of us as the gentle king. Will we receive Him as our Lord?

STUDY QUESTIONS

  • What does the Luke passage teach us about the disciples future? Why is this their future?
  • What were the temporal consequences of the Jewish communities actions? 
  • What were the eternal consequences of the Jewish communities actions? 
  • How can we learn from their mistake?

Making God’s Word Plain is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Making God’s Word Plain and the mission of the Alliance.